Would you like to increase the scale and pace of the spread and adoption of innovations and improvement? ‘Leading the Spread and Adoption of Innovation and Improvement: A Practical Guide’, a NHS England publication produced by the NHS Horizons team, can help you achieve this.
A great way to get an overview of the Guide is to watch the video recording of the introductory webinar available here. The slide set is available here. A blog here contains: a summary of the chat box conversation, answers to questions raised that could not due to time be addressed in the webinar and feedback shared on the Guide.
Read how the ‘Leading the Spread and Adoption of Innovation and Improvement: A Practical Guide’ can help in practice. Other examples are:
- How the FutureNHS virtual workspace enables spread of improvement and innovation through collaboration and learning, blog.
- Leading the Spread and Adoption of Innovation and Improvement: Insights through the national Fractional exhaled Nitric Oxide (FeNO) testing programme, video and blog.
- How the Seven Spread and Adoption Principles Work in Practice: the Continuing Healthcare Improvement Collaborative case study, blog.
Why we need this guide
Enabling spread and adoption of innovation and improvement in our complex, inter-dependent world is difficult. The NHS is a complex adaptive system, continually changing and adapting, which means we cannot completely understand it simply by knowing about the individual components. Many innovations are complicated or complex, so their spread and adoption in this context is not a simple predictable, process.
What this Guide offers
This Guide offers seven interconnected principles and a way of leading to apply them in practice, developed from knowledge and experience. The practical tools and methods, and case studies pages will help you apply these to your work along with the further information pages which provide a depth of detail and knowledge.
The content is practice focused; it has been tested via multiple presentations and prototype demonstrations at local, regional and national levels and modified based on the feedback shared with us. We send our thanks to the many people in the NHS and beyond who have given their time and expertise to share their feedback.
Who the Guide is for
The Guide is aimed at local and national system leaders in all sectors, particularly leaders of large-scale change and those with responsibility and interest in increasing the spread and adoption of innovation in practice.
Where the Guide will be helpful
This Guide is applicable for all levels; local, regional and national, and settings where the spread and adoption of complex change is needed. It sits alongside and supports existing activities e.g. programmes, such as the NHS Innovation Accelerator, organisations, e.g. health innovation networks (previously AHSNs), and models, such as the NHS Change model and can be used to inform planned and existing work.
Read Leading the Spread and Adoption of Innovation and Improvement: A Practical Guide
How to increase Spread and Adoption?
To understand the challenges of spread and scale and to hear about this publication watch this video.
The Guide offers seven interconnected principles (shown in the diagram above), which are important aspects to consider for spread and adoption. These principles are summarised below with more information available in this introductory blog, our short recording here, in the blogs below and in detail in the Guide.
- Complexity – understanding complexity and the implications for your work. Spread and adoption in health and care is often not straightforward, but an activity that requires managing many interdependencies. Read more in this blog
- Leadership – an enabling leadership style – to give people the space to connect and engage – is needed. Read more in this blog.
- Individual – the perspective of the individual – patient, carer, staff member – is pivotal to enable behaviour change. Read more in this blog.
- Benefit – focus on the benefit rather than the innovation, the ‘why’ not the ‘what’. Read more in this blog.
- Adopter focus – support adopters so they have a sense of agency and feel energised about the work. Read more in this blog.
- Networks – build communities, energising and connecting individuals. Read more in this blog.
- Learning – build a learning system and habit of learning, sharing with and seeking knowledge from others. Read more in this blog.
Relational, interpersonal elements of spread and adoption – looking at how people can work together – is a common thread within each of the principles.
The Model of Systems Convening
The Guide contains a section on systems convening, an enabling leadership style. The model of systems convening involves:
- Matching approach to spread and adoption with the complexity of the situation
- Applying the seven interconnected principles in practice
- Providing enabling activities delivered by a team or a number of people
- All levels in the system
More information on the model of systems convening is available in our short recording here, in the blogs below and in detail in the Guide.
- Introducing Systems Convening Practices into a Project Management Environment – 3 lessons
- Systems Convening in Practice – a Chat with Madi Hoskin
- Why an ‘Enabling Leadership’ Style is Needed for Innovation, Spread and Adoption
- COVID-19 – A Complexity Leadership Response
We would love to hear your feedback about the Guide. Any comments or questions please email mlcsu.horizons@nhs.net.
For more information on spread, scale and adoption of innovation and improvement visit the NHS Horizons webpage Spread and Adoption.