Featured Resource: untools.co
By Dr. Jonathan A. Caballero, Implementation Support Consultant
5-min read
In implementation science, theories, models, and frameworks are powerful tools that help us navigate the complex contexts, human relationships, and technical needs of the initiatives that we work on. While implementation needs to be tailored to the local context, similar approaches can be used across contexts.
The website untools.co offers a curated collection of thinking tools and frameworks that can be used for problem-solving, decision-making, understanding systems, and improving communication. In addition to a concise description of each mental tool, they include a practical guide to use them and examples. These are exactly the kinds of tools that people implementation support professionals are often looking for. Moreover, untools offers a guide to choosing the right mental tool, which makes it incredibly easy to get started. Here is an example of a mental tool from each category on the website that we think will be helpful for those supporting implementation:
Problem Solving: Inversion
We often focus on finding ideal solutions but sometimes it is useful to think about problems from a different angle. The Inversion mental tool encourages to imagine worst-case scenarios, which can help to identify potential difficulties and how to avoid them. For example, a team in charge of organizing a barriers and facilitators workshop can imagine that it failed catastrophically. In this hypothetical scenario, they can analyze what went wrong in the team and the effect of unexpected factors. In turn, this can help them to prevent potential problems at the team level (e.g., how to react if the team member facilitating the online session loses the internet connection during the event), and arising from external factors (e.g. the patients invited to participate don’t want to use the online software program)).
Decision-making: Second-order thinking
Because the short-term consequences of decisions tend to be more salient (first-order thinking), we sometimes fail to consider their consequences in the long-term (second-order thinking). This is particularly true in implementation – consider how often we worry about what will happen if we propose a change, but how little time we spend thinking about the consequences of not making that change. Considering less-obvious consequences early can improve our decision-making process. For example, moving from an apartment to a house can have many advantages (like the increased space, and a nice garden), but may also bring long-term disadvantages (like needing to spend more time commuting and cleaning). Similarly, planning for sustainability from the onset of an initiative might slow things down in the short-term, but may yield many long-term benefits.
Communication: Situation-Behavior-Impact
It’s common to jump to conclusions and make assumptions about others’ negative behaviors. The Situation-Behavior-Impact mental tool can help to give feedback in a non-judgmental way, which can make the recipient less defensive about it. It encourages to describe the situation where the behavior occurred, the specific behavior about which one is giving feedback, and the impact that the behavior had. This approach can be used in personal and professional contexts. An example of feedback using this approach is This morning at the 11 a.m. team meeting (situation), you interrupted me while I was telling the team about the monthly budget (behavior), and I felt frustrated because it broke my train of thought (impact). Given the number of challenging and tense moments in planning for implementation, there might be lots of opportunities to use this tool.
Systems thinking: Iceberg model
When a problem occurs, we often address it reactively, thinking about it as an isolated event. But focusing on surface aspects can conceal its root causes. Besides events, the Iceberg Model encourages the consideration of deeper levels of abstraction: patterns (i.e. trends revealed by several events), structures (potential causes of the events at the system level), and mental models (such as attitudes, beliefs, and expectations that allow structures to continue functioning as they are). This aligns really nicely with the way that we think about equity, distinguishing actions, relationships, systems and structures, and the underlying mental models that inform everything above the surface. It’s also very relevant for other implementation challenges. For example, multiple staff may complain about a similar issue (pattern), which reveals aspects of the process that can be improved (structure), but that haven’t because of an organization’s attitudes toward change (mental model).
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