Book our impactful, evidence-based Civility Saves Lives presentations — tailored to healthcare audiences, backed by data, and built to drive cultural change.

What Is In the Civility Saves Lives Talk?

Joe and Chris run most of our sessions, with each doing things in their own way.

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Joe's options are typically split between an hour presentation (suitable for in person or virtual), or a workshop type session, which tends to be in person up to 3 hours (a half day):

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1-1.5 hour sessions – virtual or in person

In these sessions, Joe utilises a more direct presentation style to effectively cover an introduction to Civility Saves Lives and our message, which includes defining incivility, considering the impacts of this by using the bandwidth concept, and then research from both the office place and clinical settings. He explores potential sources of rudeness (considering that we all have the potential to be rude), including unintentional rudeness (communication, culture and neurodivergence being key elements). He then poses the importance and responsibilities of leaders, and in particular compassionate leaders to help navigate this. The session ends by running through some ideas of how to manage the incidents of rudeness. This include ‘what can I do’, ‘what can we do’ and ‘what can CSL do’? He brings concepts such as active bystander, psychological safety and the cup of coffee intervention to do this. There is usually some time for questions at the end.

Half day in person workshops

In these sessions, Joe would go through the above in more detail, introducing a number of pauses for discussion, questions and reactions. Within this, he is also able to utilise some break out group style components. This could be considered with regards to your preference, but could be from a number of options, including scenario based discussion, what is your theme song, and a consideration of what changes people would like to see.

He can bring specific focus to fit the desired goals of the session, including compassionate leadership, active bystander, tying them in to your aims and values.

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Chris offers a number of different options, which include:

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Why civility matters in a complex world- This is the core talk, the starter for the civility work. It was the keynote at ICEM 2023 and I’ve presented variations on it at approximately 50 conferences in the UK, Canada, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Singapore, Australia (Adelaide/Melbourne) and others.
What’s your theme tune? Understanding misunderstandings- the evidence base for why we screw up communication and some ways we might avoid it. I’ve given this at about 20 conferences and CPD events, most recently in front of Princess Anne.
Calling it out with compassion- an evidence-based approach to letting people know when their behaviour may have undermined a culture of safety, excellence or learning. This is a talk about why using 2nd messengers rather than victims to give feedback has significantly more positive impact. I show the evidence and the technique that results in the recipient being able to hear the message and change their behaviour. 
Doing the right thing- the ethics of why everyone is trying to do the right thing despite all doing something different. This is a talk that splits people into different groups depending on what they are valuing, showing how these result in wildly different behaviours.
Getting your message to stick- Why our great ideas sometimes don’t gain traction and how we might do something about it. This is a talk about the great lie we are taught- that if we try harder we get better results. I show how trying too hard results in pushback and how we are better spending our time cementing relationships rather than trying to get people to change. This is the Semmelweis/psychological reactance talk. I’ve given this at a couple of conferences recently.
Mid Staffs and me- a year in the spotlight of shame, and what happened next. This is a talk I give within ethics courses but also to organisations who have also come under the spotlight of shame
The generation of wisdom in doctors- what the evidence says and how we might develop wisdom quicker. I generally incorporate this into other talks, but it can be stand alone, and has been a number of times, usually to medical educators.
Leadership behaviours and why they matter- this is generally given to registrars as they become fully certified specialists.
Is it rumination or reflection? Why we mistake the two and how it stops us from growing. This came about from many years as an educational and clinical supervisor and provides a framework to understand where others are when we are supervising them (and also how to get them into the best place for personal/professional growth).
Wellbeing- my experience of being on a national committee for wellbeing, what I learned about how others see us, why they were wrong and what the evidence says about how we should be approaching this issue.

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Is this right for you?

This session is perfect for:

• Clinical teams or departments seeing rising complaints, conflict, or burnout

• OD leads aiming to improve workplace culture, bringing focus on behaviour and human factors

• Conference planners looking for an engaging, research-led keynote

• Senior managers focused on improving patient safety through behaviour and culture

• Leaders and executives wanting to understand the true costs of incivility

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🗣 If you’ve thought: “We need to talk about behaviour more” — this is the place to start.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​