The Health Service Executive is paying €70,000 to a consultant for about 15 days' work on a project described as a pioneering system of "viral change" to help it improve its communications and image.
Organisational consultant Dr Leandro Herrero was flown to Dublin from the UK on several occasions earlier this year and addressed staff in Dublin and Limerick on the organisation's reform programme.
Dr Herrero is chief executive of the consulting firm The Chalfont Project Ltd. His website describes him as an "organisational architect" who is "in the quest for building remarkable organisations".
He was drafted in to help the HSE with its national plan to reform communications, culture and behaviours within the organisation. Improving the public perception of the health service, increasing “staff pride”, embedding values of care and compassion and increasing staff and the public’s knowledge and understanding of reform are among the pillars of the reform programme.
He argued in correspondence with the HSE that the initial budget of €60,000 secured for his input was “well below” a comparable budget in the private sector given his usual professional fees.
Records released under the Freedom of Information Act show the HSE secured a budged of €60,000 for the “viral change” communications plan but allocated a further €10,000 for other work on a “behavioural economics” project with the communications team.
He also told senior managers in emails that he was keen to sample the Guinness during his visit.
He also spent a “short but successful” time in Hodges Figgis bookshop.
“I did meander in the promenade of ideas for a while before going back to the airport,” he said.
Those present at the first meeting of the Communications and Culture Oversight Group in March included Dr Herrero, HSE director general Tony O'Brien, national HR director Rosarii Manion and communications staff.
Dr Herrero told deputy communications director Kirsten Connolly of the HSE in an email he was excited about the plan to "seriously up-skill the division in terms of a modern, state of the art communication function".
Ms Connolly, in email exchanges with Herrero, described the work in progress as “a waltz”. “But the music is playing at least.”
Dr Herrero’s biography says he has pioneered ‘Viral Change’, which is “at the forefront of creating profound, large-scale, behavioural change in organisations and communities, and is acknowledged as the real alternative to traditional and unsuccessful change interventions”.
His LinkedIn profile says he has “some reputation for not telling people things just because they want to hear them”.
“I work with people with ambition, who see possibilities, who have a sense of urgency and who want to make a difference in their worlds – teams, leaders, companies, society.”
The Spanish-born consultant practised as a clinical psychiatrist while also pursuing an academic career in behavioural sciences, and is the author of several books, including The Leader with Seven Faces, Disruptive Ideas and New Leaders Wanted.
He has also held “senior leadership roles in top global companies in the UK and the USA”.