How do you turn around a struggling healthcare workplace with high turnover, low morale, and patient satisfaction below the national average - without an extra budget or more hours in the day?

Dr. Ben Allen shares his remarkable journey of transforming Birley Health Centre into one of the UK's top-performing surgeries.

Rather than chasing downstream symptoms, Ben took a step back to "invest in the social determinants of team health". Ben explains the specific, low-cost practices he introduced to foster psychological safety, completely shift meeting culture, and build a workplace where staff genuinely thrive and feel appreciated.

Ben is a GP at Birley Health Centre in Sheffield and Medical Director for Physical Health and Neurodiversity at Rotherham Doncaster & South Humber Foundation Trust.

Books & Studies Recommended by Ben:

• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team & trust-building frameworks by Patrick Lencioni
• Good to Great and Built to Last by Jim Collins
• Works by Brené Brown, Nancy Kline, and Simon Sinek
• Google’s Aristotle Study on high-performing teams
• The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace by Gary Chapman & Paul White
• Liberating Structures facilitation tools

How do you address uncomfortable topics that hinder team progress?

Karin Tenelius from Tuff Leadership Training joins Helen to argue that traditional management often fails because leaders prioritise broadcasting over genuine listening, a skill she defines as a state of being rather than a mere activity.

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Visit helensandersonassociates.co.uk for information on the initiatives discussed in this episode.

How does the nervous system influence team dynamics and psychological safety in the workplace?

Helen chats to Dr. Jessica Cooper to explore practical ways to foster safety, resilience, and genuine connection within teams.

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Visit helensandersonassociates.co.uk for information on the initiatives discussed in this episode.

Organisational behaviour and innovation expert, Colin Fisher shares groundbreaking ideas on team dynamics, leadership, psychological safety, and how to foster effective collaboration.

Discover how informal leadership, clarity of goals, social sensitivity, and reflective practices can transform team performance and organisational culture.

Learn more about Colin and his work here https://colinmfisher.com

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Visit helensandersonassociates.co.uk for information on the initiatives discussed in this episode.

Dr Amanda Potter, CEO of B Talent chats to me about the psychometric tests that they've been developing and validating with 10 different scales based on how people are feeling about their work.

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Visit helensandersonassociates.co.uk for information on the initiatives discussed in this episode.

Dimensions have a long history of embedding some of the practices that we talk about in psychological safety. Rachael Dodgson, CEO of Dimensions joins me to talk about what it's like to scale some of the practices that we talk about as being important for psychological safety.

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Visit helensandersonassociates.co.uk for information on the initiatives discussed in this episode.

I highly recommend Nic's new book - Happiness is a Serious Business

In this podcast I explain the six main ways to ensure that your team agreements make a difference.

We have been doing action research with a range of leaders across health and social care to explore a different approach to one-to-ones. This has involved using Confirmation Practices around the person's roles, and around building psychological safety within the team. In this episode Lu Dash, Deputy CEO, describes her experience of being part of this research.

What do you do when new team members join an established team? Do you start Team Agreements from scratch again, or expect them to accept the Team Agreements as they are?

Michelle explains how she approached this in a service in Camden.

She also introduced the principles of Team Agreements with the people who live in the Extra Care Scheme.

Michelle Livesley is my friend and colleague, and you can find us both at helensandersonassociates.com.

To talk more about Team Agreements please connect with me on Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/helensandersonhsa/ and there is more information on what we do at helensandersonassociates.com.