Dr Nick Waggett

How can we support frontline staff to better manage the anxiety associated with difficult or complex tasks, and therefore provide effective and compassionate services? The concept of concentric circles of containment is one way of visualizing how this can be achieved. First introduced by Claudia McLoughlin, the model shows how anxieties and stressors originating from the nature of the work can be held and thought about at each level of the organization. All types of work can be the source of both satisfaction and frustration. Work can be stressful because of the inherent nature of the task or because it is badly organised. Or both! One of the functions of leaders is to help staff to manage the anxieties associated with their work, whether this is in high-pressure commercial settings or frontline public services. If the task itself involves working for customers or clients who have complex needs, or whose ways of relating to others are perhaps chaotic and disturbing, then there is ...

  Like, what colour is a conversation with a colleague? All those bits that might not be reflected in the calendar. The research I undertook for my Professional Doctorate (completed in 2017) explored how technology alters organizational processes and structures. The above quote relates to the use of the Outlook calendar to manage workload in a health clinic. Some of the findings anticipated the transformation of work that was accelerated by the pandemic and enabled by technology.  For example, I showed how technology transports work across an organization’s usual boundaries of time (9-5) and place (the office). The affordances of technology (i.e. what it enables) have many positive aspects, such as maintaining delivery of critical services during a global pandemic. Society’s capacity to deliver its core functions was many times greater in 2020 that it was 10 or 50 years earlier. Some impacts were unexpected – such as accelerating the decline in physical newspaper sales beca...

Creativity is central to organizational success Creativity is crucial in responding to change, innovation, growth, re-structuring and challenges in the market or operating environment. Creativity in these situations is needed to enable new thoughts, connections and ideas to arise, and to avoid getting stuck in old and unhelpful patterns of working.  Think of the sports team that has a set way of playing that has worked for them but who can’t adapt to other teams improving or using new techniques. A once successful team will steadily, or even rapidly, become second best. Doing the same thing over and over - when it has been shown to be ineffective or even damaging - is a sign of something unhealthy going on in the team, organization or business. To unstick  and move to a new, healthy and productive position requires curiosity, creativity and the generation of new ways of working and connecting with the client, customer or audience.  The problem is that these processes – ch...