The boardroom, the dance floor, and coming home

Nottingham. Birmingham. Bedford. London. More than seventy-two hours on the road, moving between workforce strategy, trustee conversations, doctoral research and the possibility of healthier lives. It was a whirlwind of a week: inspiring, high-impact, and, by the end of it, slightly exhausting. Looking back, though, what stays with me is not the mileage or the number of meetings. It is the people.

I spent two fantastic days at the Strategic Workforce Forum in Nottingham, representing the Healthcare People Management Association — HPMA — alongside my wonderful teammate Claire Scrafton. There was so much to take in from Ben Morrin, Lord Victor Adebowale, Steve McManus, Thomas Simons and Danny Mortimer. Connecting with Hazel Wyton and the NHS Employers team was another pleasure. These are opportunities to step outside our own organisations and listen to the wider conversation about the healthcare workforce: what we are facing, what we are learning, and what we might make possible together.

I was particularly moved by Martine Wright and her power of seven. I do not want to reduce someone else's story to a neat leadership lesson. What I can say is that her contribution stayed with me. In a week full of strategy and systems, it was a reminder to remain open to the human experience underneath the professional conversation.

And then there was the dance floor. Letting my hair down with fellow Chief People Officer colleagues was a major highlight, and I make no apology for including it alongside the more formal parts of the week. We can take the work seriously without taking ourselves seriously every minute. There is something valuable about meeting one another beyond our titles — laughing, dancing, and remembering that the people carrying difficult organisational responsibilities are also people who need connection and joy.

From Nottingham, it was on to Birmingham for the HPMA Trustee Board and our strategy sessions, chaired by Terry Roberts and generously hosted by Mills & Reeve and Jog Hundle. We welcomed our new vice chair, Frank McKenna, and new trustee Michael Roberts to their first in-person board. There is a particular energy to being around a table together: the chance to listen properly, explore different perspectives and think about what comes next for the association and the people profession it serves. I am looking forward to welcoming colleagues to the HPMA Conference and Awards on 12 and 13 November.

Then came the race to Bedford, to the Public Sector HR Strategy Forum at Wyboston Lakes, where I shared a small part of my doctoral research on navigating complexity and leadership. It was a wonderful opportunity to explore the work of Stacey and Mowles with senior public sector leaders. Bringing research into a room of practitioners matters to me. The ideas need to sit alongside the realities people are living, not hover somewhere above them.

For me, a useful starting point is to pay attention to relationships. In complex organisations, changing one thing can affect many others. Our histories shape what feels possible today, and people respond to an intervention rather than simply receiving it. A plan enters a living network of conversations, expectations and decisions. That does not mean we abandon planning or accountability. It means we stay curious about what is actually happening as we work, rather than assuming the document tells the whole story.

This is one of the threads connecting my research, my leadership work and my coaching practice. Navigating complexity is not a solo performance. It asks us to listen, to notice our assumptions, and to make room for perspectives that complicate our first interpretation. There is real work in remaining present when a conversation does not deliver an immediate answer. Sometimes the most useful thing we can do is resist closing it down too quickly.

Back in London, I rounded off the week at the Department of Health and Social Care, at an inspiring Evaluation Design Workshop for Million Hearts and Minds. It was a privilege to be daring to dream alongside colleagues including Professor Kevin Fenton and Dr Leona Weil. I am honoured to be the strategic lead for the employer strand of this programme, supporting Londoners to stay heart healthy. The workshop brought the week's conversations back to a very tangible purpose: the difference our collective work might make in people's lives.

Across all these rooms, I kept returning to the same thought. Healthcare and the wider public sector need us to work together. Not simply to agree with each other, and not to perform collaboration while keeping our own thinking untouched, but to share perspectives, listen, debate and allow the conversation to develop. The boardroom and the dance floor are different spaces, of course. But both reminded me that connection is not an optional extra to leadership. It is part of how we do the work.

The absolute best part of the week, though? Stepping through the front door at home in South East London to the warmest, loudest welcome from my kids. After all that movement, there was the simplest possible return to what matters most. I had loved the week. I was also very ready to come home — and to be off for half term.

I am grateful to everyone who hosted, listened, debated, shared their perspectives and danced with me. I am carrying the learning forward, but I do not need to turn the week into a celebration of being busy. The pace was real; so was the need to stop. What I want to keep is the sense of possibility that comes from thoughtful people working together, and the grounding that comes from knowing where I return when the work is done.