At Pushing the Pen we believe that you need several elements in place to drive up the writing / admin skills within your team or organisation. This page collates free resources to support each element. The elements are:

1. Quality Improvement (QI) methodologies
2. Writing skills
3. Time / workflow management (to ensure that you have capacity for the change work on top of your day job)
4. Systems Thinking
5. Understanding the public sector context (including values)
6. Motivation – passion, commitment, resilience etc
7. Coaching skills
8. Impact and influence

This list is a work in progress and we’re always happy to add new high-quality resources

1. Quality Improvement (QI) methodologies

• Online course: Introduction to Quality Improvement (NHS Staff only) (6 modules)
• Online course: Measurement for Improvement (NHS Staff only) (6 modules)
• Full textbook and other resources: Quality Coach Development Programme (Open Access)

2. Writing skills

• NEW: How to structure your report to get the key points across – Marja Stack AE via Clearlingo
• Blog post: High level summary of the ISO Plain Language Standard (Readable)
• Online course: Grammar Matters (Open University – 8 hours’ study)
• Online course: More working with charts, graphs and tables (Open University – 15 hours study – Introductory)
• Online course: Presenting Information (Open University – 3 hours’ study – Introductory)
• Online course: Speeches and Speech Making (Open University – 1 hour study – Introductory)
• Online course: Working with charts, graphs and tables (Open University – 15 hours study – Introductory)
• Blog: Get It Write (Various posts on different aspects of writing well)
• Online course: Report Writing (NHS Staff only) (5 modules)
• Online course: Describing language (Open University)

3. Time / workflow management

• Article: Make Time for the Work That Matters (Harvard Business Review)
• Blog post: The Pomodoro Technique (Todoist)
• Blog post: Time Blocking (Todoist)
• Free resources (blog / newsletter / free online course) (James Clear, author of “Atomic Habits”)
• Free resources (blog / podcast): Getting Things Done (Dave Allan)

4. Systems Thinking

• Online course: Mastering systems thinking in practice (Open University – 24 hours study – Advanced)

5. Understanding the public sector

• Guidance document: The Seven Principles of Public Life (The “Nolan Principles”) (UK Government)
• Online course: Democracy? You think you know? (Open University – 8 hours study)
• Online course: Political ordering (Open University – 10 hours study – Introductory)
• Long article: Integrated care systems explained: making sense of systems, places and neighbourhoods (The King’s Fund)

6. Motivation – passion, commitment, resilience etc

• To follow

7. Coaching skills

• Online course: Three principles of a coaching approach (Open University – Open access)
• Blog post: How to improve writing in your team and workplace (Get It Write)

8. Impact and influence

• Video: How to Make a Cultural Transformation (Simon Sinek)