Helen Bevan: Now put the Change Challenge into practice

The Change Challenge project has been an outstanding experiment that has delivered its initial goals. I judge that by three metrics.

The first metric is the extent to which it has provided a platform for many, many people to influence change and have a voice - 3,595 people joined in and made 13,895 contributions.

‘The engagement and quality of the debate has shown how seriously people take change’

Most of these are people that have never taken part in anything like a nationwide innovation quest before.

The engagement and quality of the debate has shown how seriously people take change and how much they want to play their part in improving the NHS and wider care system.

Spirit

The second metric is the spirit of the contributions. They were anonymous so people could write whatever they liked.

‘Too often change in the NHS gets imposed from the top down’

If you look at the comments that people make more generally on the websites of HSJ and Nursing Times on an anonymous basis, the ratio of “critical/challenging” to “positive” is typically around 80:20.

For the Change Challenge, this ratio was reversed; more than 80 per cent were affirmative.

For me, it shows how optimistic and constructive people are when they are given a chance to join in.

Too often change in the NHS gets imposed from the top down and people kick back against it.

Quality

The third metric is the quality of the contributions. The list of “building blocks” and “barriers” for change, socially constructed by our contributors is as good as any list of factors for change published by the Harvard Business Review or by major change “gurus”.

‘The “ideas for change” could be the first steps to challenging and transforming the culture of change’

The 15 “ideas for change” are practical solutions that could be adopted by any team or organisation to make a difference. Some of them could be the first steps to challenging and transforming the culture of change in our organisations.

The philosophy and methods of the Change Challenge could be adopted by any organisation or system across the country to improve the way it goes about change.

Your turn

You could create your own local Change Challenge to design new models of care or a new urgent care strategy.

‘The era of the change platform has truly arrived’

If your experience is anything like ours, thousands of people will join in, will come up with ideas you hadn’t even dreamed of, and will develop greater ownership of the change because they were given the opportunity to take part.

The Change Challenge was the first country-wide experiment to build a platform to capture the “wisdom of the crowd” addressing an important topic in the health and care system. I hope it is the first of many. The era of the change platform has truly arrived.