Roda meets...Dan Phillips
Dan Phillips
Dan is the Director of Transformation at Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust. He is a change leader with significant experience in generating growth, leading strategic projects and managing programmes of change in the health and care sector.
After starting his career in finance with PwC, Dan led projects in challenging public sector environments at the Avon and Somerset Constabulary and Environment Agency before entering the health sector with Bristol Community Health CIC. He subsequently spent several years working in and leading business development and transformation activity in the care market for Mitie and Virgin Care, before joining AWP in 2021.
1. How do you approach designing strategy for your organisation?
You must start by talking to people. It’s a trap to think you can design strategy by yourself, no matter how clear your vision.
I have learnt from my time at the NHS just how important co-design is. Unless you start with that approach, you must retrace your steps, loop back and start again to bring people with you. Hearts and minds matter – across the whole organisation, not just the leadership team! - , people need to understand what you’re trying to do and come with you on the journey.
Strategy design leads to difficult conversations about ambition...what does the organisation want to become? How big is the gap between vision and reality? If it’s too distant and feels unachievable it will be demotivating.
Every strategy needs to be broken down so everyone understands what it will take to deliver, and what it means for them – this includes service users and stakeholders. Creating the strategy is the easiest bit, delivering it is the challenge!
Learning is also key. What has worked in the past? What is changing around us? Do we need to tweak and amend? A particular challenge in the NHS – and other public sector bodies – are the factors that change around us that we have no control over, such changes in funding priorities or government.
2. What were the biggest challenges you faced when implementing your strategy?
Ownership and accountability are a challenge everywhere – public and private sector. Getting people to put their name against deliverables is never easy.
Measurement is an active challenge – how do you break down your strategy into chunks and set targets against them...what does success look like for each part? Aligning metrics with your strategy is critical.
Accountability is key – what happens if you do not deliver? If it goes unnoticed people will become complacent and think that the strategy does not matter.
This is the challenge of translating your strategy from a glossy presentation into reality, into a credible operational plan that runs one or three years into the future. Reality can get lost in the translation, risking operational services that do not align with strategic ambition.
3. How do you ensure your plans and priorities are understood by teams across the organisation?
Simple messaging is important. There must be a hook to help staff understand the strategy documents' purpose - what will make them read it? How does it relate to their daily life? How can you make everyone – porter, receptionist, clinician – feel ownership of the future? This often means different comms and messaging for diverse groups.
Getting in front of people and talking face to face is much more powerful than using digital channels. See people where they feel comfortable, answer questions, see and hear if they understand it and help them feel ownership + connection to their objectives and responsibilities
For example, at AWP we want everyone to know and understand our four strategic aims and be able to draw a line back to their daily life.
Just get out there and talk to people, speak in a simple way, show it’s a live process, see engagement as an opportunity to refine and improve.
4. What resources do you use to help you perform better at work?
I wish I had more time for this kind of stuff!
These days.I use podcasts and YouTube to keep up to date. A mix of business (Diary of a CEO, High Performance) and wellness (Huberman, Peter Attia) focused material works for me. I love sport so any connection to that helps me engage. You can learn a lot from a good 5-10 minute video or podcast episode. It’s so much easier to fit those around the rest of life.
I have lots of books at home. I was lucky enough to inherit my Dad’s book collection from his MBA, and there’s some great stuff in there...lots of the older ideas are still relevant! I do my best to read around and stay well-rounded.
5. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given, personal or professional?
In my childhood my grandparents were of the view that you can always do more than you think you can. That advice has stayed with me.
Confidence breeds success, I was lucky enough to be brought up in an environment that encouraged me to evolve through my career and be confident to change jobs, going with heart over head sometimes.
An old manager once told me to allow your teams to be free – give them the freedom to express themselves and operate in a fluid way. At the time I didn’t get it, but now I see how powerful that advice was.
The All Blacks “no dickheads” rule is also a good one! Leave the ego at the door...be yourself.
6. In the last five years, what new belief, behaviour or habit has most improved your life?
Covid helped me to be more mindful about building the routines and habits that I wanted. Without the need to rush out the door to catch a train or get to the office I had the luxury to build new routines that worked for me.
That means I know get up earlier and use the first, quiet, hour of the day to set myself up. I can exercise, read, think and plan my day in peace.
7. What are the worst recommendations you hear in your profession or area of expertise?
I struggle with the ‘it’s OK not to make a decision’ mentality I see sometimes in the NHS. The lack of urgency can be frustrating and goes against my principles.
There is a fear culture where many people are afraid of making mistakes and having a finger pointed at them. This leads people to sit on issues for longer, to keep going back around conversations without progress, hoping the problem goes away or someone else fixes it.
As someone leading change this is a real blocker to progress! It’s a hidden belief that has a huge influence.
8. What has been the most worthwhile investment in yourself that you’ve ever made?
Exercise! It’s a huge part of my life. I’ve always been active, mentally I find it helps me to unwind. Now I have kids it’s a juggle to fit it in, but I consciously invest the time in myself. Work gets stressful, exercise and fresh air is my way of managing the pressure.
I want to be active for my whole life, even after retirement...climbing hills and riding bikes! I know I need to keep investing now to be able to do that.
9. When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
A long bike ride clears the mind, whatever the weather. I find getting any fresh air in, even if its just a walk round the block or with the dog, really helps me.
Music is also important for me. I have an eclectic taste – from dance to grunge to country – and I’ll listen to whatever gives me the right energy at the time!
I always have the radio on in the background of my home life – this helps me transition between work and home.
10. If you could, knowing what you do today, what advice would you give to yourself at 18 years old?
Looking back, firstly my career choice...accounting was not for me! It may tick a box and open doors, but I didn’t enjoy it. Good for my cv, but not for me. I still see myself as a failed pilot. I wanted to join the RAF but left it too late...this is the career that got away.
I’d tell myself that it’s ok to fail. Our education system struggles to show how failure can be a catalyst for learning.
I’d take more time to celebrate the big successes. Over the past 20 years, there are some pieces of work I’m proud of, and I didn’t give myself enough credit for their impact.
Ask for help – don't try to be the hero – I was terrible at this in my 20s, afraid to ask for help in case I was seen as a failure. This wasn’t a confidence thing, but ‘what would they think of me if I asked?’. I’m the other way now.
Fear of being made to look a fool was seen as a weakness in accounting company culture at the time, and that stayed with me for a long time. There was a ‘cloak of invincibility’ I had to drop.
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