National Collaborating Centre for Methods and Tools

Very helpful - thanks Sunita!

Hi Ross,

I wanted to share another resource in the Registry that might be helpful. The International Development Research Centre (IRDC) developed a knowledge translation guide, The Research Matters KT Toolkit: A Resource for Researchersl, which contains a section on Context Mapping (Section II: The Audience: The Context and the Contacts). Context mapping looks at the environment in which we work to better understand the people, influences and other forces (political, social, cultural, etc.) that have a bearing on how we work and what we are able to achieve within that context.

This section provides an overview of stakeholder analysis, force field analysis, and influence mapping (p. 55 – 62). I believe these mapping techniques look at both an organization’s internal and external environments. Within this section, there is also a listing of additional resources to check out (p. 57 – 58).

I did a quick check on some of these resources, and I thought these two were particularly helpful:

Hovland, H. (2005). Successful Communication: A Toolkit for Researchers and Civil Society Organizations. Available from: http://www.odi.org.uk/Rapid/Tools/Toolkits/Communication/Index.html

Schmeer, K. (1999). Guidelines for Conducting a Stakeholder Analysis. Bethesda, MD: Partnerships for Health Reform, Abt Associates Inc.

To see a summary statement on this resource, click here.

Hope that helps!
Sunita

Thanks Kirsten - the RNAO tool was helpful!

Any suggestions on tools for stakeholder mapping outside one's organization/agency? I've seen this called:

- sector mapping
- Force field analysis
- market share

Thanks,

Ross

Hi Kirsten,

One resource that comes to mind that looks at organizational change management from within the education sector is JISC InfoNet’s InfoKit: Change Management. This resource provides helpful strategies to support people with their emotional responses during a change. This toolkit recognizes that people exhibiting resistance is a normal response to change as people let go of previous roles and identities before being able to adopt new roles and responsibilities. It outlines a number of stages that staff may go through during a major change including:

• Shock and denial
• Distrust
• Anger and guilt
• Depression, anxiety and stress
• Regret

Many of these emotions arise because people are feeling uncertain about how the change will impact themselves and their work. On pg. 31-34, different fears and emotional responses to change are described. The resource suggests responses and strategies to address each fear. To see a summary statement on this resource with a description of content areas covered, click here.

Sunita

Hi Ross,

Great questions! I can promote this new thread in our next DialoguePH weekly message so that other network members can log-in and respond.

Ross, I want to direct you to a discussion thread from last Spring that discussed tools that can be used for stakeholder mapping. The thread is available here: http://www.nccmt.ca/forum/en/topic/140/tool-for-assessing-stakeholder-perspectives/1.html

Thanks,

Kirsten

Hi Sunita,

Earlier in this thread you mentioned that adopting an innovation across an organization can be a challenging process to work through. It means asking staff to change the way they work and this can be a difficult process for everyone involved.

Can you recommend a resource that speaks to some of the emotional challenges individual staff may experience when undergoing a change process? Are there existing strategies/frameworks to work through some of these change processes?

Kirsten

Some questions...

1) Does your Public Health Unit/Agency use a particular stakeholder mapping approach/tool/exercise?

2) How does your Public Health Unit/Agency assess whether partnering with X organization is worthwhile or not?

3) How do you Public Health Unit/Agency determine "partnership gaps?"

The Ontario Public Health Organizational Standards (Standard 5) have Ontario Health Units revisiting how/and who we partner with...

Hi Kirsten and Bev,

The last two resources we talked about were good tools to support the implementation of a change initiative. I also wanted to highlight one resource you could use to provide an organizing framework for how to implement an innovation. The Ottawa Model of Research Use (OMRU) by Ian Graham and Jo Logan provides a useful approach for developing a change strategy. There are six steps in this model. The OMRU is particularly helpful since it delineates that you need to consider:

• The environment in which you will implement your change initiative (your organization, external environment, human resources)
• The innovation itself (the new policy or program)
• The strategies you will use to support people in changing their practice (in order to implement the innovation)
• How you will evaluate the new program and the strategies used to change practice (the knowledge translation strategies).

To see a summary statement on the Ottawa Model of Research Use, click here.

I will briefly mention another method developed by Robert Rosenheck with the Department of Veterans Affairs in the US. From his work in the VA, he looked at implementing new programs in large organizations. This resource is helpful since it examines how innovations are sustained long-term and become part of routine practice, in addition to looking at how to phase out a program that is not working well. The abstract for this article is available here.

To see a summary statement on Rosenheck’s article, click here.

Sunita

Thanks, Sunita. I'll check out the model by Chun Wei Choo. I agree with the statement by Rowel et al. - guidelines would be helpful! Especially for those new to public health or unfamiliar with scans - you can review previously conducted environmental scans for guidance; however, the methods aren't always applicable to your issue.

Hi there,

These are both great questions! We often get asked to recommend tools to support developing an organizational KT plan, so I’m glad that a new thread has been created on this topic.

To re-cap, you are looking for two types of resources:

1. A tool to develop a KT plan for your organization
2. A tool/survey to gauge knowledge needs/gaps within an organization

In terms of the first tool you are looking for, it seems to me that you are looking for a tool to create a knowledge management strategy for your organization? I would like to point you to a paper by Dubois & Wilkerson (2008): Knowledge Management: Background Paper for the Development of a KM Strategy for Public Health in Canada. Section 5 of the paper outlines four ‘core components’ of an organization that should be examined as part of the process of embracing a KM approach (p. 21). The components include: content, culture, process, technology.

Another good resource on this topic which will soon be available on our Registry is Managing Knowledge to Improve Reproductive Health Programs. Specifically, look at pages 10 – 11 for specific tools related to the different activities of knowledge management (e.g., tools for gathering knowledge, tools for organizing knowledge, etc.).

With respect to your second question, I believe this relates to conducting a “knowledge audit” (assessing the organization’s knowledge management needs, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats and risks). It answers: what do we have? What do we need? What are the gaps?

Another good resource you may want to take a look at is: The Knowledge Translation Toolkit (see chapter 2: Knowledge Management and pg. 6 “conducting a knowledge audit”). Unfortunately, this resource doesn’t appear to have a validated survey that you could use to assess gaps, but perhaps this might be a good start?

Thanks,
Kirsten