Life is what happens to us while we are busy making other plans…

I’ve been a Rolling Stones fan all my life. Last Summer, I took a long weekend trip to Vancouver, Canada, to watch what I thought might be one of their last ever concerts. I was not disappointed. The cost, and the time spent travelling, was worth it. In my youth, you were either a Rolling Stones fan or a Beatles fan. Both were great rock groups. These days, it’s only the Rolling Stones who are still making music and playing stadium concerts. That said, using some state-of-the-art digital magic, in 2023 the Now and Then single was released. It became known as the last Beatles song ever.

However, the Beatles’ popularity has merely dimmed slightly, not diminished. I once came across a Beatles’ karaoke festival in Tokyo, drank a cocktail in Lennons, a rather swish bar in Bangkok, and here in Blackpool, we have our own Beatles-themed bar, the Yellow Submarine. All these places celebrate the huge contribution the Beatles made to music*. 

Last night, we shared in that celebration. My middle daughter’s Christmas gift was a pair of tickets to go to a concert at the Cavern Club in Liverpool. The Beatles played there 292 times during the early part of their musical career. Jane and I had only been there once before and that was just a tourist visit. Last night was a ‘Saturday night with the Cavern Club Beatles’ experience – a fantastic tribute band, a great atmosphere and a wonderful opportunity to step off the roundabout of life for a bit. We had decided to stay over and make it a bit of a date night and I’m writing this from the comfort of our sumptuous hotel bed.

Now some readers will have recognised this week’s blog title, which was made famous in John Lennon’s song, Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy). In fact, it was Allen Saunders, an American cartoonist and writer who is credited with first using the phrase, way back in 1957. Indeed, John Lennon slightly tweaked the original in his song. His tweak: ‘Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans’ resonates for lots of reasons.

At my NHS organisation, we have been working on our next five-year strategy. It has been a long process of consultation and co-creation. I read the latest draft last week, and I wasn’t thrilled. The strategy had all the elements you might expect, but absolutely didn’t reflect that ‘life’ had been ‘happening’ while colleagues were writing the plans. In the NHS context, we have witnessed an almost seismic and sudden shift to an organisation we were all familiar with, perhaps even at times, comfortable with. The NHS hasn’t always been perfect, but most of the time it’s been a service you would turn to, when you needed help.

For many folk working in the NHS, that comfortable and familiar world changed dramatically on 13th March this year. The government announced that NHS England (NHSE) would transition and become part of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). For this to happen, a 50% reduction in the number of folk working at both NHSE and DHSC was called for. Likewise, Integrated Care Boards have been ordered to reduce their expenditure by 50%, and NHS organisations like mine will also have to reduce corporate costs by 50% too. Undoubtedly, this will result in redundancies for many, both voluntary and compulsory.

Now, I am lucky in that I have never been made redundant. All my career choices and changes have been made, because at the time, it felt like the right thing to be doing. I have always felt in control of those decisions. Of course, this was entirely delusionary on my part. We can never control every aspect of our lives, and it’s true that life happens while you are busy making other plans. We had planned to travel around Africa this year. Jane’s brain bleed means we won’t be doing that in the foreseeable future. Cancelling our travel plans was disappointing. However, it is not anywhere near as devasting as perhaps the choices open to all those in the NHS, who may now be facing redundancy and an uncertain future, no longer within an NHS career.

It is not important for me to say whether I think these changes are the right thing to do or not, but it is important for me to be compassionate and caring towards all those impacted by these changes. Michael West, in describing compassionate leadership, noted that we should make those we lead and work with, feel valued, respected, and cared for. Difficult to do with those facing such unexpected changes to their careers. I hope those currently leading the national and local changes find ways of managing these compassionately.     

  

*One of the lesser-known facts about both groups was that The John Lennon/Paul McCartney song writing partnership inspired Mick Jagger/Keith Richard to move away from playing cover songs to writing their own legendary songs. However, one of the first hits for the Rolling Stones was ‘I wanna be your man’ a song written by Lennon/McCartney.