Organizational Culture improvement in Health and Care Services
About Noticing Normal
What we do
At Noticing Normal, we help organisations look at the everyday problems staff face at work, particularly the 'normal' ones that everyone gets used to. These everyday issues play a crucial role in quality improvement and sustainable performance. By learning from social science insights, we aim to highlight and address these subtle but powerful changes.
How we do it
We offer evaluations and seminars that delve into the key social factors influencing organisational culture. By engaging with staff at all levels and roles within the organisation, insights that are grounded in social science can help to promote quality improvement and enhance individual awareness, ultimately boosting overall organisational performance.
Why choose us
Why choose us
Numerous incident investigations in health and care services, along with regulators such as the CQC, have consistently emphasized the importance of fostering a positive organisational culture focused on quality improvement rather than assigning blame to individuals. We emphasize the behaviours and processes organizations need to help make this a reality.
about social science
What is it and why is it important?
Social science, particularly social psychology, examines how groups of people think and behave together, rather than in isolation. Often, when issues arise, they are analyzed from an individual perspective, despite the fact that we spend a significant amount of our time within shared environments alongside others. This relevance is particularly evident in contexts such as organisational culture, where group dynamics play a crucial role in shaping interactions and behaviors. The range of environments and interactions spans from those with family and friends to colleagues and acquaintances, extending even to strangers we encounter online or in public. Social science seeks to provide insights into these diverse interactions, focusing on their impact on group behaviors and exploring how these groups, in turn, influence the individuals within them, contributing to ongoing quality improvement efforts.
How does it apply to organisations?
Workplaces are complex social environments characterized by various types of relationships and interactions. For instance, the way someone interacts with a manager or in a meeting often differs from their engagement with a peer or during an informal conversation. Additionally, staff from one area of the organization may face unique problems and pressures compared to their colleagues in another area.
Understanding these behaviors through the lens of social science insights can provide essential perspectives on team performance as well as individual stress and wellbeing. This knowledge is crucial for fostering an organisational culture that promotes quality improvement, ultimately leading to a healthier and more productive workplace.
Is it relevant to health care?
Yes, health and care organisations are inherently 'social' environments, where a diverse range of professionals collaborate to provide a cohesive service. The CQC defines a closed organisational culture as one that "can lead to harm, including human rights breaches such as abuse," increasing the risk to patients of both intentional and unintentional harm.
In hospitals and care homes, no individual can perform their role in isolation; however, when issues arise, the focus tends to shift towards the individual rather than the underlying organisational culture. Despite recognising this bias for many years, quality improvement solutions—such as duty of candour, whistleblowing protections, and speaking up guardians—have primarily targeted the individual rather than addressing the broader social science insights that contribute to systemic challenges in effecting change.
Is it "quality improvement" (QI)?
Not directly, no. In health and care services, the term "improvement" typically refers to "applying a systematic approach to solving a complex issue, involving the people closest to the issue in discovering new solutions, testing these, and learning through the use of data" (National Clinical Director for NHS Improvement, NHSE). However, the experience of quality improvement (QI) in health and care settings has been mixed, often due to the difficulty of changing the ways in which people collaborate. Instead, social science insights offer organizations a unique perspective, allowing them to step back and examine the underlying factors that are essential for fostering an improvement-friendly organisational culture.