International Fellow Horizons Team, Day 7 #jodemeontour

Today was honestly one of the highlights of my professional life.  The Horizons team designed and delivered a session entitled "How To Be A Brilliant Change Agent".  We were expecting 350 people and 450+ showed up.  People were lined up early to get into the session and there was a massive buzz.  People clearly want to be supported to achieve their potential and they want to make real and meaningful improvements. People want to know how to be inspired and to be part of a community that wants to support radical change.

We all know our health and care systems can be better. Patients and caregivers (carers) tell us so.  Our own experiences as patients and caregivers tells us this too.  Radical improvements can be realized and we can be solving our most complex issues by #codesigning the answers with patients and their families.  

This session was filled with people, from all over the world, who want to enable real, meaningful and lasting improvements.  

We were together for three and a half hours but it felt like fifteen minutes. Why?   The Horizon's team curated an experiential morning because they insist that change does not happen unless people experience the power of movement and come together with a shared purpose.

The shared purpose of the participants: 'Be Change Agents' … Create Change Agency' to move radical change forward.

Helen asked 'What is your level of brilliance as a change agent"? People were polled at the start and the end of the session.  We started the day with confidence levels ranging in the 2/3 level and ended the day with a strong shift to an average of 3/4 in confidence.  

People's confidence grew with how to create radical change because they participated in the 'transformation card exercise', a 'random coffee trial', 'a snowball', and worked together to create shared purpose statements as opposed to aims.   These exercises are designed by the team to bring out the best in individuals, teams, organizations and systems. Please check out the Horizons team webpage (http://horizonsnhs.com/), their blogs and twitter account to learn more about how they are using these approaches to inspire working in new power ways, how to build the skills and understanding and how sustainable impact is created.

I walked from table to table and stayed connected on social media so that I could meaningfully connect with people in the room and the virtual community.  Active leadership is about being actively engaged and participating.  I actively connected with people from the Netherlands, Malaysia, Taiwan, Australia, UK, Scotland, USA, Canada and many more.

People were 'on fire' rattling off comments like: "this was incredible", "this work can be lonely and I am amongst hundreds of change agents and I feel part of a community", "the way to create change is changing and I have to keep learning so I can do my best', "we want to make radical change and we are staying connected to this community so we can"

Being a change agent and creating agency to fuel change is hard work.  It is important work.  Helen polled the audience and asked them of their experience.  The word cloud below reflects the experience of 450+ change agents.  Challenging. Exciting. Patience. Bumpy. Aspirational.

The magic in the room is because of the magic behind the scenes:

The Horizons team huddled before the session to do a full walk through.  Then we divided and prepped the room, we lay transformation cards out for 350+ people, we prepared stickers for every person in the room to join a random coffee trial, we set out 'shared purpose' worksheets at every seat and then finally, we set up a work table and pulled out social media and went to work connecting what was happening with the in person community to create a virtual community connected all over the world so together we were joined in shared purpose.  

I plan to bring all of this home to Canada.....