Plan-Do-Study-Act
What changes can we make that result in improvement?
In order to improve processes we need to make changes although not every change will result in improvement. What is best practice? What evidence do you have from elsewhere about what is most likely to work? What do you and your team think will work? What have other people done that you could try?
This is an opportunity for the team to develop ideas for testing. If there is a clear evidence base then you need to use this. However, in cases where this does not exist then you can use creative thinking techniques to generate ideas for testing.. Once you have a clear idea of what you would like to test out as a team use PDSA cycles, which allow you to test the change in the workplace setting
Remember that you know your own system best, so keep your objectives in mind and use your knowledge and experience to guide you.
The second part of the Model for Improvement is effectively your engine for developing, testing and implementing changes. This is carried out by using Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycles.
- What is our objective in this cycle?
- What questions do we want to ask and what are our predictions?
- Who will carry this out? (Who? When? How? Where?)
- Carry out your plan
- Document any problems
- Begin data analysis
- Complete data analysis
- Compare results to your predictions
- Summarise your results
- Ready to implement?
- Try something else?
- Next cycle?
PDSA cycles allow you to take change ideas you have created, try them in practice, learn what is or isn’t working with them and then adjust your approach.
It is rare to achieve absolute success through your first PDSA cycle. Most commonly you will need to adjust your change idea through a number of PDSA cycles before it starts to work reliably in actual practice.
The important point to note is that failure is not the end and can be a useful thing! By meeting on a regular basis as a team and going through PDSA cycles you will be doing something called rapid cycle testing.
This will allow you to see meaningful change within months that would otherwise take years.