‘…maybe it’s because I’m a Londoner…’: stories from people who made London their adopted home

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I’m proud to call England my home and London my birth city. It is one of (if not the) most cosmopolitan cities in the world that has welcomed and benefited from the arrival of so many different nationalities and cultures.

In 2010/11 Sara Shamsavari held an exhibition at City Hall. Entitled Britain Retold- a portrait of London it told in their own words the stories of a number of Londoners all of whom had Londoner blog 619620made London their adopted home.

This is what was written about the exhibition:

a collection of sharply empathetic portraits that explore and reinterpret the concept of British identity within London. With an aim to create a singular voice, Sara has photographed a range of culturally diverse individuals and incorporated the symbolism of the Union Jack flag into each image. She seeks to open a platform that will allow the multicultural communities of London to begin re-defining what it means to be British.

I was among the guests at the opening and remember being moved by the stories and the images Sara captured. Her motivation: to reflect the Britain she knew not that portrayed by the far right.

A couple of years on and with the impact of austerity measures across Europe starting to bite I’ve been reflecting on the tenacity of those who by force of circumstance find themselves having to work offshore to survive.

In the past month I’ve met or spoken to, Sudanese, Tanzanians, Vietnamese, Malaysians, Chinese, Saudis, Bajans, Turks and Eritreans in addition to many Europeans including Hungarians and Bulgarians.

Some were students doing MBA’s and MSc’s. Others were working in London. A fair few were in Africa. All are bound by the same desire: to find meaningful and paid employment and in some cases a home. I want to share three stories with you and in two cases I’ve changed the names to protect their identities:

Monika’s story

Monika is Hungarian, from a small village 200km south of Budapest, who is part of the team at one of London’s swankiest and new hotels.  Be-suited, blond and vivacious with a friendly smile and an easy manner she came to England a couple of years ago to find a job as there are few in accountancy back in her native country.

Monika feels a debt of honour to her parents who sold a home to fund her education. She loves London despite living in Seven Sisters some way from the centre and commented on how easy it is to get along with people here.

Ideally, she’d like to go back but in the meantime despite being overqualified for the job she is doing, like many she is grateful for the opportunity of working in London.

Samatha’s story

Sam hails from Barbados via Leeds Metropolitan University. Slight of build and pale of colour she did none the less stand out in Leeds where she spent her formative years having travelled to the UK to join her father. Having graduated she was warned don’t go to London, they are unfriendly.  Her experience is in marked contrast to the advice:

People are great here, I work with 30 nationalities and its like a big family. London is such a nice city.

Like Monika she is grateful for a job for which she is over qualified.  Also like Monika she is driven and wants to pay her way despite the cost of renting eating into much of her salary. And she can find curried goat (essential part of any Caribbean diet) without searching too far for it.

Sayid’s story

Sitting in the back of a 4×4 in Khartoum I am in conversation with Sayid (not his real name) who is one of 200,000 Eritrean refugees in Sudan. As a driver for a prominent research group Sayid has a good job (by the standards of many). His horizons though are limited: his girlfriend (who he’s not seen for 5 years) lives is Asmara; he can’t go back and she can’t leave.

Hard working he hankers after a life in Europe but recognises the challenge of trying to save the $3,000 it will cost to get him to the Sudanese/Libyan border, then on to the Libyan coast and then across the sea to Italy the obvious gateway for Eritreans seeking asylum.  Despite existing on a wage of less than $100 a month he lives in hope of one day making the hazardous and life threatening journey and of being reunited with his girlfriend in the EU.

Last Thursday evening at Brighton University I met a number of students who’ve come here to learn. Some had taken sabbatical’s from good positions. Others had exhausted savings and were eagerly seeking part time work to augment their meagre living standards.  A common theme again among those from Asia: the willingness of their families to support educational advancement even if it means working every waking moment to raise the cash to fund it.

Over dinner on Saturday night in Covent Garden with some of the speakers at the Meet The Blogger event my wife was a speaker at I was interested in the views of a lovely Frenchwoman who has been a resident here for 17 years.  She noted a change in perception among her erstwhile countrymen. No longer is London seen as a desert among the culinary oasis that is Europe; it is now the place to go for varied and good cuisine.

