Dear Mel,

Thank you for expressing an interest to explore how Champions could contribute to your current work programme at NUH.

First, my wife, Janet, is recovering well. She has started to ask for her kitchen back, which surely must be a good sign. We are incredibly grateful for the excellent care she received whilst she was at QMC from your colleagues, and for the integration with the Lincoln and Grantham hospitals for her rehabilitation.

What I propose for our call

My colleague Steve Kelly will take you through how Champions is being applied with the healthcare organisation in Chicago, which we have been supporting since June 2025.

This is very much smaller than NUH, but is still significant: $100m revenue, 40,000 members, 250 staff, six locations, founded 70 years ago.

This will help inform a short discussion — we only have 30 minutes in total — on how Champions could best support your current work programme.

The Champions programme

The initial Champions programme is a 90-day, capacity-building process.

You will see clear and tangible benefits within this timeframe. We use an independent evaluator to give observational feedback after this time.

In Chicago, amongst the people interviewed:

• 100% noted greater warmth and empathy
• 90% saw better collaboration
• 70% observed more positive patient interactions

Staff adopted new self-regulation skills, reduced emotional reactivity and better workplace culture.

These were the “micro-moments that define workplace culture”. See the Annex below for more details.

The programme is delivered via small cohorts of six to twelve people, and can be online or in person. Online is much more time efficient, but some sessions may benefit from being in person. We can remain flexible.

Building up these initial cohorts of ‘Champions’ is key. Steve can talk you through the wider journey, as we are now entering year two for the Chicago team.

This is a key part of the Champions programme, as these individuals then form the ‘3.5%’ who enable wider transformation.

This is drawn from social science research, known as the 3.5% rule. In other words, a small percentage of internal champions bring the benefit to the wider team. They are, if you like, the salt or the yeast that positively affects the whole.

Champions is all about capacity building: strengthening what is already there to support your existing programmes. It does this by activating and strengthening the humanity of your staff — the natural capability we all have to be human towards others and ourselves.

The tangible benefits are multiple and include:

• Improved team culture, trust & patient experience
• Better staff metrics, mental health and resilience, reduced burnout
• Reduced prejudice, bullying, racism

Where it could start

There are a few possible avenues, such as working with:

1. A specific area, department, location or group of staff.
2. Members of your own team, so that you have a direct understanding — to inform a wider rollout.
3. Cohorts of senior leadership, whether medical, non-medical or a combination.

You may have other thoughts.

Please note that a key part of the Champions programme is an initial diagnostic process, where we co-create the final programme. Decisions on the exact details are not required up front.

We establish a small Champions Sponsors Group, comprising yourself and one or two others. This acts as a sounding board, to receive confidential feedback from us and to set strategic direction for the programme.

Background for your information

To make the most of our time together, below is background information about Champions, about Steve and myself.

I have also undertaken a significant desktop review of UK healthcare. This is mostly for myself to better understand this sector. Details can be found via the links below.

About Champions

• About the Champions Movement
• Putting Care Back into Health (Chicago case study)
• Meet the team

Steve Kelly

Steve is my co-founder and a director of Champions, responsible for client experience. His career began in UK retail, where he became a senior regional leader responsible for around 600 staff across twenty stores. In 2019, he founded his own people development company, delivering leadership, team effectiveness, wellbeing and personal capacity programmes across the UK, the US and Europe. What gets Steve up in the morning is helping people to be the best versions of themselves. He leads our work in Chicago. He is from Manchester, lives in York, and coaches youth football.

Glen Ford

My own career began at 17 in UK roadbuilding, working up through operations, finance, strategy and acquisitions. In 2004, aged 36 and with four children, my wife and I sold our family home and I left that career to help build the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda — now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the resting place of 250,000 victims of the 1994 genocide. Its Peace & Values Education programme now reaches 2.5 million Rwandan children every year, part of the fabric of education in the country. In the 22 years since, with the Aegis Trust, the UK National Holocaust Centre and Museum, and White Rose Preloved Fashion, I raised over $50m for that work and for peacebuilding across Africa and beyond. Champions grew out of what I learned there. There is more in Glen’s story if it is of interest.

The UK healthcare review

This is a deep-dive that I have undertaken these past few weeks. You will already be familiar with most. I share simply for interest only.

• This is our NHS — the headlines — about eight minutes reading
• The executive summary
• The full report — ten volumes, eighteen annexes and the sources behind every figure

Thank you again for making the time to speak. Look forward to speaking on Tuesday 6th October.

Glen

PS — The reports within the links have been generated by AI, but very much with my prompts and direction. This note has been written by my own fair hands.