Many Q members have found their work radically changed by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. As part of our work to support health and care services to learn from the rapid innovation and improvement taking place during this time of unprecedented change, we are sharing brief interviews with members reflecting on their experiences.

Our first is with Dr. Philip Crowley – a new Q member based in Ireland, where we recently opened up opportunities to join the community. If you’d like to share your story, please get in touch.

What positive change or adaption would you most like to keep after COVID-19, in the ‘new normal’?

The flattened hierarchy, the new relationships and the deference to expertise of all sources.

What have you learned about delivering change at pace?

You make mistakes, you change course quickly when you realise you are going down the wrong track and good is a lot better than perfect.

How has your Improvement approach proved valuable?

[…] we have used improvement mind-set and skills extensively – team working, facilitation, rapid innovation and patient-centeredness

It has, we have not used so much of the tools of improvement due to time constraints but we have used improvement mind-set and skills extensively – team working, facilitation, rapid innovation and patient-centeredness.

What has particularly inspired you (e.g. tool, person etc.)?

The incredibly hard work of colleagues in procurement, emergency planning and other parts of our national organisation whom I had never met before.

Is there anything you can share that you’d like to collaborate with other improvers on?

Remote capacity building and remote collaboration at scale.