“Become amazing storytellers”: IHI advice for Community Health Services London

 3rd May 2024

Written by Clarissa Sørlie, Improvement Advisor 

 

“Become amazing storytellers”. This was the advice offered by Pedro Delgado, Vice President of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), during the Community Health Services (CHS) London IHI visit in Stratford. Each year, the directorate enlists the expertise of the IHI to progress quality improvement (QI) in the directorate. This year’s session, facilitated by Ben Braithwaite (medical director), drew the attendance of 55 people, with a focus on how to share QI learning across the directorate, and beyond.  

 Since the last IHI visit, multiple QI projects have demonstrated sustained improvements, and many more are learning valuable lessons as they test different change ideas. Simultaneously, there has been an increase in representation of service users and carers on project teams (‘Big I’ involvement), from 42% to 63%. Considering the abundance of learning accumulated over the past year, the directorate naturally posed the question, “How can we effectively share this learning?” 

 The session facilitated networking across services and boroughs. As attendees rotated between six tables, they had the opportunity to hear directly from project leads and service users. Attendees heard stories of people sharing successful and unsuccessful initiatives across services, service users’ experience of leading and joining project teams, and opportunities for learning from Bedfordshire CHS. The session concluded with attendees reflecting on what they had learned from the day and what their next steps would be.  

Images: the visit provided opportunities for networking across services and boroughs

Addressing the room, Pedro remarked on how “inspiring” it was to see the pride, dedication and “generosity of ideas” that emerged in discussions. Pedro urged the directorate to become “amazing storytellers” who utilise all available channels to share their learning. Secondly, he encouraged the directorate to consider the learning spaces that exist, both in person and virtually, and explore opportunities for creating further spaces. Lastly, Pedro emphasised the importance of recognising culture as “something we do” through the accumulation of every interaction, instead of “something we have”.

 

Image: Pedro addressing the room

 

As the session drew to a close, participants were left with a heightened awareness of the power of shared learning. The conversations and advice from this session will serve as a springboard for a renewed determination for storytelling in the directorate.