On direct letters

“I am just writing to thank you for the fantastic NHS care I received” was the first letter the Department of Health gave to the Rt Hon Sir Jeremy Hunt, MP. As Secretary of State for Health at the time he asked to read and reply to one letter every day, a habit he continued throughout his time as the longest serving health minister.

“The Department of Health received more letters than any other government department. There was an army of fifty officials in the correspondence unit, whose job was to draft replies and to a certain extent protect ministers from the highly personal and emotional missives received from people who had experienced problems with their care.”

His team initially ignored his request. Apparently, “Sir Humphrey-like meetings were held behind my back” to try and dissuade him from the idea. When he kept asking, they gave him the flattering letter first. “‘No’, I said. The point was not to tell me what was going right but to show me what was going wrong.” The letters came, and he replied.

I’m thinking about the power of direct messages to, and replies from, leaders as I read two books. “Good chief executives stay closely in touch with what their customers are saying – and although the NHS is not a business the principle is the same.” says Jeremy Hunt in his excellent book, “Zero” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60339731 . It is about “Eliminating unnecessary deaths in a post-pandemic NHS”. Second is “Polio: An American Story” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12105545 about the uniquely American infections, fundraising, and science of polio. Zoom out of today’s news, this is the America we all love.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt gave so many ill people hope by rising despite his own illness of polio to the highest office in the land. He “received hundreds of letters from fellow polios[…] The 1930s were a time when politicians, even presidents, still answered much of their own mail[…] His letters, brief and formulaic, were relentlessly upbeat[…] A letter from Roosevelt changed nothing, and changed everything.”