Strategy development

We work with organisations to develop strategies that give clear direction and are underpinned by innovation, evidence and a culture that fosters improvement.

Change has never been more needed in healthcare, and in today’s world of limited resources, no organisation can afford to develop strategies that will miss opportunities, waste time, and need to be repeated due to lack of impact.

Our approach

Good strategy supports organisations to make deliberate, and sometimes hard, choices. At Kaleidoscope we know that there is also huge value, often untapped, in the process of creating strategy.

We work with charities, NHS trusts, integrated care systems, and others to help develop strategy that works. Whether that’s a digital or clinical strategy, or a five-year strategy for a whole organisation or partnership, we bring decades of experience and understanding to help you beat the odds and have cost-effective strategies with real impact.

We use creative ways to involve staff, stakeholders and communities in a meaningful way. The end result is a strategy that reconnects them to an organisation’s purpose and leads to deliberate, significant and sustained improvement in both performance and culture.

Our services and experience

We work alongside clients to deliver all aspects of a strategy development process. During our work with many different organisations, we have found three common questions that we are asked to help with.

“How do we prioritise what really matters?”

Everyone working in healthcare today has to-do lists far greater than their resources to deliver. This is more than just a headache: having to fight through diffuse and sometimes contradictory priorities can result in poor decision making and loss of direction.

We help organisations design and deliver a way through this maze. Focused on purpose, we find ways to make hard decisions in a way that produces energy rather than draining it. Our method blends close working with boards and executive teams with wide-ranging processes that go well beyond the usual suspects.

Case studies

• We delivered a rapid large-scale stakeholder engagement across five sectors to inform the development of NHSX’s national digital priorities for ambulance, community, dental optometry and community pharmacy services.
• We worked with the leadership team and staff at Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust to refresh their strategy and create a sense of shared purpose, as well as a culture of staff empowerment and kindness. This involved engaging thousands of staff and service users across a nine-month period.

Watch Rachel Evans, Director of Strategy and People, talk about how the work contributed to Oxleas becoming one of the best NHS Trusts to work for in the country.

“How do we have strategies that are owned by our staff?”

Strategy often gets a reputation for being up in the clouds while the real work happens somewhere quite different. If staff never see what strategy has to do with them, the strategy will never meet its objectives. More programmes fail because staff resist change than for any other single reason.

We maximise the value of strategy development by using it as a cultural intervention in its own right. We help organisations use strategy development to showcase their values, boost staff engagement, and help create an organisation ready for change. Our method draws learning from deliberative democracy to engage staff in innovative and far-reaching ways.

Case studies

• We worked with South East London ICS to shape their future strategy through a broad range of engagement work, bringing together patients, charities, NHS staff, local authorities and wider stakeholders.

• We worked with the North London Mental Health Partnership to design and lead a programme of staff engagement as part of their commitment to being a great place to work.

Watch Ben Browne, Chief People Officer, describe the impact the work had in the organisation.

“How do we do all of this with our partners?”

In healthcare we know we can achieve more together – but being a good collaborator doesn’t mean you should collaborate on everything. Finding the right balance between an organisational strategy and a system one is not straightforward to agree or communicate to those who need to know.

We combine our strategy experience with deep expertise in the characteristics of effective collaborations. This enables us to craft strategies both for organisations and systems in a way that can strengthen relationships rather than detract from them. Our approach starts with agreement on shared purpose, a focus on clarity of roles, and how to build the necessary culture inside and out of partnerships.

Case studies

• We worked with Camden Council and its health and care partners to deliver a citizens’ assembly to improve local health and care. Using a deliberative democracy approach, we brought together residents, the NHS and the council to help make Camden the best place to grow, live and age well.
• We helped Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust to redefine their purpose as an organisation in a highly collaborative world. In engaging with staff and stakeholders in innovative ways, our process also deliberately aimed to support cultural change for the Trust.

Watch Matthew Trainer, Chief Executive, talk about how the work has helped them reconnect with their purpose.

Our other strategy work

And that’s not all. We’ve also supported our clients to answer wider questions including the following.

• How do I bring inspiration into my organisation to help us think about the future? Read about our work in drawing diverse insights from outside the UK and outside healthcare with the Stroke Association.
• How do I involve patients and communities in strategy in a meaningful way? Read about our work supporting hospital redevelopment with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

Could we help you?

Do you need support to develop strategy for your organisation in a way that engages and enthuses your staff and communities? Get in touch to discuss how we can help you.