Compassion takes courage

An expanding group of regional hospices was preparing to take another hospice organisation under its wing. Before it did, the leadership wanted to set in stone the things that were fundamental to who they were, what they stood for and the kind of organisation they intended to become.

They had ambitious plans to tackle health inequalities, build compassionate communities and make sure that everyone affected by life-limiting illness could live fully and die with choice and dignity. Covid had tested the organisation enormously too, requiring people to work at pace with health and social care partners and step well beyond familiar roles. Its existing values no longer captured the organisation that had emerged or where it intended to go next.

CEO Judi Newman described the group’s “hard-baked strategic commitment” to achieving health equity and building compassionate communities. With a merger ahead, the organisation needed to know what must endure as it grew.

I listened to team members, volunteers, people using its services, families, partners and members of the community. There was enormous pride and belonging, with a striking strength running through the stories people told.

Hospice work requires people to go towards things most of us would rather avoid. They have conversations about death and dying, tell people things they desperately don’t want to hear and support families through fear, grief and uncertainty, while somehow still making room for – well, life.

When an early version of one of the Essential Truths centred more heavily on kindness, the team pushed back. Kindness didn’t say enough about what their work required.

They were right.

It became Compassion takes courage, alongside One team, one community. Learning never ends. Every moment matters. Judi later described the process as knitting together “hours of listening” into four clear themes and said: “Erika helped us find our voice together.”

Before the merger, the hospice had put into words the truths it wanted to carry into the organisation that came next.