So what are my ‘takeaways’ from this ramble:

  • Londoner’s are lucky to live in a cosmopolitan city enriched by diverse cultures;
  • Briton’s are lucky to hold a passport that allows almost total unrestricted travel and (Heathrow’s immigration queues apart) to return without question;
  • education is seen by the citizens of many nations as their passport to a good career;
  • while London is seen as a desirable place to live and work demand for accommodation will continue to outstrip supply; and finally
  • those with less seem more inclined to share surplus food than those with plenty.

Importance of KM in Health: the story of Doctor Anwar and making use of what he and others know in Sudan

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Meet Anwar, a Sudanese doctor. Just one of 5 fictional characters created by delegates at the Knowledge Management for Health in Sudan event I spoke at, helped plan and run.

Sudanese Doctor

Anwar

This exercise, Scenarios for the future, was set in 2020 and invited the 80 or so delegates drawn from across the whole of the health industry in Sudan to consider what a day in the life of each character might look like.  This was a new and warmly embraced concept in an environment where my information is my soul and much of the debate about the future takes place against a backdrop of uncertainty and increasing austerity where:

  • 2/3rds of all drugs are purchased ‘out of pocket’ not from health system
  • drugs are proportionately more expensive than in other domains
  • funds from external sources are available to assist with health informatics.

Having settled on a description of each character the delegates who were by this time in groups of 8-10 then set about imagining what their day might look like on January 1st 2020. A vivid imagination is required and was evident in the quality of the stories that were told by each group’s nominated storyteller.

The story of the Health Worker

Ismail’s story – Health Worker

I will in due course and with the organising committee’s permission publish the two ‘winning’ stories; yes we did do voting while the storytellers left the room.

One of Sudan’s leading pharmacists noted in a one:one conversation how important listening was and how difficult a technique this is for many to use when prescribing drugs.

By inviting each of the storytellers to play back the story to each of the other groups it was good to hear them say in the summing up that by the end they really felt they were the character.

 

The previous day I’d invited the delegates to change the way they looked and think about issues and barriers.  Using when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change exercise conducted in the best breakout rooms I’ve ever worked with, the delegates who are naturally loquacious soon grasped the concept of seeing the room through the lens of different professions.

Breakout room

Breakout room

This change of mindset was important: it allowed the subsequent round table (well round conference room) session that discussed:

‘What are the biggest issues we face in sharing knowledge and information about the health of our nation and how can we overcome them’

I’d invited each delegate to introduce themselves to three people they didn’t know. This worked well and encouraged a very frank discussion. The main issues highlighted were:

  • no systematic collection of information and limited understanding of its value
  • transparency of process (where do the figures go) and credibility of the data
  • lack of human resources to do the collection
  • limited statistical information to undertake scientific research on
  • ownership of data and the whole process – fragmentation
  • accountability to deliver
  • communication/awareness of what each organisation is doing – lots of ‘stuff’ is happening but there is a real risk of duplication of effort e.g. many of the disease control programmes are creating their own informatized information systems

Delegates recognised the tremendous strides being made by the Public Health Institute (one of the event’s sponsors and host of the official dinner) in developing professional public health administration programmes, the creation of a Data Dictionary and the publication of the first Annual Health Performance Review though many bemoaned the lack of official  support for research projects where Sudan has a prominent global position, Mycetoma Research Centre an example.

I came away from reflecting on a discussion I had around the event:

Its all about ‘informization’ – the ability to report from a health centre level with ‘point of sale’ data collected via PDA’s / mobiles as well as computers; about logistics management as a result to ensure supplies get to where they can do the most use.

This can be monitored by the minister, routine reports can be prepared showing which centre reported, which district has complete reporting, which state has complete and timely reporting and % of stock outs of basic drugs or vaccines etc.

And inspired by many of the presentations I’d seen on the morning of the second day from University of Khartoum’s research centre and of course the Public Health Institute who are reaching out to try and create greater awareness through public forum, newsletter and other events.

Perhaps the presentation that struck the biggest chord was from EpiLab
who have achieved impressive results in helping to reduce the incidence of TB and Asthma and whose research and community communication techniques are highly innovative. I loved the cartoons they developed on how to self treat and prevent the incidence of illnesses which were drawn up BY the local communities.  Their pictures and their words are published as guides for the nation and I know they will make them available so I can share them in future blogs.

