Friday 23 May 2025 | 14:15-15:15

Format: Workshop

Stream: Change

Content filters: n/a

PART ONE: Building capacity for lasting change: an integrated approach to improvement culture

This session will showcase a new approach to building improvement capability & culture that moves beyond traditional quality improvement training to a learning system that integrates improvement throughout the organisation. We will share how our approach has made an impact through testimonials and showcase stories. Our Academy of Research & Improvement provides facilitation, and training for teams in a broad range of approaches: quality improvement, evaluation, audit, research and participation. This enables teams to adopt multi-faceted programmes of work for continuous improvement. It affords the opportunity to use innovative methods, and build academic and community partnerships. A lived experience network, Side by Side, ensures ongoing focus on patient voice.

After this session, participants will be able to:

• Understand the value of an integrated approach.


• Consider the value for staff and patients of having a 1-stop shop for support


• Take away tips for embracing an integrated approach in their own organisations


• Understand how to ensure those with lived experience are partners in setting direction and delivering training

Sarah Williams Solent NHS Trust; England

PART TWO: Creating impactful change by leading improvement inclusively with language that speaks to the heart of organisational culture

Does the reach of your improvement work stop at the innovators and early adopters? Are you struggling to enable staff across your organisation to embed improvement into the way they work day-to-day in a sustainable way?

During this session you will hear how a large healthcare provider organisation worked with linguistics experts to decipher the language being used around improvement that led to a fascinating exploration of improvement and organisational culture.

Learn about the methods used and how the findings are supporting a cultural shift being led across all layers of the organisation enabling improvement habits to be built into everything people do in an inclusive and accessible way.

You will be invited to think about different ways you can use language to put people at the heart of improvement work to strengthen how you lead and influence across complex organisational cultures to deliver impactful change that improves patient outcomes.

After this session, participants will be able to:

• Describe the impact of deeply embedded language habits on organisational culture


• Begin to examine their own improvement language and the impact it has on engaging people to effect cultural change


• Be more purposeful and inclusive in communicating and leading improvement and change

Kirstie Skates Imperial College NHS Trust; England

PART THREE: NS Health Operational Excellence – co-designing a culture of improvement in an integrated Canadian health system to activate 30,000 problem solver

In 2021, Nova Scotia Health embarked on a journey to cultivate a culture of improvement across a health system which serves ~1,000,000 residents with a team of 30,000. This work has been accelerated by Operational Excellence, NSH’s approach that enables focus, alignment and continuous improvement at all levels of the organisation. NSH will share how it has co-designed its QI & Culture strategy by establishing 1) an internal capability engine, QI Qualified Collaborative, training leaders reporting ~70% increase in confidence using improvement methods, 2) a QI Hub, sharing 350+ QI initiatives accessible to all staff/providers, 3) innovative micro collaboratives designed to accelerate the spread of priority changes, and 4) prototyping ‘action improvement teams’ with a mandate to tackle complex and persistent problems that require collaboration across teams and mindsets. All anchored with real-time coaching and resulting in increased adoption, sustained change, and tangible improvements for patients, families, and providers.

This session will provide valuable insights for health system leaders, QI practitioners, and anyone interested in driving meaningful change within their organisations. Join us to discover lessons learned, best practices, and the path forward in Nova Scotia’s journey to continuous improvement. After this session, participants will: Understand the core components of Nova Scotia Health’s Operational Excellence and QI & Culture StrategyUnderstand how to co-design a quality collaborative with ‘dosed right’ improvement methods appropriate to the problem complexity and aim of spread/scale Share and discuss novel ideas to accelerate the spread of improvement.

Erin Leith Nova Scotia Health; Canada