Our Mission and Vision
COGUK is a reflection of how we are all COGs in a bigger system. When feedback is voiced and heard using a 360 degree approach to communication, change and growth are enabled. It is our mission to help build these skills across healthcare communities, allowing groups and individuals to better advance, manifest change and make a difference.
Background, race, gender, disability, sexual orientation can cause many people feel their identity causes them to face barriers to advancement.
These barriers include not only overt discrimination, but also the assumptions of unconscious bias, or feeling a lesser connection to those who look or identify differently to ourselves. At COGUK we are committed to playing our part in making a difference to healthy minded 360 communication !
These issues are sensitive and complex, and a fine line has to be walked.
Leaders must be a positive advocate for diversity and inclusion, and create an environment where everyone feels valued and included regardless of who they are. At the same time, leaders must resist the temptation to over-simplify the issues at hand, seeing problems where they do not in fact exist, or always giving in to the loudest or most threatening voice.
We need strong leadership from people who identify as a minority group or when English is not some ones first language and have the confidence and skills to assume leadership roles, but equally important is self-assurance in communication at all levels. This enables a sensitive but candid discussion of the issues where everyone is able to speak their truth without fear of judgement, and which allows us to move forward confidently together.
The NHS has already done much to take the lead on inclusivity, and has introduced the Stepping Up Programme to address a lack of BAME representation in NHS leadership roles. The NHS has also recognised the importance of diversity with the Speak Up Guardian programme, where non-white staff are 6 times more likely to want to take up an issue with a guardian of their own ethnicity than people from a white background. Creating an environment where everyone feels safe, included and valued is not a nice-to-have; it is a necessity for the healthy functioning of any team. Leadership Speaker Skills are more important, now more than ever.
At COGUK we are committed to helping !
Please use the space below to tell us about your own experiences so that we can inform and develop our Leadership Speaker skills training programme. You do not have to give your name.
You might also like to do our AHP Speaker Skills Survey or Community Representatives Speaker Skills Survey. Please also see our Equality and Diversity Policy.
Would a Training Needs Review be useful to your organisation, as a helpful first step to see what’s needed to help everyone make more of a difference?
We have various options available to make the process affordable, flexible, and most importantly effective.
