Celebrating 5 Years of The Center for Implementation: Reflecting on the Past and Looking Towards the Future
9-min read
Can you believe we’ve just turned 5?
Take a moment to celebrate with us! We’re so grateful that you’re here with us on this journey to create positive change in the world.
In lieu of a birthday cake, we’re serving up 5 developments that have shaped the landscape of implementation practice over the last 5 years and 5 exciting directions for the future, motivated by you and designed to collectively inspire us into the next wave of supporting change efforts.
5 developments in implementation over the past 5 years
During the last 5 years, we’ve seen many things trending upwards in implementation. Here we’re highlighting developments, common to both implementation science and practice, that we were particularly enthusiastic about seeing (so much so that we built new courses around some of these topics — and even wrote our first white paper!).
Relationships are everything.
Building strong partnerships, fostering collaboration and promoting trust have been described as both the foundation of implementation and the mortar that holds all of the bricks together. Although we’ve known this to be true, it’s been encouraging to see how relationships are starting to take center stage as being fundamental to implementation. We can only do this work when we work together!
Progress in bridging the gap between implementation science and practice.
When TCI started 5 years ago, there was little discussion about this divide. Now, more and more people in both fields are speaking and writing about it – and we believe acknowledging this gap is the first step to fixing it. We’re determined to continue to build bridges in the years to come.
We can’t do implementation unless we do it equitably.
There has been a growing commitment to embedding equity into everything we do in implementation science and practice, from implementation strategies and processes to our overarching systems, structures, and mental models. Imagine what it would look like if everyone considered equity throughout all implementation processes.
Linear thinking doesn’t work for complex systems.
People in both implementation science and practice are embracing that plans will have uncertainty, that adaptation is key to addressing challenges in variable contexts, and that we may have to adopt a bird’s-eye view if we want to make real change. Complexity can be scary, but together we can figure it out!
Implementation is a fundamental skillset for most fields and organizations.
We’ve seen an explosion of interest in implementation approaches and methods as an increasing number of people are recognizing that an idea is only as good as its implementation. The more we connect with others from different fields and organizations around the world who have made this realization, the more excited we get about the impact we can all make.
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5 exciting future directions for implementation (and TCI!)
We love implementation (obviously) and love where the field is going. We continuously connect with people like you around the world: people who are making implementation happen. We love hearing your questions and challenges, then delving deep into the literature to brainstorm solutions. Based on what we’re hearing from you, this is what we’ve been reading about, thinking about, and are most excited to work on in the coming years.
Developing user-friendly tools to apply implementation science better.
We believe implementation science approaches are for everyone; by transforming theories, models, frameworks, and approaches into pragmatic tools, there can be better uptake of high-quality implementation. For years, we heard you ask for a user-friendly tool to help you select change strategies. Based on those requests, we designed and released the StrategEase tool to help people select individual-level change strategies in September 2022. Each week, we hear new stories of how people love using the tool – especially as a way to introduce the concept of barriers and facilitators to teams and as a team planning resource. This year, we’ll be releasing our new Context Compass tool, which will help teams identify and discuss strategies for addressing contextual factors (beta versions of the tool are currently available in Implementation, Spread, and Scale and Embracing Complexity).
Building an implementation support workforce.
We, and other experts in the field, truly believe that developing a skilled cadre of implementation experts who have technical and non-technical (e.g., brokering, facilitating, motivating) skills is the only way to ensure that good implementation is done at scale. We’re excited to see growing numbers of changemakers become certified professionals after completing our Implementation Support Specialist certificate program (the first of its kind!). Plus, we’re also developing more online courses to help shed light on the “hidden curriculum” of implementation support and advance its profile across multiple industries.
Exploring power and agency in implementation
Power dynamics are particularly important. We often hear that many of you grapple with feeling disempowered and struggle to be centred and heard within systems of power. As a result, we developed a course on trust and power and we’ll continue to promote power as a major consideration to encourage the field to explore systems of power even more. We would love to continue to learn and hear from people who are finding innovative ways to address challenging power dynamics.
Creating system readiness.
For years, people have been talking about organizational readiness. More recently, we’ve been hearing people thinking about the idea of system readiness. Imagine how different your implementation experiences would be if there were existing connections, support infrastructures, funding structures, and other system factors already in place to implement in general (vs focusing only on readiness for specific programs). It would set the stage for larger scale and more sustainable change. We’ve heard from many course participants that the module on system readiness is the most well-received in our Embracing Complexity course! Let’s start working on building system readiness together.
Integrating change approaches.
There are multiple ways to approach change — why not use different techniques? At TCI, we have a long history of drawing from multiple fields to fill in gaps in implementation science. Based on the questions we’ve heard, we’ve drawn from psychology, quality improvement, systems thinking, project management, complexity, leadership development, organizational psychology, and even the work of people like Brené Brown and Adam Grant. We want to recognize how your questions have helped us push the envelope and delve into the research from many different areas to address the complexities and challenges of creating change.
Finally, we want to thank you. If it weren’t for you dedication to implementation work, your resilience in the face of challenges, and your brilliant questions, we would never be where we are today.
This article was featured in our monthly Implementation in Action bulletin! Want to receive our next issue? Subscribe here.