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About us

This website is the home for our ‘conversation for kindness’, which is a monthly meeting that was set up in the summer of 2020 by a group of colleagues and friends working in healthcare across Sweden, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and the USA.

The initial purpose of getting together was to have some time together to continue some initial conversations around kindness, and to explore its role at the ‘business end’ of healthcare.

As the conversation has developed, interest in this work has grown and we have had contributors from almost 35 different countries across the globe. And some key themes have emerged from our discussions.

See insights, presentations and videos from the meetings.

People involved

The conversations are guided, facilitated & convened by a core group of friends and colleagues from across the globe

  • Maureen Bisognano, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), USA
  • Gabrielle Mathews, Whittington NHS Foundation Trust, England
  • James Mountford, Galileo Global Education
  • Suzie Bailey, The King’s Fund, England
  • Göran Henriks, Region Jönköping, Sweden
  • Anette Nilsson, Region Jönköping, Sweden
  • Dominique Allwood, UCLP and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, England
  • Cath Crock, Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne and Hush Foundation, Australia
  • Nicki Macklin, University of Auckland, New Zealand
  • Bob Klaber, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, England

We now have more than 1,400 people involved, from more than 35 countries, and some of them have even sent in their photo to us:

Dr Bob Klaber – paediatrician in London, UK
Nicki Macklin – PhD Candidate, University of Auckland 
Gabrielle Mathews – a Children and Young People’s advocate from London
Maureen Bisognano – President Emerita and Senior Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)
Lucy Davies – Chief Operating Officer, East & North Hertfordshire NHS Trust.  Compassionate leader. 

Lucy runs our Twitter account: @Kindness_Health

Anna Hatchard, Laughter researcher, Founder, Laughter Lab
Anna Hatchard – Laughter researcher, Founder, Laughter Lab
Rupert Suckling – Director of Public Health for Doncaster Council
Anette Bygum – Danish dermatologist working in private practice. She also has a professorship affiliation to University of Southern Denmark, where she also works with compassion and narrative medicine.

We have had contributors from 35 countries so far

Denmark, Saudi Arabia, Norway, Singapore, England, Faroe Islands, Italy, USA, Scotland, Canada, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Sweden, Belgium, Netherlands, Iceland, Australia, Wales, Germany, Hong Kong, Spain, Slovenia, Malta, Brazil, Philippines, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, China, Kenya, South Africa, Mexico, UAE, Estonia, Latvia.

We also have strong links to colleagues who are leading the What Matters to You? movement.

Emerging themes

Nine themes have emerged from our discussions to date:

  • Kindness is a choice of action we can all take, role model and lead for.
  • Kind behaviours are as effective as any action in creating psychological safety at work.
  • There is a growing evidence base of the impact of kindness on patient outcomes and staff wellbeing.
  • Leading with kindness needs to be central in work to reduce staff burnout and creating inclusive workplaces.
  • Systematically challenging unkind behaviours (and exploring why) is a crucial role of leaders.
  • A key lever for change we can all get behind is to transform how we teach and train our current and future workforce.
  • Importance is placed on the things we measure – kindness (conditions, activities, outcomes) is definitely measurable.
  • Kindness is a cycle – being kind stimulates more kindness, which then grows the impact.
  • Kindness is a starting point for everything – critical in our work to improve quality, equity, safety, productivity. 

Our conversation for kindness

  • Monthly virtual call on the third Thursday of every month (6-7pm UK time)
  • A focus on listening, learning, thinking differently and mobilising for action
  • An open culture of sharing of resources, energy and ideas

If you would like to join the conversation for kindness, please fill in our contact form and one of us will be in touch.

If you are on Twitter you may want to follow @Kindness_Health and also @WMTY.world