It was an honour, a challenge but nevertheless great fun enhanced by the warmth of the welcome and a genuine sense of appreciation. Sudan’s people are among the most engaging and intelligent I’ve met. One anecdote from a conversation with a young professional in the communications business illustrates their dilemma:

‘…of the 95 people who graduated in my year a few years back 90 are now working overseas, the majority in highly paid good positions…’

In my address I acknowledged the support I’d had from many people in preparing for the event. They were: Ahmed Mohammed, Dr Alim Khan, Dr Anshu Banerjee, Ana Neves, Andrew Curry, Archana Shah, Chris Collison, David Gurteen, Dr Gada Kadoda, Dr Ehsanullah Tarin, Dr Madelyn Blair, Sofia Layton, Steven Uggowitzer, Victoria Ward

the danger of endorsements and managing an online presence

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I was with the CEO of a respected and successful consultancy, recruitment and interim management group yesterday. One of the topics that came up was how to describe what you do in a succinct way – what most marketing consultants call the elevator pitch.

Surprisingly, since his firm has been around for two decades and done pretty well, he said how difficult he found it given that they have a wide range of services that straddle a couple of vertical sectors. His solution:

‘I don’t attempt to anymore as most people’s first reaction having met you is to go and check you and your company out on Google and LinkedIn’.

It made me reflect on how much we are now influenced by what we read online and what others say about us. I shared with him a recent experience I had with a business who’d been on the receiving end of an unpleasant review on Trip Advisor.  Rather than responding she’d maintained a terrified silence and had got to the point where she dreaded the sound her phone made when she’d got a new review. We talked through the need to be more proactive to field the punches and be willing and able to mobilise your ‘Brand Advocates’ who will rise to your defence (if you’ve created a positive enough image and been open when you screw up).

With that in mind I agreed to do an interview this week with a newly launched website findtheedge that is targeted at business leaders and aims to draw on the personal experiences of a panel of experts in their respective fields. The outputs can be found here: How to Create Innovative Knowledge Management Solutions Using Stories.

What I liked was the way they catalogued the interview making it easier for the reader to get to grips with the subject and the highlights. Most people are up tight when they give interviews; we are our own harshest critics and from painful experiences I can recall instances when the mouth has overtaken the brain.  This time I was pleased to see the editors highlighted the following as it encapsulates knowledge management for me:

“In a nutshell, it’s the ability to pull together the critical knowledge assets that you as a business have, and how you make sure that they are shared in the best possible way”

And finally back to yesterday’s meeting and testimonials. While we saw the value of the written testimonial as it shows on LinkedIn we were highly sceptical of the veracity of the click skill endorsement approach. His example:

though I run a business that has an information management consultancy how can I be considered an expert especially since the people endorsing me have never seen me in action.

I’d be surprised if it stays on the LinkedIn profile for too much longer.

why should Sudan’s health industry embrace Knowledge Management?

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A few month’s back during a Skype call with Dr Gada Kadoda a Professor at University of Khartoum she told me: ‘at last year’s KMCA Sudan many of the health industry delegates who attended expressed an interest in understanding what knowledge management might do for them. How might we do that?’.

Gada is one of those special people who when they pose a question you feel compelled to answer it. Which is why in a week’s time I am going to be back in Khartoum to participate in a two day Workshop on Knowledge Management for Health Care in Sudan.

Knowledge management in health is not new. The NHS Modernisation Agency was one of the early adopters and used a lot of Chris Collison’s thinking from Learning to Fly to build a pretty effective knowledge management operation with one of the first Chief Knowledge Officers in charge of it. Sudan’s health industry does not (yet) practice km in any formal manner so as part of the research for my presentation and the sessions I am facilitating I asked some of the actors in the NHS km story to reflect on more than a decade.  Here’s what they said (names omitted):

I have said on several occasions that when you multiply the number of employees by the years of professional learning,  the NHS is the world’s most knowledgeable organisation.  Or it should be.  With better networking, more curiosity, joined-up systems, a culture of improvement and leaders who value national above parochial, it would live up to its potential.

What I have seen is wonderful pockets of excellence – hospitals with a determination to improve, a passion for learning, and a curiosity which can even transfer lessons learned from Formula One pit teams to the operating theatres of children’s hospitals.  Pockets of excellence indeed, but in threadbare trousers.

