Leading Beyond Ltd

15/10/2026

When there is a lot of rework in a department, the first instinct is usually to look at who's doing it.

I understand the instinct; I've had it myself. In one analysis with a client we traced all of their rework back to its causes, and 65% of it came down to when one piece of guidance was issued. The people doing the rework had been getting the blame for something the process was doing to them.

Once you can see this, the conversation is about when the guidance lands and how to change it, rather than about the people.

If you looked at the rework in your department this month, how much of it would turn out to be timing?

This is where Process Improvement starts for us at Leading Beyond: understanding what's actually happening before anything gets changed. If it sounds familiar, drop me a message and I'll happily talk it through.

12/10/2026

How many times have we picked the system first, and then worked out how to fit our team around it?

A new system arrives with its own way of doing things, and somehow the team ends up working around it rather than properly with it. (We've all been there 😅)

I firmly believe it should be the other way around. Start with how you actually work, then choose the tool; quite often the answer is already sitting in the subscription you pay for and the spreadsheets you already use; like Office 365 which has so many automations you could easily build, and are waiting, ready to be joined up.

https://www.leadingbeyond.co.uk/post/start-with-how-you-work-then-choose-the-tool

Becky Travis-Booker, Leading BeyondHow many times have we implemented a system that is a product in its own right?Different modules, and yet not built around how we actually work or what is going to serve our customers.“Right then, before we look at anything, talk me through how it works today.”...

21/09/2026

A really key point for me as a director is understanding the governance chain, and how you get people reporting to each other so decisions are made at the right level.

I was working in the training and education of doctors and dentists, which is full of policy, with a lot of quality measures along the way, and a lot of organisational risk; big budgets, risk to reputation, and most importantly the experience of the training the trainees receive and the impact on patient care.

So I reviewed all the key decisions, meeting structures and the reporting arrangements between individuals and between departments. If you want to reduce escalations in your department, this is where it starts; being clear on how matters escalate, and when matters shouldn't escalate, and where responsibility sits. It's also usually the answer to why decisions keep stalling in a team, because nobody is quite sure whose they are.

I led it, but it was designed and shaped by my team. They worked out what belonged in their own workstreams and roles, and which decisions were theirs, and then they sat round the table together and negotiated it. The final say was mine to some extent, but it needed a very light touch of being me. They did the work; I was there to support and guide them through it.

As leaders we can think we know all the answers, and sometimes we do have a good idea of what the outcome would be, but not always. Bringing people with us is always our aim. So how do you engage them in making sure the operating model works for them and not just for you?

It's the type of work we do with clients now, mapping what the reality is now rather than jumping into solutions of what we think it should be, understanding how things work and why things were done that way, because this opens up the opportunity to work within a system and see the limitations that come with it too.
What people take away is understanding, because they built it themselves, it's sustainable and it's owned.

Leading Beyond.

17/09/2026

Something I hear most often from newly appointed leaders, and the honest answer is usually yes, you are.

Working at this level is about understanding the system you're in and how to navigate it, and nobody hands you that when they hand you the title.

I got to a point in my own director role where I just wasn't getting how the system and the governance could work for me, and what I did about it was reorganise the department. It was never about putting my own stamp on it; what I inherited was perfectly good and running well, but the organisation around it had changed, with a restructure, new financial targets, everybody working from home and the department needed to adapt alongside it.

I didn't do it all at once. One hurdle, then the next one.

If you've just stepped into something like this, which hurdle are you on?

Leading Beyond.

14/09/2026

I brought AI into a client's documentation process recently, and it worked; the drafting time came down considerably.

When the feedback came back, they said what had made the biggest difference wasn't the AI at all. It was the space for the team to come together, understand the problem, map it themselves and develop the solutions themselves. They were clear that the AI was a fantastic tool, but that's what it was, a tool, not the whole engagement.

