Chanting at a Quality and Safety Symposium?
I attended the Health Quality and Safety Commission (HQSC) symposium - Ō Mātou Reo - Our Voices 2025 in Wellington last week. The day was focused around consumer and community engagement and co-design, with a number of workshops providing real life examples from across NZ of successfully co-designed services, particularly in rural and isolated communities.
The major take home was about the need to listen twice and talk once, be prepared to move at a pace set with the community, and be flexible - make plans in pencil not pen.
The keynote speaker was Sir Ashley Bloomfield who talked about the type of leadership (values based) that our sector needs to lift us from its current state. He talked about his experiences, in particular with managing New Zealand's COVID response, and the four key requirements for values based leadership
People need to understand the why
People don't remember what you said or did, it's how you made them feel
Trust is important
Values of kindness, courage, integrity and humility
The day ended with a very inspirational and active session about building resilience from Dave Letele, aka 'The Brown Butterbean', that included a two minute boxing workout.
Dave's life story is remarkable and his messaging around hard-work and the importance of community resonated. He left us chanting his mantra - If you can help you should help.
Overall - I came away with lots to think about and some practical tools for how to better engage our community in service development and our quality improvement work.
NOTE: Dave is a retired professional boxer and motivational speaker.
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