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The idea of KM in that particular agency of the Department of Health was to ensure that the knowledge produced by one team (silo) would reach other teams (silos), that the whole organisation had a sense of who knew what, and that we could reuse knowledge across the Service.

We had a team of people and a CKO…a CoP with members from all different teams in the organisation; knowledge audit and SNA that involved quite a few people across the org and which changed the way they perceived the work of the KM team. Yet …our work became too focused on documents and content creation disguised as gathering of lessons learned.

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In my regular interactions with physicians in the NHS, a key frustration has always been the flow of information between doctors and commissioners. Differing agendas, treating patients vs cost-effectiveness, cause breakdown in communication. The problem usually arises from the discrepancies between the notion of an ideal patient and the realities of people walking into the clinic. Pharma is not particularly helpful in addressing this through the research conducted, however the shift in emphasis to real world data by health technology bodies such as NICE is creating a cultural shift in the sector.

A great story of information exchange relates to a melanoma patient who was being treated in London. The patient was a successful business man so he continued with his work. He was treated with a very new drug and experienced severe side effects while on a business trip in Switzerland ending up at a hospital there. Mismanagement of this drug’s side-effects can result in death. The Swiss physicians had never used the drug before, and most were not even aware of its existence as it is a specialist therapy. However, there was extensive global information exchange driven by the company, which meant that as soon as they saw the patient card which all patients on the drug were advised to keep on their person, the Swiss physicians were able to access a database of information and a 24 hour network of world experts in the condition. Luckily for the patient the KM network worked thereby saving his life.

The shift towards greater use of data and increased use of technology (from other industries) is where I hope much of the Khartoum health discussion goes. One of the leaders in Health Information Systems shared this quote:

‘In the next ten years, medicine will be more affected by data science than biology.’

Mobile & Internet penetration in Africa

Mobile & Internet penetration in Africa

Today’s Economist article on the use of mobile technology in Africa is a timely reminder of the strides being made on that continent and how widespread adoption will present huge opportunities as well as challenges for the health industry there.

I am also  going to share this clip from Grey’s Anatomy (US TV drama) about the use of Twitter in an operating theatre. Though fictitious it gives as good an illustration as any I’ve seen about the potential benefits of using mobile technology to share knowledge and mobilise a global community in the same was as the story of the melanoma patient above does.

As the F1 season is nearly upon us I was really struck by this clip from the BBC which shows how the Maclaren F1 Team’s driver and car monitoring system is being adapted/used in a children’s hospital in Birmingham.

And yet for the Sudan health system to adopt some of these technologies (against a backdrop of isolation) there has to be a huge mindshift. I recall with chilling clarity a phrase uttered by a health professional at KMCA Khartoum last year in response to a question I posed as to the barriers to the sharing of knowledge: ‘my information is my soul’.

In an environment where:

  • sharing of information (let alone knowledge) can have serious consequences
  • admitting a lack of current knowledge can cause a loss of face and prestige
  • continuing medical education is not a core requirement for the right to practice
  • the major drug companies have no presence and sell via distribution channels
  • the physician is beyond reproach

we have our work cut out if we are to get positive outcomes from the event.  Its an exciting prospect.

 

‘…if we want to give our customers choice we will produce surplus food.’

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Recent tabloid headlines about how much food is thrown away provided a timely backdrop to a meeting held last Wednesday at City Hall by Plan Zheroes. In attendance were charities, soup kitchen, faith groups, donors (including Paul UK, Pret a Manger, ‘Corporate Catering’) and logistics organisations (including FareShare and Best Before) all keen to make use of surplus food to ensure as much as possible goes to those who could use it and not to landfill or as a component in the production of energy.

We were there to discuss the technological requirements for a new application that will radically improve communications between surplus food donors and recipients which is in development by an expert team from Ricardo-AEA, supported by WRAP. I was there on behalf of those organisations who’ve committed to being part of the Plan Zheroes movement in Sussex.

It was such a cosmoplolitan gathering with significant Gallic representation I thought I’d share a factional story from South West France to illustrate how technology can enhance the logistics chain for even the smallest of donations.

un petite Restos du Cœur?

In a small rural community near Toulouse its nearly closing time at the local supermarche. Mme St Arroman gets the sms message she’s been waiting for from the manager: today’s surplus food is 7 pains, 3 poulet rotis, a selection of legumes, some packed boeuf and 5 jambon fromage pizzas.

