This article reflects the conversations in the breakout group on this topic at the Recently Appointed Consultants symposium on Monday 22 February 2016.

Advice

Enabling change can be difficult for health care staff and patients and it is through learning about new methodologies and processes that people can improve services.

The first key step is to understand the issues that need changing in your working environment. Without knowing and identifying what needs to be changed there can be no clear objective to focus on. By designing your own change project this would give clear aims to move forward with. It can be difficult to create change and there are many barriers that can prevent this from happening. These range from hierarchical issues to following the processes already in place. However, it is important to embrace new ideas with an open mind as they may be more effective than previous processes.

To make a project successful you should be aware of the potential challenges that could cause the project to fail. By looking at these it means that you are prepared. Considering the financial issues and the design of the project itself can help your project go further. To ensure that your change goes forward it is also important to engage with different people and learn from them and their own perspectives. 

As well as looking at the wider objectives and challenges, there are a number of new resources and methodologies which can help implement change. With new methodologies come new responsibilities, challenges and new instructions of how these methodologies work. You should therefore be aware of these before using them.

Social media is a good example of a new methodology and provides both good sources and good networking and crowdsourcing opportunities. It is a very effective tool in the public sphere. However, it can be difficult to use and one must be careful of social media because if it is not properly managed then it can be detrimental to the project.

Using HACKS can also help improve the success of your project. A ‘hack’ is ‘to break down and rebuild and gain access to a solution’ and using suitable HACKS will enable your project to be more effective. Challenging the norms in place and working together helps any project develop further.

Links:

  1. Follow us on Twitter @KateSlater2      @TheEdgeNHS
  2. Subscribe to theedge.nhsiq.nhs.uk
  3. Get materials from theedge.nhsiq.nhs.uk/school …and sign up for our monthly #EdgeTalks theedge.nhsiq.nhs.uk/edgetalks
  4. View the sessions from the #NHSTForm theedge.nhsiq.nhs.uk/transformathon
  5. Find out more about twitter at http://www.wecommunities.org/
  6. Hackathons / hacks http://hackingmedicine.mit.edu/

Breakout Group Leader: Mrs Kate Pound, Transformation Fellow, NHS Horizons Group, Coventry

Reviewed April 2018