President's Blog

Monday 12th May 2025

When you are busy, it can be really hard to be proactive; it is far easier to have your time taken up reacting to each new event, piece of news or drama that lands at your feet. It can feel like you’re on the equivalent of a hamster wheel, constantly running as the wheel spins, knowing that to get off, you either have to execute a perfectly timed dismount or simply have your feet whipped up over your head, risking landing on your bum. It takes great discipline to stop the everyday, often overwhelming tasks and give yourself time to properly think and consider how best to prepare for the future.

Trying to think about the future and what we can do differently can also be challenging, as we become entangled in the obstacles that prevent us from making those changes now – a lack of workforce, insufficient funding…Being given a completely blank page can be overwhelming. Over the last two weeks, the Board Directors have been working to achieve this goal, both during our Board meeting and at an event led by the RNID. I can attest to the fact that it does take a while to get into the mindset of considering all possibilities and envisioning what we want the future to look like.

In the past, I found that the best way to clear my head and allow myself time to think was to sit for a day at a conference, away day, or team-building event, when I had to spend the whole day away from the computer, sitting quietly and listening to someone speak. It works best if I’m not particularly interested in the talks, but I can’t bring myself to leave. Suddenly I would write the best plans, most ambitious to do lists, solved those niggling problems that had been running round my head for weeks. Inadvertently given space to think. If, from time to time, you look up at the speaker, smile, and nod sagely, people get the impression that you are taking notes about the talk, and nobody is offended (hopefully).

Now, whilst Audiology is in the spotlight, we have an opportunity to have a say in the future and how it might look. We need to shift from voicing all that is wrong or simply saying we need more money and start telling people what is possible, how we can deliver our services differently. Be more solution-focused. We will be having a session at the upcoming Heads of Service meeting about this, as we want to ensure we represent as many views as possible.

So, if you are feeling overwhelmed and struggling to organise your thoughts or feeling frustrated by not having enough headspace to think your way out of a problem, book yourself on a training day that you aren’t really interested in! (Please note – I do not include our Heads of Service day in this.) Make sure you can’t access your emails; go old-school with a pen and notebook and enjoy the space to think.

If you come up with answers on what the future of Audiology should look like, please drop me an email when you return to your desk.

We continue to be more transparent about many aspects of our work on your behalf. To this end, we share some insight into the meetings in which we are invited to participate. If you scroll down the page, we also include overviews of our monthly Exec Board and quarterly Board meetings: BAA Board Meetings.

As always, you can contact me or any of our board directors here: admin@baaudiology.org

Take care

Claire
BAA President

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