Enough she thinks to meet the requirements of the local sanctuary for the homeless who have grown in number since the austerity measures have started to bite. At least they’ll get a good meal tonight!

She makes her by now regular call to Yvette one of the dozen or so volunteers who collect the food and deliver it to the sanctuary and the other self help groups and charities supplied by those local food stores and restaurants who’ve agreed to donate surplus food.

While Yvette is enroute Mme St Arroman has been receiving messages requesting deliveries. She never imagined when she and a group of local women started this initiative a few years back that it would have taken off in this way and now she has the difficult decision of apportioning the food that has been gifted.

Early on they signed up many charities and faith groups keen to have supplies to augment other food donations. It worked well to start and the charities collected the food directly; then as they failed to show up the surpermarche and the bistro cafe (who’d also been a supplier) had staff waiting after hours facing a disposal problem.  Mme St Arroman and her team solved this by engaging with the local community and finding a number of volunteers willing to do the transportation. The locale municipality did its bit too gifting storage equipment such as a refrigerated van so the food was not degraded in transit.

They learned a great deal about human nature: one of the core prinicples of the using surplus food programme; that all gifted food must not be used for profitable activities was being flouted on a regular basis.  The offenders were removed from the programme. Another principle, that wherever possible all donations would be applied to charities and groups that aspired to get people back on their feet and not become dependent is being carefully monitored and progress being made.

On a wider scale in France the national Restos du Cœur movement comprises more than 40,000 of all backgrounds with one point in common: generosity devoid of political or religious points of view. Their actions are based on the Volunteers’ Charter, whose 6 guiding points guarantee the good working order of the organisation.

The Restaurants du Cœur (literally Restaurants of the Heart but meaning Restaurants of Love), commonly and familiarly known as the Restos du Cœur, is a French charity, the main activity of which is to distribute food packages and hot meals to the needy. It was founded by the comedian Coluche in 1985.

‘fog in the Channel, Europe cut off’

Back in blighty with the chattering classes debating the sanity of Prime Minister Cameron’s EU referendum speech it became clear to the assembled gathering that the ability to provide real time alerts (similar to the French ‘story’) is a critical requirement for the new application. The core functionality included:

  • measurement of the social and environmental impact
  • a mechanism for rating
  • a way of active virtual engagement and
  • alerts

Back in the summer the then Environment Minister Caroline Spelman convened a summit in London of interested parties in the food retailing and distribution chains aimed at creating among other things a food-share database. The event was duly recorded in The Daily Mail with the charities are supporting the introduction of a so-called Good Samaritan law which exists in the US, to ensure firms that donate food in good faith are exempt from legal action arising from any adverse consequences.

I note it here since some of the comments on the article were very revealing and with due acknowledgment to the Daily Mail I’ll quote an extract from one written by an ex employee of four of the supermarkets:

Contrary to popular opinion, supermarkets do NOT throw away decent food unless they have a bad store manager- why would a business want to damage their profit margins?- it’s rotten food being left ON SALE that’s the biggest problem!!

plus ca change plus c’est la meme chose

While last July’s developments seemed promising at the time its difficult to discern real action and for some reason I cannot shake off an image of the ‘clunking fist’ that is governmental bureaucracy preventing action. Yet back across the channel I discover French Law actually prohibits the donation of food to its employees on taxable benefit grounds which you would have thought plays into the hands of surplus food donations to charity.

and finally

Wednesday’s meeting revealed a host of people passionate about making a difference: Church groups who need another tea urn but who have an ingenious and simple measurement device to see how many people they are serving (count the cups!); mobile soup kitchens whose volunteers don’t have cars and who would love to do more if only they knew where demand is not being met; and food donors who hate any waste and will provide food that meets dietary and religious sensitivities.

What struck me is the level of commitment and ingenuity. The Plan Zheroes and Ricardo-AEA team who are going to be creating the application have a tough challenge ahead to match the aspirations of those who assembled at City Hall.

And in case you are wondering ‘…if we want to give our customers choice we will produce surplus food’ is a direct but unattributable quote from one of the delegates in response to a question as to why surplus food production occurs in the first place. The ‘fog in the Channel: Europe cut off’, is a play on the headline ‘fog in the Channel: continent cut off’ that appeared in the Dally Mirror in 1930.

Scoping recipient requirements

Scoping recipient requirements