Traditional leadership development programmes often focus on individual organisations, professional groups or senior leaders. Yet the realities of modern health and care require people to work across boundaries, influence without authority and collaborate with a wide range of stakeholders, including local communities.  

The programme sought to address several key challenges: 

• Limited opportunities for leaders from different sectors and communities to learn together. 

• Organisational silos that restricted collaboration. 

• Unequal power dynamics between professionals and local residents. 

• A lack of shared understanding across the wider health and care system. 

• The need to build stronger relationships during a period of significant disruption and uncertainty.  

Importantly, the programme was delivered during the Covid-19 pandemic and had to be redesigned as a fully virtual offer. Rather than seeing this as a limitation, the programme sought to use the situation as an opportunity to explore how leaders could collaborate differently and create a new normal together.  

Collaborate Out Loud designed a system leadership programme grounded in the organisation’s 11 Principles of Collaborating Out Loud, which emphasise difference, democracy, community, power sharing, co-creation and collective learning.  

The programme brought together 17 participants from across the Pendle East system, including: 

• Primary care. 

• Community services. 

• Local government. 

• Social care. 

• Care homes. 

• Commissioners. 

• Voluntary and community organisations. 

• Local residents and carers.  

Participants co-designed the programme and shaped the areas they wanted to explore. The resulting programme consisted of five interconnected learning spaces: 

Space 1: Connecting to Our Inner Leader 

Participants explored: 

• Their personal leadership journeys. 

• Leadership styles and behaviours. 

• Authenticity and self-awareness. 

• How the system experiences them as leaders.  

Space 2: Navigating the Pendle East System 

Participants examined: 

• How the local system operates. 

• Existing strengths and challenges. 

• Opportunities for innovation. 

• New ways of collaborating across boundaries.  

Space 3: Connecting and Collaborating With Others 

This focused on: 

• Influence and collaboration. 

• Working across formal and informal structures. 

• Trust building. 

• Courageous leadership and vulnerability.  

Space 4: Connecting to Place 

Participants explored: 

• Community engagement. 

• Coproduction. 

• Power and privilege. 

• Working differently with local communities.  

Space 5: Learning, Spread and Adoption 

The final space focused on: 

• Reflection and collective learning. 

• Storytelling and knowledge mobilisation. 

• Spreading learning across the wider system. 

• Developing sustainable approaches to change.  

Alongside the workshops, participants took part in collaborative learning circles, individual reflection activities and practical experiments within their own organisations and communities. A bespoke Collaborate Out Loud Canvas was also introduced to help participants apply the principles of collaboration to real-world challenges.  

The programme generated significant impact for individuals, organisations and the wider system. 

Stronger Personal Leadership 

Participants reported increased self-awareness, resilience and confidence. Many described having “light bulb moments” that changed how they viewed themselves as leaders and their ability to influence others.  

One participant reflected: “The programme has helped me with this. I am not someone who reaches out, and I have done that and said I am finding it challenging to get my voice heard. I have never reached out before.”  

Greater Understanding of the System 

Participants developed a much richer understanding of the wider health and care system and how different services, organisations and communities connect together.  

For some, this was the first time they had experienced genuine collaboration with colleagues and communities beyond their own sector or service.  

Improved Collaboration 

The programme helped break down barriers between organisations and professional groups. 

Participants reported: 

• New relationships being formed. 

• Improved communication. 

• Greater empathy for different roles. 

• Increased confidence in collaborative working.  

In several instances, new connections directly improved day-to-day practice. Care home leaders, GP practices, nurses and other professionals developed stronger working relationships and more direct communication pathways.  

Knowledge Mobilisation 

Participants actively transferred learning back into their own teams and organisations. Tools, approaches and resources developed during the programme were reused in supervision, team development and service improvement activities.  

Humanising the System 

Perhaps the most significant outcome was the programme’s ability to “humanise” the wider system. 

Participants frequently commented that they now knew who to contact, felt more comfortable reaching out across organisational boundaries and had a much deeper understanding of the people behind services and institutions.  

Relationships formed through the programme enabled participants to pick up the phone, seek advice and collaborate in ways that had not previously existed.  

The programme generated a number of important lessons about system leadership and place-based change. 

Relationships Come Before Change 

The strongest outcomes emerged from the time participants spent building trust, understanding one another’s roles and developing authentic relationships. Collaboration was not created by structures alone but through sustained human connection.  

Difference Is an Asset 

Bringing together people from diverse backgrounds, organisations and levels of influence created richer conversations and better problem solving. The programme demonstrated the value of intentionally connecting people who would not normally learn together.  

Communities Must Be Part of Leadership 

The involvement of residents, carers and community voices strengthened the programme and challenged traditional assumptions about who gets to lead and shape change. The programme demonstrated that leadership exists both inside and outside formal systems.  

Power Sharing Requires Deliberate Design 

Creating democratic spaces where all voices carried equal value was one of the most powerful aspects of the programme. Participants consistently reported that hierarchy and professional status became less important as trust developed.  

System Leadership Can Be Developed 

The programme demonstrated that system leadership is not a role but a mindset and a practice. Through reflection, relationship building and collaborative experimentation, people developed greater confidence in their ability to influence change beyond their immediate areas of responsibility.  

Legacy 

The programme successfully developed and tested a new model of place-based system leadership, bringing together professionals, practitioners, providers and community members in a shared learning environment. It produced practical tools, resources and approaches that could be adopted and adapted elsewhere.  

Most importantly, it demonstrated that when people are given permission to work across boundaries, share power and learn together, new relationships emerge, new ideas take hold and systems become better able to respond to the needs of the communities they serve.