Who’s writing this?

What lenses am I looking through when I write on this website?

Here is a little about me, or rather about some of my  contributions over the years and some of inputs that influenced them.

They fall into two parts: before and after 2018 when I retired from paid work, with the latter period hugely influenced by the events of 2008.

1988-2018

Key contributions:

Designing and delivering a number of deeply challenging leadership programmes for health care practitioners, for example one of the first health MBAs in the UK, expanding it to include systems science and complexity thinking, and a lot on handling status differences between professions

Exploring a series of intractable, deep seated problems of healthcare delivery by drawing together experts and practitioners from a range of fields to deeply understand the issues, develop thoughtful, feasible solutions and share these with a wider audience

Authoring or co-authoring 4 books, two of which have been award winning

Challenging prevailing attitudes through ongoing Think Pieces and Blogs

Along the way I’ve been an Honorary Professor at two wonderful and very different universities, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Bucks New University, and vice chair of a large NHS Trust and of a Health Action Zone. I’m also delighted to be an honorary Fellow of the RCGP.

Testimonials: Does it help to have a few testimonials?

Key influences:

  • London Business School MBA
  • 10 years based in a dept of Systems Science at City University, London
  • Many years working in and with the NHS with professionals and managers of all kinds observing and influencing the behavioural dynamics and aware especially of the impact of status differences between professions and disciplines.

2018 onwards

Key contributions:

  • Leading a Rethinking Economics book group
  • Reading about and exploring avidly and widely many different aspects of the climate crisis, becoming frustrated at the insularity of the different literatures, and therefore:
  • Synthesising the key arguments into one multifaceted essay that identifies:

Six fundamental causes of the crisis

Five thinking traps all too easy to fall into

The three different (and opposing) mindsets from which people speak when proposing solutions without fully realising that is what they are doing

These enable me and readers to distinguish between proposals that (however sincere) will worsen our climate and those that have a chance of making a positive difference.

Key influences

  • The Committed Dharma Practitioner Programme (on secular Buddhism)
  • The Global Financial Crash
  • The Rethinking Economics movement
  • The climate crisis