Understanding Psychology of Change
Read about the Psychology for Improvememnt (P4I) approach and watch a recording of a session with Kate Hilton.
Q member Samuel Thornton shares a summary of the Psychology of Change session with Kate Hilton, along with a link to the view the session.
Embracing the human side of change
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Psychology of Change expert Kate Hilton joined the Q Exchange Psychology 4 Improvement (P4I) team to share her knowledge in a co-produced interactive session.
Open to the Q community and other interested parties, the session reached full capacity with 74 colleagues from across the UK and beyond.
Q is pleased to share the recording of this stimulating and wide-ranging session.
With an average overall rating of 9.5/10 on the quality of the session, participants gained much from the workshop that they would use in their QI practice.
Participant feedback
‘This was one of the best learning days I have ever taken part in’
‘Excellent absolutely excellent’
‘Everything was so well paced and thought out. I was so grateful for the hard work gone into delivering this and excited about where we go from here’
‘At the moment my head is full of ideas and plans thanks to the workshop’
‘I’d highly recommend to colleagues’
Kate Hilton, JD, MTS, equips people around the globe to build individual and organisational capacity to address the adaptive, human side of change to improve health, wellbeing, and equity.
Kate is author of the IHI Psychology of Change Framework white paper and the bespoke virtual and interactive session was followed by group ‘Spaces for Listening’ sessions hosted by Q member Charlie Jones.
Lead Faculty of IHI’s innovation work on ‘psychology of change’ methods for quality improvement, Kate gives keynotes, contributes to learning sessions, offers workshops and authors pieces on the subject, including a Harvard Business Review article and the IHI Psychology of Change Framework white paper.
She is also the Lead Faculty of IHI’s Psychology of Change online course with coaching.
Creating a P4I community
The one-day event for the Q community and other interested parties formed part of the P4I’s activities to build psychological and relational understanding among the improvement community to support more effective improvement work.
Psychology 4 Improvement won our Q Exchange bid in 2020 with the long-term aim “to develop a Psychology for Improvement community to lead, develop and role model the importance of Psychology for Improvement in delivering human-centred, sustainable improvement in health and care.”
This event came about as a result of the P4I project wanting to co-produce in three areas:
- a body of curated knowledge about the psychology of improvement
- practical resources that use psychological concepts to support change and are free for people to use and evaluate
- three networking events across the UK to disseminate resources and spread impact.
A network of Q members has also formed a Psychology for Improvement group to share events and latest news.
Find out more
Groups that contributed to this opinion piece
A fundamental principle of improvement science is to understand & influence human behaviour (Dr William Deming). Indeed, an understanding of the psychological factors underpinning human behaviour makes up one quarter of Deming’s system of profound knowledge. However, despite this, improvement literature and training often focuses on its technical aspects, neglecting its psychological or ‘people’ factors. In contrast, it has been said that the success of improvement projects in healthcare are even more subject to these factors, being only “20% technical and 80% human” (Dr Margie Godfrey). However, excellent knowledge and skills exist within quality improvement (QI) organisations which capitalise on psychological theory and practice. This special interest group is intended to be a forum where people can share the good work that they and their colleagues have been doing to improve the profile of psychological knowledge in the field of QI.
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