Commuting – A Mindful Audio Story

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By Simon Bell

Commuting

Let the story sink in. When you are ready, here are the questions for you to consider:

Question 1. What is the main meaning of the story?

What message or core or essential meaning does the story hold for you? Can you set them free? There may be many meanings which occur to you but for now try to prioritise just one.

When you feel clear on this, hold it in your mind and read the next question:

Question 2. How is this meaning of relevance to you?

How does the story impact on your life and your challenges right now? Why is it important to you at this point in your life? What element emerges as being most relevant?

Again, give yourself time to think of your response and when you feel prepared try the next question:

Question 3. Think about what is the main value that you can draw from this relevance of the story. What does this value bring to the concern you identified earlier?

Don’t rush your response. Take time to think about the value. The word ‘value’ has connotations for us. What do we value and what of value is here? When you are set try this:

Question 4. What insight does the identified value provide for you?

Finally:

Question 5. What action might you engage with as a consequence?

Feel free to listen to the story several time and don’t expect instant results from considering a mindful story. The whole point is that the story can act as a gateway to another level. Give yourself time to let the ideas which come from the story settle down. Each time you reconsider you may get to a deeper level of meaning and this could result in new ideas.

I would be really pleased to receive your comments and thoughts.

Artwork © Rachel Furze

Closing the digital gap – a report by Deloitte Centre for Health Solutions

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Closing the digital gap

Digital Technology Maturity Deloitte Adam Hoare

Shaping the future of UK healthcare

Post by: Dr Adam Hoare

A report produced by the Centre for Health Solutions at Deloitte. The report explores the progress in adopting digital technology in the NHS and associated settings. Based on a survey of 1500 clinicians and interviews with 65 key stakeholders across the health ecosystem. Along with an extensive literature review, this report draws on the wealth of primary data collected to provide some valuable insights.

The variation in digital maturity across different health settings is striking. After many years of recognising the importance of digitalisation, progress remains slow. The key steps to closing the gap, identified in the report, are leadership, governance, interoperability, open electronic health records and infrastructure.

It is clear from the report that there remains a further gap between the vision espoused in the NHS Long Term Plan and the support for action on the ground. This gap is both in terms of a systemic view of the challenges and an approach to funding that raises all boats to the same level rather than lifting some boats way above everyone else.

Closing the digital gap – Shaping the future of UK healthcare

Related reports:

Understanding how and why the NHS adopts innovation

Local Investment Programme 2017/18 final evaluation report: Transforming care and health through information and technology

The Walk – A Mindful Audio Story

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By Simon Bell

The Walk

Let the story sink in. When you are ready, here are the questions for you to consider:

Question 1. What is the main meaning of the story?

What message or core or essential meaning does the story hold for you? Can you set them free? There may be many meanings which occur to you but for now try to prioritise just one.

When you feel clear on this, hold it in your mind and read the next question:

Question 2. How is this meaning of relevance to you?

How does the story impact on your life and your challenges right now? Why is it important to you at this point in your life? What element emerges as being most relevant?

Again, give yourself time to think of your response and when you feel prepared try the next question:

Question 3. Think about what is the main value that you can draw from this relevance of the story. What does this value bring to the concern you identified earlier?

Don’t rush your response. Take time to think about the value. The word ‘value’ has connotations for us. What do we value and what of value is here? When you are set try this:

Question 4. What insight does the identified value provide for you?

Finally:

Question 5. What action might you engage with as a consequence?

Feel free to listen to the story several time and don’t expect instant results from considering a mindful story. The whole point is that the story can act as a gateway to another level. Give yourself time to let the ideas which come from the story settle down. Each time you reconsider you may get to a deeper level of meaning and this could result in new ideas.

I would be really pleased to receive your comments and thoughts.

Artwork © Rachel Furze

The Child – An Audio Mindful Story

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By Simon Bell

THE CHILD

The Child

Let the story sink in. When you are ready, here are the questions for you to consider:

Question 1. What is the main meaning of the story?

What message or core or essential meaning does the story hold for you? Can you set them free? There may be many meanings which occur to you but for now try to prioritise just one.

When you feel clear on this, hold it in your mind and read the next question:

Question 2. How is this meaning of relevance to you?

How does the story impact on your life and your challenges right now? Why is it important to you at this point in your life? What element emerges as being most relevant?

Again, give yourself time to think of your response and when you feel prepared try the next question:

Question 3. Think about what is the main value that you can draw from this relevance of the story. What does this value bring to the concern you identified earlier?

Don’t rush your response. Take time to think about the value. The word ‘value’ has connotations for us. What do we value and what of value is here? When you are set try this:

Question 4. What insight does the identified value provide for you?

Finally:

Question 5. What action might you engage with as a consequence?

Feel free to listen to the story several time and don’t expect instant results from considering a mindful story. The whole point is that the story can act as a gateway to another level. Give yourself time to let the ideas which come from the story settle down. Each time you reconsider you may get to a deeper level of meaning and this could result in new ideas.

I would be really pleased to receive your comments and thoughts.

Artwork © Rachel Furze

Local Investment Programme 2017/18 final evaluation report – Transforming care and health through information and technology

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Local Investment Programme Report Evaluation Local Government AssociationThe Local Investment Programme (LIP) 2017/18

By Dr Adam Hoare

Part of a NHS Digital funded Social Care Programme, focusing on improving digital maturity in the adult social care provider sector and using technology for better joint working between adult social care and the health sector.

Through LIP, the LGA offered £50,000 of funding to 19 councils to develop these various technology-based initiatives. The Bayswater Institute co-authored the final evaluation report with Traverse.

