My Role in Implementation
An Implementation Support Consultant fills a niche for an organization or agency by
- Liaising and filling in the capacity gaps between a Program Developer or National Dissemination Center and your organization’s staff and contractors,
- Ensuring that the resources invested in adopting a new service approach result in the transformation you have envisioned.
I work across program models and learn the ins and outs of your organization and the needs of your community so that I can inform local decisions and guide program, protocol, and database tailoring.
My contribution enhances outcomes and contributes to successful installment and long-term sustainment of evidence-based programming.
My role often includes addressing common barriers to implementation success:
Organizational Capacity Limitations. An Implementation Support Consultant provides expert surge staffing to smooth the effort of shifting to an evidence-based approach, preventing staff burnout…
A surge of effort is needed to shift to an evidence-based approach. Whose job description includes identifying candidate programs for your community coalition, board of directors, or leadership team to consider? Who is making database changes and protocol documentation alongside existing responsibilities? Who is assessing staff training and preparation gaps? And, who is planning for quality monitoring and sustaining the new approach? Hiring an implementation support consultant provides you expert surge staffing to smooth the effort for your organization, preventing staff burnout and frustration.
Staff Resistance and Orientation to Change. An Implementation Support Consultant observes varying mindsets and reactions among staff, as well as group culture and dynamics that may be at play to proactively address reservations and get team members working toward solutions…
If you have begun talking to staff about the change, you are also likely seeing staff resistance or uncertainty. My approach employs curiosity about resistance to identify the underlying barriers to implementation that staff may be experiencing and utilizes teaming strategies to shift staff toward growth mindsets. For organizations that start consulting before staff resistance, I use forecasting strategies to identify potential reservations and address them proactively, simultaneously targeting team cohesion.
Specialized Knowledge and Experience. An Implementation Support Consultant brings experience across programs and settings, and tested tools and approaches to guide the process. My doctoral training grounds locally-tailored adaptations in what is known to be effective to protect child and family flourishing…
It takes specialized know-how to guide an organization in shifting practice to an evidence-based approach. I use this expertise to shift organizational infrastructure to match the new program model, ensuring all programmatic inputs and activities are in place. From the other direction, we name the organization’s mission and identify the community or organization’s goals and client population to tailor the program model. Program models often should not be directly transplanted, for example, when there are cultural specifications in a community, a specialized population, or additional goal. Planned adaptations aligned with the program theory of change can maximize a program’s effectiveness even while changing it from the tested version. My doctoral training grounds locally-tailored adaptations in what is known to be effective to protect child and family flourishing.