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Chapter 1
We are taking every opportunity available to influence thinking around restorative practice in the organisation. When responding to situations, we bring a restorative practice perspective to relational aspects, and we try to find a place for restorative practice to exist during points of difficulty. It's a mindset shift, not just a tool; it's continuous learning, reflection and self-awareness.
Sally Comber, organisational development lead, UHMBT
We have interactions with many, many people as part of our work. Building relationships is based on mutual respect for our knowledge, skills, information, experience and contribution, along with having a voice that is heard.
Janette Thorpe, organisational development practitioner, UHMBT
Restorative practice presents a framework for building and maintaining positive relationships. It consists of a set of theories, principles, skills and processes that shape our thinking around what we say and do in all interactions.
Restorative practice influences how we feel as we arrive at our workplace: our conversations and our work styles, how we share successes and problem-solve together, how we run and take part in meetings, how we assign or are assigned daily roles and responsibilities, how we manage or take part in supervisions, how we hold each other to account, how we plan and deliver patient care, how we respond to confrontation and how we innovate together.
Interestingly, restorative practice also helps us to know ourselves better. All of the habits (theories, principles, skills, processes) covered in this book can be applied equally to your own self-talk and can be taken home with you.
How often do you and your team have the confidence to own failures and name mistakes, to see these as an opportunity for learning, take responsibility, hold each other to account, challenge decisions in ways that maintain team cohesion, address and resolve confrontation and conflict effectively? How often do you feel confident about having a conversation that is difficult? How often do you face a tired or angry patient or colleague and feel that you react in the best way?
If your response is 'today and every day', then you are probably already thinking and doing some of the things we explore in this book! I anticipate that most readers will think 'sometimes' or even 'never'; if so, this book is most definitely for you!
Restorative practice combines theories that promote a deeper understanding of how human beings are wired (habits 1-3) and how this wiring becomes visible through our language and behaviours, adopting models and processes that give us options for communicating with others in ways that are mindful of these theories (habits 4-6).
I am asking you to think of the six restorative practice habits as habits to begin and continue to use every day and every week, whatever your role in healthcare.
A word about words. The Restorative Thinking team use the term 'restorative practice' to encompass the principles and skills that guide us towards thinking, behaving and communicating restoratively and relationally. Others use the term 'practices', 'approaches' or 'justice', sometimes interchangeably.
There is no right and wrong, although I would advise against bringing the term 'restorative justice' into healthcare settings. Restorative justice is used in criminal justice settings, where it refers to a formal, facilitated meeting between an offender and victim, with the aim of finding closure for the victim and enabling the offender to speak openly about their motives and actions, and potentially to suggest a form of reparation. According to the Restorative Justice Council, 'Restorative justice can be used for any type of crime and at any stage of the criminal justice system, including alongside a prison sentence.'1
The other terms that follow restorative - 'practice', 'practices' and 'approaches' - have the same meaning: a framework for building and maintaining positive relationships. However, consistently using one phrase reduces the potential for confusion. I hope that healthcare colleagues choose to adopt the term restorative practice, as this will foster consistency across NHS trusts and other healthcare settings.
The Restorative Thinking team are sometimes challenged about the word 'restorative' too; colleagues and professionals tell us that restorative practice implies that something has gone wrong and needs to be fixed or restored. However, we define restorative practice as a proactive discipline, a means of building relationships and team cohesion, of overcoming cultural and communication barriers via the nature of our relationships.
In fact, Janette Thorpe, an organisational development practitioner at UHMBT, echoed this view back to us during a coaching session part way through our restorative practice pathway:
People initially think about the word 'restorative' as meaning repairing harm or something that's gone wrong, when in fact we are all restoring very small elements of our relationships every day. You could even say that greeting someone with a 'good morning' is restorative, as it's reminding us of the importance of our relationship.
This reflects my own understanding and use of the word restorative. It does mean addressing harm to help resolve conflict and repair relationships, and it also incorporates all of the proactive relationship-building that takes place in our workplace every day - our restorative practice habits.
To help facilitate a way into restorative practice, I like the analogy of learning to drive a car. This parallel helps to explain how and why we should expect failures on the way to successfully developing restorative practice habits in our setting or system, and embrace the expectation for individuals to fail as they develop as restorative practitioners.
In the UK, we have the Highway Code, which defines the rules and regulations of the road and promotes safety. As well as the practical test, we complete a theory exam before our practical driving test. The Highway Code can be likened to the restorative principles, which define what restorative practice is and how to use it. Once we know about the restorative principles, we can put them to good use, but we need to develop skills (or habits) in using these principles effectively, which is like the practical part of learning to drive a car.
When we sit in the driver's seat of a car for the first time and begin to drive, we expect to select the wrong gear from time to time or occasionally stall the engine. Reversing around corners without hitting the curb and mastering hill starts can also take time to get right - rolling backwards when trying to find the biting point is a rite of passage! Eventually, it all becomes second nature, and we can drive from A to B without even thinking about gears, brakes or hill starts.
We can think about restorative practice in the same way. It is a key life skill, like driving a car, so we should anticipate struggle when we start to turn the basic principles into habits. For example, progressing from an initial knowledge and understanding of the relational window (habit 4) to developing the skills to use this model to frame a challenging conversation, shape a supervision session or as a problem-solving tool will take time and practice.
As we start to find our way with restorative practice, we become more mindful around drawing on restorative principles and skills to prevent bad practice: cutting corners, speeding and cutting in front of others is like starting a circle meeting without setting guidelines with participants. As a consequence, restorative practice also helps us to develop the habit of checking our own behaviour to prevent poor practice from creeping in.
Introducing restorative practice to your team or organisation in this way can help to increase buy-in; it is reassuring for colleagues to know from the outset that failure is expected on the way to restorative practice becoming second nature or a habit. So, keep the conversation open and create opportunities for everyone in your team to share experiences and insights.
The starting point is recognising your existing strengths in terms of workplace relationships. What are you good at already? What characteristics and habits have you found work for you? This might include reliability, a strong work ethic, punctuality, accountability, approachability, being a good listener, compassionate leadership, integrity, inclusivity, being a good team player, an innovator, a problem-solver, helpful, considerate and so on. Make a list. You may find the following template useful, which includes a few examples to help you get started.
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