An experienced executive and non- executive director, with a background in finance, I qualifyed as an accountant in 1984. My career has spanned; banking, local government finance, product development and marketing in the software sector, management consultancy, the NHS and national and regional government. I retired from my last professional role - Finance Director for the NHS, Children & Social Care in Wales - in December 2011 to set up Dorian3d Ltd. Appointed to the board of Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust in 2017, I chair the Trust’s Finance & Investment Committee and I am the Senior Independent Director on the Board. In March 2020 I stood down from the board of Webmoco - a small digital development company based in Warwickshire - a role which I had held for 7 years. I was a Board Trustee of the Healthcare Financial Management (HFMA) for 6 years until standing down recently, in 2018.

We are defined by our behaviours and not by our words Strategies, plans and policies are important and necessary for any organisation to be able to run in a rhythmic and cordinated way. However, if internal behaviours are not aligned with them, they become “just pieces of paper”. Our staff quickly form judgements about their true priorities based on our behaviours (as leaders) and the behaviours of those around them. It is rarely on the basis of the corporate e-mails, plans and staff briefings. If I ask a member of my team to do “an urgent” piece of work but don’t ask about it for another fortnight, I have sub- concsiously defined what “urgent” means for my team.

Chris

THE EXPERIENCED

DIRECTOR

Chris

THE MUSICIAN

I have a lifetime passion for music, collaborate regularly with other musicians and play in several bands. I also provide the sound for, and help run, a number of local musical and community events. So why is this relevant? Music involves rhythm, harmony, tempo and dynamics and is usually created by a number of separate instruments being played together in a harmonious way (pre-planned or spontanious). These same characteristics apply to the teams and the functions that we create within organisations. Understanding these characteristics can help us to improve team and organisational effectiveness, performance and staff morale. For example, each business/ service area within an organsation has a distinctive natural “rhythm and tempo”. The word “urgent” in the Emergency Department of a hospital is likely to mean “now”. In another area of the organisation it may mean “within the next few days”. It is important that these characteristics are considered when taking decisions about matters such as structures, the selection of managers and the content and the frequency of performance reports.