While the LIP projects did not always lead to immediate outcomes and cost savings, in some cases they formed the basis of applications for further funding for a wider scale digital intervention which could have clearer impacts. Most projects found it difficult to monitor and evidence outcomes and cost savings of their approach and local evaluations have been uneven in their depth and results.

The evidence this could produce is essential for project sustainability for example when applying for future funding to further develop projects or producing internal business cases. To this end, the programme could have provided projects with greater support to evidence the scope of their intervention.

However, significant learning from the challenges that have emerged throughout LIP have formed the basis of a Digital Toolkit to help councils who are starting a new digital transformation project. This toolkit provides a step-by-step guide to introducing a new digital service and covers:

  1. identifying the issue you are trying to solve
  2. designing your approach
  3. planning delivery
  4. delivering the service
  5. evaluating the success of the service including cost savings.

Additionally, learning from LIP has been built into future LGA and NHS Digital programmes, such
as the Social Care Digital Innovation Programme 2018-19 (SCDIP). The programme has been designed so that projects undergo a discovery phase prior to implementation to ensure that concepts and use-cases are tested, early challenges are overcome, and outcomes are effectively monitored.

Local Investment Programme (LIP) Final Report

Read the interim report here:

Transforming care and health through information and technology: Local Investment Programme – Interim Report

Summing up the Quartet

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By Simon Bell

The need for Mindful Stories

The need for Mindful Stories

I really hope you have enjoyed reading the Mindful Stories. Maybe you found them challenging too?

You may be asking yourself; “What are the stories for and what are they intended to do?”

Well, in my experience there are lots of triggers which can lead people to want to make use of the stories but at a general level, if you have difficult issues in your personal, professional or group/ team lives, working with the Mindful Stories can help you by providing you with creative thinking spaces to reflect back upon your actual experiences.

This process of assisted meditation can open up all kinds of new avenues of opportunity. Just by working by yourself with a story. 

If you would like facilitation with reflective learning processes, the Bayswater Institute has Mindful Story Master Classes, Workshops, Open Readings and personal coaching that can help you navigate your way from difficult places to greater clarity.

But this blog began by querying what the Mindful Stories are and what do they do?

For my suggestions, read on…

Over the past four weeks I have been sharing a quartet of stories, one a week. Prior to this I had been distributing stories on LinkedIn but, over the last month the stories have been presented in the pattern intended by my method. Less random and more an intended sequence. 

To understand the pattern, you will have been very persistent and patient and read the blogs of the two weeks prior to the last quartet. Just in case you have not done that, or you have forgotten, let’s recap.

Six weeks ago, I described the primary method for interpreting the Mindful Stories, the MRVIA method. About this I said:

“Meaning, Relevance, Value, Insight and Action or MRVIA.

This is a learning cycle of sorts with action feeding back into the review of meaning. … The idea is that the five stages provide a journey into depth and out again”.

Then, five weeks ago I set out the quartet cycle for the stories. I said:

“MRVIA is intended to be a relevant approach for considering any Mindful Stories but the stories themselves are specifically intended to attend to the subliminal issues contained in four realities, The Quartet, which we all find ourselves in. The Quartet refers to:

  • Me and Myself
  • Me and My World
  • My Group and My World
  • My Group and Me

I have written stories which attend to issues in for each of the domains of The Quartet.

The stories are stories and can be used for any purpose which a story is appropriate for but, the specific intention behind them is to resonate with one of the four realities set out in The Quartet.”

For the last four weeks, I have been presenting you with a story a week. The stories were: Look, Point, Seek and New Normal.

  • Look was intended for you to ponder Me and Myself
  • Point was more about Me and My World
  • Seek really focused on the issues and potentials of My Group and My World
  • New Normal related to My Group and Me

Each story is written to be read addressing tasks. Some stories address many tasks, but all have at least two.

  • Task One, the presenting task, is all about a thing that can be done, is done or has been done.
  • The second Task is about the subliminal behind Task One and the doing it usually involves and requires.

Most people and organisations spend almost all their time dealing with Task 1. I like to think of Task 1 as being synonymous with the weather. Most of us focus on the weather. It is important to be weather-wise, but Task 2 is more like Climate. Dealing with the weather without thinking about the deep climatic issues which govern and control it can be thought of as being a little short sighted. 

You can read any of the stories at face value, as Task 1 or, you can read them and look for the Second Task. Looking for the Task 2 may well help you to deal with an issue or potential in your life (or the life of your group) which is deeper, more complicated, more important but hidden by the bustle of Task 1. Task 2 is often subliminal.

The seeking for Task 2 is a major intention behind the Mindful Stories and an intention for you to carry forward into your daily life.

I very much welcome your thoughts and correspondence about the Stories and would love to talk to you about how they might be used in your situation.

Not convinced? Well, hearing is believing maybe.

Starting next week, I will be presenting another quartet, but as audio files for you to listen to. All you have to do is click on the post on LinkedIn. This will take you to the Bayswater Institute news feed. From here you can access the audio file of the story, listen to it and then review it with the MRVIA process.

So, from the 10th June 2019, an audio recording of a Mindful Story will be appearing weekly on the Bayswater Institute homepage under our ‘News’ feed. I hope you find them interesting.

I am intrigued to hear from you. Your reflections about each of the stories. I look forward to your thoughtful comments and questions.

Simon Bell, CEO of the Bayswater Institute – simon.bell@bayswaterinst.org

All Artwork © Rachel Furze