Our Work With The NHS

Many parts of the NHS work with us to enable change and achieve better results than ever thought possible. We enable leaders and teams to think differently, develop breakthroughs, create solutions and achieve goals.

We are proud of our “Making A Difference” research and the results it’s achieved over the past 25 years by people who “Go Make A Difference”. However, we also realise that the abbreviation Go M.A.D.® can be deemed inappropriate or too quirky for some organisations. Hence, ThinkOn® is our alternative brand that many of our NHS clients choose to use.

Fundamentals of Care and E-rostering


Inefficient e-rostering meant one NHS Trust relied heavily on nursing agency support which in turn meant high agency costs, low stability, poor efficiency and a detrimental impact on nurse wellbeing.

90 leaders (band 5 to Chief Nurse level) undertook 30, 60 & 90-day improvement challenges using our solution focused methodology and practical problem solving toolkit. The results were fantastic!

  • A collective mindset shift in just 30 days
  • £758,000 agency cost savings achieved in 90 days
  • Key clinical indicators turned from red to green

Cost Reduction Efficiency Saving


A further £9.9m annual cost savings were required. The challenge for the Finance Director was daunting based on recalled memories. Creative solutions were needed.

An internal ThinkOn® master coach was supported to design and facilitate a series of cost saving innovation workshops. These proved to be a great success!

  • Hundreds of possibilities were created
  • £11.6m cost savings were realised
  • Over 20 additional ideas were identified for subsequent years


Asking the Right Question at the Right Time


How do you train hundreds of nurses to learn and apply great coaching skills in just 90 minutes?

300 nurses were trained, at their annual nursing conference, in using the ThinkOn® Coaching Cards to have more purposeful and productive conversations.

See how the Director of Nursing led a high impact engagement session to demonstrate the power of asking the right question, at the right time, to the right person.


Life Saving Transferable Skills


Imagine travelling 4 hours to a hospital to find there are no beds available and a potential life saving operation is about to be cancelled.

Here is the story of how one person helped save a life by thinking differently under extreme pressure. Using the ThinkOn® methodology and resources a solution was found.

People who learn to apply solution focused thinking skills in the workplace, often comment about how they also use them to help their family and community members.


Managing Change & Cultural Transformation


Unproductive meetings and ineffective 1:1 conversations is a common cultural problem for many NHS Trusts. Cultural transformation requires a shift in mindsets (not just processes) to embed a new way of thinking.

One Trust shifted their culture by developing 40 ThinkOn® ‘Master Coaches’ to improve and remove their meetings and conversations using a proven 12-point implementation plan. This led to:

  • More purposeful and productive conversations
  • Enhanced KPO continuous improvement activities
  • A practical problem solving toolkit being widely shared


Team Working & Productivity Improvements


Systems can sometimes adversely effect productivity and inhibit creative thinking!

An NHS medical device supplier developed their manufacturing teams to think differently, challenge assumptions and improve productivity. Their spectacular improvements included:

  • Up to 30% increased productivity and time savings
  • Simplification of complex processes
  • Improved resource capacity and quality


Executive Team Efficiency


Too many papers at Exec. meetings and not enough time to read or discuss them? Decisions need to be made.

But how do you help the team to understand the key issues in an efficient way and engage them in finding the right answer?

The solution involved replacing a 35-page discussion document with just 6 carefully crafted, high quality questions and engaging the team to think differently. This resulted in identifying an additional £1.5m funding.


Large Scale Partner Collaboration

A co-ordinated approach to healthcare research was being prevented by busy schedules and conflicting priorities. 60 healthcare professionals from across different organisations, needed to collaborate in an efficient way.

The solution was to use new, advanced A.I. assisted technology to share opinions, agree goals, identify obstacles to overcome, and successfully build an agreed strategy and implementation plan. All this was achieved within eight days – without the need to meet and without the costs of venues, administration, and associated stress.

“This virtual collaboration process is the best I have ever seen. It has been a super-efficient way of sharing opinions and agreeing goals amongst partners on a complex topic. The ability to cut out the lengthy debates in traditional stakeholder meetings has been a revelation. And the best bit was the clever A.I. technology that removed all the headaches.”

– Tracey Johns, Public Involvement Lead, National Institute of Healthcare Research, East of England

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