Harriet Hunter Head of Organisational Development, Leadership and Learning

About me

Harriet is a GenerationQ Fellow and Head of Organisational Development, Leadership and Learning at the Scottish Government.

After completing an undergraduate degree in biochemistry, Harriet trained as a midwife and qualified in 1998. She practised midwifery in London and Edinburgh before moving into NHS management roles, focusing on quality improvement.

Harriet joined the Scottish Government Health Directorate in 2006 as regional manager of a national diagnostics collaborative programme. She went on to become Programme Manager for service innovation and transformation before being appointed Head of Improvement and Innovation in 2009.

In 2012, she became the Lead for Creativity in the Scottish Government, a role which focused on increasing creative capabilities across the civil service. She then became Acting Head of Organisational Development, Leadership and Learning.

Going into the fellowship, one of Harriet’s goals was to develop her theoretical understanding of leadership and organisational development. 'It was fascinating to learn the theories around how organisations function and to explore my own views on work and organisational development. It’s given me a solid academic framework to support what I’ve learnt in practice over the years.'

Something that made a particularly big impression on Harriet is the importance of relationships in leading quality improvement. 'It helped me to see that choosing the right systems and approaches to improvement are just part of the jigsaw and that you also need to understand and nurture relationships. You have to be able to step outside yourself and see how your actions are affecting other people. I now firmly believe that having an effective and fulfilling work life is about paying attention to relationships.'

For Harriet, GenerationQ provided valuable time and space to take stock of her career and to consider her aspirations for the future. 'I’d say that the fellowship was pretty life-changing – it helped me to work out that I don’t just want to keep climbing up the leadership ladder simply to have more power. What excites me is being in roles where I can support people and organisations to achieve change. It broadened my horizons and left me feeling in control of my career.'