It's why when I'm talking to a leader about what would fit their team I'll be completely honest about what's likely to work, and that might be an AI prompt, Office 365 automation, it might be team coaching, it might be something else entirely, and it's why I've spent so long learning different tools and specialising in them, so I can pull on the right one.

I'm not saying AI doesn't have a place, because it does. The value sits in people being in the room together, understanding it together, and this feedback compounded it for me.

When your last improvement sustained, what actually made it last?

Leading Beyond.

11/09/2026

I've only had this conversation a few times in my career, when somebody was covering me for maternity or sickness, or when I was leaving a role and somebody was stepping in.

The best thing a manager of mine ever did was say "make it your own". It was when I took on head of function, and it was like permission to say I know I've done it this way and that worked for me, but now make it work for you. I felt this helped me to move forward and shape things how I wanted to shape them, being respectful of what happened before, because what happened before worked then and them.

A few years later I said the same thing on my way out of the door, and it wasn't a handover like I'd done for maternity leave, because my son was diagnosed with cancer and I had to walk away overnight with no return date and no certainty I'd return at all.

What I said to my colleague covering me was "make this your own", don't try to predict what I would do, because that's what I would do, and you need to do it as you want to do it. And when I come back, I'm sure you'll have done a fantastic job, and there may be things I want to change, but then I'm making it my own again.

Who gave you permission to make yours your own?

Leading Beyond.

08/09/2026

Process improvement has been an area of my roles I've consistently enjoyed, and when I stepped up to director/head of function I had to stop being the one who facilitated it.

What mattered to me was sustainability; I wanted the department to function whether I was there or not. That got tested when my four year old was diagnosed with cancer and I was away for five months, and things carried on, because I had built a team who could carry them.

Someone said to me once, "I can't change this process Becky, you did it". I did, a few years ago, and of course it needs to change now. I told her I was fully behind her and I trusted her to make it what it needs to be today. Significant risk and policy still came to me; everything else was hers.

What came back was ownership, and better work, because she knew that process far better than I ever could.

The part I couldn't do for them was facilitate it, which is a large part of why I'm now on the outside of the room rather than in it.

What's on your list at the moment that would land better if it didn't come from you?

Leading Beyond.

08/09/2026

Every Time-out is built around your brief and what you want out of it.

We start with simple activities that get everyone talking and lift the energy. Then we go into the deeper work on the strengths your team already has and how you use those for whatever is coming next. You leave with an agreement your team takes forward as you move into the beyond.

I have led departments of over a hundred people through organisational change, strategy development, financial volatility and quality improvement, so I know what it costs to take a team out for a day and what that day has to give back. I’m a Chartered Member of the CIPD with a PGDip in HR Management, and an ILM PGDip Executive Coach. I work one to one with senior leaders and with teams in regulated and complex environments.

“Excellent value for money. Becky is an amazing facilitator and gets it.” Senior NHS leader.

Your Strategy, Your People, Your Performance & You. Leading Beyond.

07/09/2026

...and count how many different answers you get.

Agreeing why your team exists, what it does and how it does it, sounds like the soft part of a Time-out. It turns out to be the part you use most afterwards, because everything that follows has to line up with it: who reports where, which post you can justify, what a new role is actually for.

Worth asking this week, even before you book anything.

Team Time-outs from Leading Beyond.
Your Strategy, Your People, Your Performance & You.

04/09/2026

When I first stepped up to head of function/director, the part I expected to find hard was managing the people, and actually I was confident about that.

What caught me out was that the people I would have thought things through with had just become my direct reports, and there are limits on what you can share in that direction.

I wasn't looking for a manager; at that level you don't really have one in that sense, and you don't need one. It wasn't mentoring or coaching as such either. It was someone experienced at working at my level who I could be fully myself with, who I didn't have to explain the level to, so I had the space to test something and think it through properly before it became a position.

I got there eventually, by seeking and finding. If it had been named from the outset I would have hit the ground running so much faster.

Who do you think out loud with?

Leading Beyond.