I watched the film ‘The Colour Room’ the other
day, the true story of factory girl Clarice Cliff who became a celebrated and
famous ceramic artist.
Clarice was a young working-class woman in the
1920s, who left school at 13 destined for a life of menial ‘paintress’ work in
the Staffordshire potteries, but instead set her sights on becoming a
‘modeller’. This was a more skilled role, that only men at the time did, and
Clarice had to fight to get her ideas heard: facing sexism, sneers and
obstacles.
She eventually managed to take her Art Deco
ceramic pottery line, called ‘Bizarre’, to the annual trade fair, where the
industry placed orders for the year. But it tanked, with the buyers pointing
out that women wouldn’t buy Clarice’s cheap, cheerful and contemporary pottery,
and the lack of any sales sent the pottery company close to bankruptcy.
But Clarice realised that all the buyers were
men and were making decisions about what women wanted on their behalf. Although
she faced an uphill struggle, she wasn’t deterred and found a way of talking
directly to women about what they wanted and did her own market research.
And after finding a way to sell direct to women
she eventually sold more than 8.5 million pieces all over the world. Her ‘cheap
and cheerful’ pottery are now collector pieces and coveted the world over,
including by me!
Clarice’s creative skills were matched by her
flair for business, but most of all, her story highlights the importance of
hearing directly from the people you are trying to reach. The male buyers
in the 1920s were not going to be in the best place to know what tea services
women wanted unless they talked to them, and in the male dominated world of the
period, that simply didn’t happen. It is obvious that the best way to
understand people is to listen to them. We learn from listening.
This is something we’ve been giving thought to
as well. Our board recently had a really productive development session with
Ben Woffenden, head of patient and carer experience and engagement, about
patient stories and how we can weave them into a wide range of areas and
activities across our organisation to support our work. As well as supporting
people who tell their stories, we need to have the chance to really reflect on
what we’ve heard and make the sharing meaningful.
What does the story tell us? Do we need to
change anything as a result? How should it influence what we do? So, with Ben’s
leadership, we are developing our approach across the organisation, including
the use of patient stories at board.
We had a really powerful patient story at the
board meeting this Wednesday. It was the first one since before the pandemic
and a reminder of how much we’d missed the patient voice in these meetings.
Those of you who attended the AGM last month will have experienced the immense
impact of hearing a patient story first-hand. They move, inspire and affect us.
Whether it’s
empathy, sadness, hope or motivation, the patient story can help us see things.
At the board meeting, the patient spoke
movingly about the panic attacks, terrible thoughts, shame and sorrow that his
obsessive compulsive disorder caused, which affected every aspect of his life. At
the point of giving up any hope of being able to manage the disorder, he was
referred to our democratic therapeutic community (DTC) specialist service which he
said ‘changed his life’.
He spoke so
eloquently about being able to open up to others in the DTC group
who, for the first time in his life, really understood how he felt. He now
works with both our DTC and patient advice and liaison (PALS) services and feels
he has ‘found his purpose, in helping others find their voices’.
It was wonderful
to hear such a thoughtful and intelligent young man talk about the respect and
kindness in the DTC group, but his story also highlighted issues around referral and
access. One story can flag up challenges that many may face.
And it’s not just patient and carer stories
that are important to hear. We need to hear staff stories to help build an open
culture where everyone feels able to speak up. They create a more positive and
productive workplace and lead to
solutions we won’t find if we just ignore one another.
Our six staff networks have an important part
to play in shaping our culture and
behaviours through the feedback, ideas, advice and knowledge they can
bring. We’ve launched a new women’s network and also multi-faith network group,
helping to ensure a really diverse range of views are fed up to our board.
We’ve also just appointed an exec sponsor for each network to support this
work.
Jaco Nel has sadly
had to step down as chair of the positive ability network group due to ill
health, and I want to take this opportunity to publicly thank Jaco for the amazing job he has done
in helping to establish, support and lead this thriving network.
The base of every
successful organisation today depends mainly on two things. The first is
transparency, and the second is listening to everyone's experiences and
opinions. We only have to look at Yorkshire Cricket Club to see the
consequences of not doing this, in terms of both reputation and financially.
The appalling
racism scandal has engulfed cricket, and now, as the cricket world stands
amidst the ruins of its reputation, it faces a watershed moment. It should have
been a watershed moment 10 years ago, when Azeem Rafiq started reporting this
and was labelled a troublemaker and ignored. He has now shared his story with
the world, and it is time for the world to listen. And then more importantly,
to act.
Let’s all keep
speaking up and listening – and sharing our stories.
Best wishes
Claire
You can follow me on
Twitter @ClaireMolloy2
