“The work of successful implementation to achieve desired change takes knowledge, skills, professional courage, and personal commitment. This work is not for the naïve or faint of heart.” (Van Dyke and Naoom, 2015).
So much progress has been made in understanding the central tenets of implementation practice. With the increase in efforts to integrate evidence into the ways in which we lead, guide and follow through on implementing changes and improvements, we have the opportunity to consolidate our learning. To date,
– What have we learned about effectively building local implementation capacity to guide and sustain complex improvements?
– What challenges must we overcome to further strengthen our capability to guide complex improvements efforts that are sustainable and scalable?
– Where should we direct our collective energy and intelligence to untie the ‘Gordian knots’ of implementation practice?
To address these questions and more, we have invited panellists with contrasting and complementary knowledge, experience, and insights to ‘look back’ and to ‘look forward’ with us – to share their perspectives on the ‘State of the Field’ of Implementation Practice.
Mary Salveron, University of South Australia, South Australia, Australia
Laura Ghiron, Partners in Expanding Health Quality and Access and Member of the ExpandNet Secretariat, California, United States of America
Jacquie Brown, Families Foundation, Hilversum, The Netherlands
Fiona Mitchell (Moderator), CELCIS, Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland
