A few themes from my first seven health charity strategies

I’ve just started working on my seventh strategy project at a health charity. It’s enough to know that each is unique and that I’ve still got plenty to learn.

But while each charity will face its own challenges as it develops a new organisational or research strategy, there are definitely some common themes. Here are three thoughts for starters:

Listen to your community – people always surprise

Health charities are often in close touch with patient re

presentatives, and they may assume they know what their community wants. It might be tempting to consult rather than involve.

But I’m struck by how often engagement with patients can surprise… subverting expectations and revealing interesting nuances. There really is no short cut to this sort of stuff… you just have to give people plenty of opportunity to tell you what they need.

It’s hard to make choices… but it’s vital that you do

Charities are rightly proud of what they do and the impact they have. It’s hard to decide to fund one area of work at the expense of another. It gets more difficult still when you’re making decisions about research, as scientists often argue the best strategic choice is not to choose… just support the best projects.

But it’s by taking tough strategic decisions that you can ensure your focus always remains on the needs of your beneficiaries, and no one else. And really, a strategy without hard choices is not a strategy at all… it’s just a description of what you do.

Research and healthcare should move in lockstep

Health charities often fund research and seek to influence healthcare. In theory, research should provide the ideas and the evidence to transform healthcare – but it doesn’t always work like that. Research and healthcare are very different types of activity with their own cultures and languages, and with very different time pressures.

The holy grail is a unified model of research-driven healthcare, but that requires a concerted effort to bring the two worlds together. It’s not just about running clinical trials… it’s about encouraging the NHS to embrace innovation, prepare for upcoming advances in treatment, and create a positive environment for testing care models and sharing findings. As a first step, it’s vital that a charity’s research and healthcare teams are in lockstep.