In this episode, we are in conversation with Dr Intikhab Zafurallah (Zaf). Zaf has a wide portfolio of work, including a huge contribution to charity work supporting the delivery of life-saving cardiac surgery to children for whom it would not normally be available.

Zaf's sense of mission and commitment to equity come through very strongly in this conversation. We cover topics including Zaf's personal motivation behind his humanitarian work, the ethics of decision-making in different contexts, the emotional impact of high-risk healthcare in low resource settings, how joy can flourish amid hardship, the importance of getting to know your colleagues, how we can cross-pollinate learning across very different settings, Zaf's thoughts on mentorship and training, and more.

In this episode, we are in conversation with Marina Cantacuzino, MBE: founder of the Forgiveness Project (TFP) – a charity which aims to share stories of forgiveness to build hope, empathy and understanding. TFP is an inspiring endeavour and its outputs can be found in a number of different media from exhibitions, to podcasts, to books, to radio 4 shows.  All of these are characterized by stories from real people, showing how forgiveness can lead to reconciliation, understanding, restoration.  There are some powerful examples from healthcare in TFP work.  Perhaps not surprisingly, this conversation is as much about apology as it is about forgiveness.  Are they two sides of the same coin?  In some cases yes, ,but not always.  Marina also discusses the shadow-side of forgiveness and the concept of premature forgivenss – it’s not always appropriate …but if the conditions are right, forgiveness can lead to restoration, improved well-being, a shedding of bitterness, and sense-making.

About Marina:

Marina Cantacuzino MBE is an author, broadcaster, podcaster and peace activist.  In 2004, after working for 15 years as a journalist, and as a response to the invasion of Iraq, she founded The Forgiveness Project, a UK-based charity that works with personal narratives to help people break cycles of harm and create a more compassionate world. She has produced and hosted The F Word Podcast  and in 2024 her second BBC series Forgiveness: Stories from the Frontline was aired on Radio 4.  She is currently working on a third series. The latest of Marina’s three books on forgiveness, Forgiveness: An Exploration was published by Simon & Schuster in 2022.  

This is our conversation with Dr Rana Awdish. Rana is the author of "In Shock", a critically acclaimed, bestselling memoir based on her own critical illness. She is a sought-after public speaker, delivering inspirational keynote addresses to groups ranging from professional medical societies, to members of congress, to organisations combatting homelessness. A pulmonary and critical care physician, she serves as the current director of the pulmonary hypertension programme at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan.

In this episode, I am in conversation with Fran Ives.  Fran is a rare find in the NHS - she is a Human Factors specialist.  For reasons that are hard to understand, this important discipline is not more prevalent in the NHS.  In this conversation, you will hear about a host of topics related to Fran's work, and how it overlaps and interacts with LFE, including the vast scope of human factors work, the meaning of terms "erognomics", some learnings from other industries, the use of strengths-based inquiry, and a lot more.  I think this is an interesting and inspiring conversation - let us know what you think.

Fran's podcast "All Systems Ergo" is available here: https://www.healthinnovationwestmidlands.org/our_work/all-systems-ergo-podcast-2/

Alison Jones is the Quality Improvement manager at the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit in Birmingham Children's Hospital. Alison has been a core member of the LFE movement since she was the project lead in the PRAISe project in 2017. Since then, she has adopted strengths-based methods into her current role. She is probably one of the leading experts in the use of Appreciative Inquiry in QI in healthcare, so there is a lot of wisdom imparted here as she reflects on her extensive experience of using this approach. We cover a range of topics, including Alison's practical definitions of AI and LFEQI, her thoughts on how and why this approach works, how to approach cynics, the fact that "soft skills" tend to underlie a great deal of excellent practice, reframing in various forms, safety-II and much more.

Dr Neil Spenceley is a paediatric intensivist in Glasgow, and a long-time friend of LFE.  We talk with Neil about a number of related topics including safety-II, understanding complexity, challenges in safety investigations, reductionism, the problem with aiming for “zero”, WAD vs WAI and a LOT more.  Neil is really knowledgeable in this area, and he explains his thoughts in an easy, listenable way.  As we often do in the conversations, we ran out of time, so stay tuned for a repeat conversation some time in the future. 

This is our conversation with Dr Rana Awdish. Rana is the author of "In Shock", a critically acclaimed, bestselling memoir based on her own critical illness. She is a sought-after public speaker, delivering inspirational keynote addresses to groups ranging from professional medical societoes, to members of congress, to organisations combarring homelessness. A pulmonary and critical care physician, she serves as the current director of the pulmonary hypertension programme at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan.

Paul Devlin is a member of NHSE Emergency Care Improvement Support team, and the co-founder of the NHS Kindness Network.  Paul spoke at our LFE5 conference last November on kindness, and we wanted to hear more from him.  In this conversation Paul talks about the “science” and “evidence” relating to the application of positive psychology to workplace culture and wellbeing.  He uses terms like “hyperdyadic spread” and “spontaneous trait transference”, which might sound like grand, academic concepts, but actually they point to underlying ideas which are highly intuitive and easy to practice.  Here is a link to the recording of Paul’s talk at LFE5 to open access (previously only available to delegates of the conference).  I highly recommend watching this presentation if you enjoyed Paul’s conversation.

https://youtu.be/kkmjTcv8OM4

Mr Mo Belal is a consultant urological surgeon at University Hospitals, Birmngham (UHB). In 2021, Mo had a cycling accident and sustained a spinal cord injury. He tells the story of the accident and what he has learned from it - both professionally and personally. Mo's positivity and optimism shines through in this conversation. He shares insights from his experiences as a patient which can help us all as healthcare professionals, as well as more general thoughts about how to approach the inevitable challenges of life.

Dr Chris Turner is a consultant in Emergency Department at University Hospital, Coventry and co-founder of Civility Saves Lives. Chris has been a friend of Learning from Excellence for years, and he is the co-host of this podcast and our LfE conferences.  This episode of the podcast is a recorded conversation with Chris, talking to us from the recent Civility Saves Lives community event in Birmingham.  In this conversation we discuss the activities of the CSL community; how to avoid judgement when witnessing poor behaviour in the workplace; an overview of normative ethics and how this can help us understand behaviours; and a practical approach to provide feedback to a peer about poor conduct.  Chris cites the work of Jerry Hickson and the "coffee conversation", and reminds us of the "Baverstock manoeuvre", credited to Dr Anna Baverstock - another friend of LFE!