Secret Musings of a Change Agent 5 - John Herring
What makes ordinary people great at making change happen? What characteristics do they share? What path have they followed? What’s their attitude to failure? And what advice would they give to others? I’m on a mission to understand more. Join me as I delve deeper in the fifth of my new blog series to help us all understand how we build change capacity for the future.
In my ongoing mission to understand what makes ordinary people great at making change happen, this time round I’m talking to John Herring. John is Strategic Lead for Organisational Development and System Leadership at Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership. His working class Salford roots shine through in his down to earth manner and his passion for equality and addressing the imbalance between those voices that get dismissed while others are amplified. He has a questioning mind that constantly leads him to the why and what if questions. He’s at the cutting edge of change in the Greater Manchester health and social care system so what brought him here and what makes him so damn good at what he does?
John grew up in poverty in Salford. His dad was 63 when John was born and he’s clearly had a big impact on John’s life. His dad was highly educated working both as a lecturer at Salford University and a Production Engineer at Farmer Nortons. He took the brave step of setting up to work for himself just before the winter of discontent hit in the late 70s. The family lost everything. John’s dad did a pools round to bring money in for the family - a job that John joined him in doing to contribute to the family purse from the age of 10 - and stayed politically active and active in the community. He was all about peoples’ voice. John is very clear that growing up in poverty yet surrounded by this strong social capital is what gave him his opportunity to succeed and cites his dad and upbringing as his major influencers.
People’s Voice
John’s dad remained socially & politically active throughout his life and had a big impact on John
Having deliberately failed his 11+ exam (he looked around and decided he didn’t “fit”), John went to “the worst school in Salford” where he achieved the best results anyone had ever got with 4 As in his O levels and ultimately went on to study science at the University of Manchester - in spite of being told by a teacher that “you’ll only ever get to poly”! Sadly in his second year, his dad became ill and John needed to take time out to care for him. Caring for his dad gave John time to reflect and he decided that in spite of his naturally questioning scientific mind, he was actually more interested in working with people.
“I couldn’t work in the system without wanting to tinker with it”
Long story short, John finished his degree and to the bemusement of his dad, took a job at MENCAP working with people with learning disabilities. From here, he progressed to join the NHS and train as a psychological therapist. With jobs in the field scarce at the time and turnover low, John took a job working to set up a drop in and therapy support service for homeless people and quickly became the manager. He couldn’t help but see the opportunities to do things differently, to ask the “why are we doing it in this way” and “what if we tried it this way” questions. When the manager left, John was offered the job. He kept an active caseload as manager and when he took another therapist job further down the line, the same pattern occurred. It was at this point that John “accepted my fate and became a manager and then a Director”. He found he couldn’t work in the system without wanting to tinker with it. He knew that by listening to people, he could make changes that would make peoples’ experiences of accessing services better. He couldn’t help but ask why.
When I ask John about what he’s learned from failures, he chooses his words carefully. I lean in because I’ve a feeling he’s a big important point to make and my instinct is right. John talks about the challenges of partnership working and the role that power can play in kyboshing really great work that many people have spent a lot of time working together to develop. He talks of getting a real sense of what power looks like when people who have not necessarily been close to the detail but who are in positions of power are able to throw spanners in the works that take everyone back several steps. That’s OK if what is being contributed results in a better product or outcome but when the said spanner is thrown because it threatens the status quo power dynamic or because of trivial stuff around the edges that don’t fundamentally add anything of value, then actually, it’s not OK. This big often unspoken challenge of real partnership working is one of those killer issues we need to grapple with and work through.
Power
John talks candidly about the impact of power dynamics on successfully delivering change
John’s reflections and the learning he has gained from these sorts of situations are firstly, you can’t develop something until you’re clear about why you’re developing it - what he describes as your route guiding North Star - and secondly, you have to know what you are aiming for. Really pertinently, John reflects that we shouldn’t just be thinking then about how we get there but should be totally explicit in talking about how we get there without the need to go back 2 or 3 steps because a powerful person throws a foul card in. John’s courage to describe this challenge with clarity, diplomacy and honesty gives a little insight into his skills as a facilitator, working with senior people to navigate complex issues.
“I can generally get people talking and working together”
When I ask John about his change superpower, he describes his ability to achieve collaboration through relationships. “I can generally get people talking and working together” says John, as he goes on to talk about how his straight forward non-jargonistic style creates the trust that enables people to speak up and collaborate.
His advice to an aspiring change agent is that you have to work across the full range of change. While you might have a preference for one element of change, if you don’t work across the full scope to bring people, system and organisational change together, you won’t get the results you are looking for. And if you’re not confident getting across it all yourself, work with people who can work on the elements you’re not strong on.
I very much enjoyed talking to John and really appreciated his honesty and clarity of thinking. I particularly respected his willingness to talk about the sticky issue of power in partnership working. If you enjoyed this blog and would like to understand more about what makes a great change agent so we can learn together how to build capacity for the future, check out my blog series for more “Secret Musings of a Change Agent”.
Kath Smythe is founder of Kath Smythe Collective working as a change consultant and coach to help organisations make change happen.
