Developing change management skills: a resource for health care professionals and managers

Abstract

Developing Change Management Skills is the first of the NHS Service Delivery and Organisation (SDO) Programmes resources aimed primarily at development. Five realistically complex case studies, made up of factual incidents woven into a fictional whole, provide the settings that allow readers to reason on behalf of characters within them. In the process they learn about: 1) The strengths and limitations of different change management approaches in different situations 2) How to group the approaches together to increase their usefulness 3) The importance of applying them rigorously, perceptively and creatively 4) How different results arise when they are used by people with different world views. The cases reflect the range of organisations within the NHS, being set in primary care, mental health and acute services trusts, as well as a strategic health authority. Key players within them include an individual team member, a service leader, and executive and non-executive board members. Readers are encouraged to take opportunities to apply the tools before comparing their thinking with that of the authors. In doing so they will develop skills they can apply within their own settings. It will be of interest to anyone in the NHS trying to initiate change, whether they hold formal leadership positions or not. It will also be of interest to developers and trainers