Problem Leadership fellowships give healthcare professionals many organisational skills. However, on return to usual practice, some find it difficult to hone these skills, lack development opportunities and no longer have regular support of their community of colleagues. Lack of clinical leadership has been cited as a cause for failings in patient care in multiple public inquires and reports. It is important that those who complete leadership fellowships can use their skills and have the opportunity to develop. At the Royal Society of Medicine we aimed to develop an approach to further clinical leadership training through co-design with multi-professional leadership fellows.

Intervention Using focus group discussion we designed a series of three interactive events: “Conversations in Leadership”:

1. Learning from Excellence: Lessons from inception, implementation and growth of a new healthcare initiative.

2. Learning from Leadership Fellows: A springboard for service improvement.

3. Learning from Leaders: How does culture shape performance?

Each session included one hour of networking followed by 90 min of discussion with experienced leaders.

Strategy for Change We created a sense of urgency through initial discussions with leadership fellows. A coalition of stakeholders analysed the problem and created our vision to improve leadership training beyond leadership fellowships. We shared this vision with other leadership fellows to involve them in design and delivery of the training. After each event we collated feedback and encouraged delegates to engage in co-design.

Measurement of Improvement 72 delegates attended in total. 44 completed written feedback. All felt this training would have an impact on their practice. 20/40 (50%) said it would have a great deal of impact on their practice.

Delegates felt inspired to lead local initiatives themselves. The training re-framed their thinking about positivity in the workplace. Many shared their learning with their trusts to try to develop positive event reporting and appreciative inquiry. Delegates found the sessions morale-lifting, insightful and encouraging. The events promoted delegates to take action for their personal development by looking for opportunities in a broader range of career paths, access different resources on leadership and management and use new techniques for building resilience.

Challenges • Delegates finding time to attend due to clinical commitments.

• Gathering feedback was difficult despite personalised reminders.

• Contradictory feedback. Further discussions allowed us to identify the majority viewpoint and engage delegates in ongoing co-design.

Lessons Learnt “Conversations in Leadership” are a popular and effective way to continue leadership development. Regular sessions allowed delegates to network, meet inspiring people and learn from each other as well as established leaders.