Nathan Steadman's Reflections on the School for Change Agents 2019

My Reflections on the School for Change Agents 2019 by Nathan Steadman (@YAS_NathanielS)

The School for Change Agents  is focused on creating a community of change agents through connectivism: It allows us to build relationships, co-create, share experiences, learning and knowledge. Also it’s a fun way to make new friends, extend our networks and build our confidence.

This year’s School for Change Agents may have come to an end, but now is the time to share our experiences and reflect on our learning together. 

Hello my name is Nathan Steadman and I am a Quality Improvement Fellow and Emergency Medical Technician 1 (EMT1) from Yorkshire Ambulance and took part in this year’s cohort of School.

I was introduced to the School for Change Agents by #ProjectA Core Team Member, Erin Payne Head of Quality Improvement from Yorkshire Ambulance. Click here find out more about #ProjectA.

Erin and I had attended the #AmbulanceQ event in Edinburgh on the 15th May. Click here to discover more about the work of #AmbulanceQ and the event. Horizons Chief Transformation Officer Helen Bevan delivered the key note speech at the event and part of Helen’s presentation focused on the School for Change Agents.  I felt energised and motivated by Helen’s key note speech and couldn’t wait to get involved with the School. 

Having signed up take part in the 2019 cohort I was raring to go after the #AmbulanceQ event. The first session was Change Starts with Me, which I think is so important because change really does start with the individual. It’s up to us to make the change, to lead the way and to mobilise others.

The use of Old Power vs New Power resonated with me due to the nature of the ambulance service and I found this particularly inspiring and changed my outlook. It gave me the confidence to apply my learning from the module to my work. 

Resilience as an Act of Defiance struck a chord with me on a personal level and enabled me to reflect on my own experiences and think about how I could apply this to my life. This years content energised and enthused me to look at new ways of working in the ambulance service so that I can be the best change agent I can be. 

The interactive nature of the sessions was extremely helpful for me, being able to make use of the chat during the live sessions and to follow up on social media allowed me to connect to other change agents and discuss the content. Having the sessions recorded and put on YouTube made it easy to catch up when on shift work.   

I enjoyed the thought provoking content and style of the modules, the use of visuals and quotes were really helpful and especially the use of sketch notes. The sketch notes not only captured ideas, they helped tell a story and enabled me to connect with the content on another level. 

I am looking forward to sharing my learning from the modules with my team and will encourage my team and colleagues to sign up for the School for Change Agents 2020 cohort.

The School for Change Agents is all about inspiring change through visualised learning and finding new ways to overcome barriers. School gives people the foundations to build on change ideas as well allowing individuals the opportunity to express their thoughts around change. School for Change has given me the confidence to be resilient in change, a super connector and a new change agent. Thank you School for Change Agents.

See you in School next year! 

Live Session Links:

Module 1, Change starts with me: catch up with the recording and view the slides.

Module 2, Resilience is an act of defiance: catch up with the recording and view the slides. 

Module 3, Power and purpose: catch up with the recording and view the slides.

Module 4, Moving to Action: catch up with the recording and view the slides.

Module 5, Being a change agent in a complex world:  catch up with the recording and view the slides.

Module 6, Leading change in personalised care: catch up with the recording and view the slides. 

Please also see Leigh Kendall’s brilliant blogs on the School:

Module one: Change Starts With Me.

Module two: Resilience is an act of defiance.

Module three: Purpose and Power.

Module four: Moving to Action.