The challenges we face in education, health care, and social welfare are multifaceted, reflecting
the complex systems in which we live. Out of urgency and often the best of intentions, organizations implement new policies, technologies, and other innovations to tackle these issues, and hope for the best. However, addressing these challenges requires more than heroic individuals with silver-bullet solutions. We need teams with diverse expertise that know how to learn together and use their collective knowledge to redesign our social systems for the improved well-being of our communities.
Journey to Improvement serves as a road map for teams that are ready to follow a different path to better outcomes. Drawing on their decades of on-the-ground experience, the authors walk teams through the phases of an improvement journey from launching the team to trying ideas in practice to spreading those that work. This book highlights the personal, relational, and technical aspects of taking an improvement science approach and illustrates these ideas through real-world examples from across the social sector and around the world.
Alicia Grunow is co-founder of the Improvement Collective, a company that partners with organizations to improve a wide variety of outcomes that impact children and families. She trains teams, coaches and leaders on the application of improvement science methods and helps people design improvement initiatives to get tangible results. She co-authored the seminal book Learning to Improve; How America’s Schools Can Get Better at Getting Better. Grunow began her career as a bilingual teacher and holds a Ph.D in education from Stanford University.
Sandra Park is a co-founder of the Improvement Collective where she trains improvement coaches and advises large-scale education networks and projects. She led one of the first improvement networks to apply improvement science in the field of education at the Carnegie Foundation. Sandra previously taught elementary school in Oregon, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., and was director of programs at First Graduate in San Francisco. She holds a Ph.D. in education policy from UC-Berkeley, and an Improvement Advisor certificate from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
Brandon Bennett is an advisor, teacher and author who helps organizations in health care, education and social welfare improve outcomes for the communities and individuals they serve. As the founder of ISC LLC, Brandon Bennett teaches advanced improvement methods and partners on a range of global initiatives including disease-specific processes, academic outcomes for students with disabilities and country-wide improvement efforts. Brandon has a B.S. in Psychology from the University of California, Davis and an MPH from Loma Linda University School of Public Health, specializing in global health. He is the author of several results based and methodological papers on the application of improvement science methods and has been a featured speaker at quality conferences around the world.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: Foundations
Section I: WHO’S At the Table?
Chapter 2: Improvement Teams
Chapter 3: Leadership: Setting up teams for success
Chapter 4: Team Formation
Section II: WHAT ARE OUR CURRENT OUTCOMES AND WHY ARE WE GETTING THEM?
Chapter 5: Learning to see Systems
Chapter 6: From Seeing to Selecting
Section III: WHAT ARE WE TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH?
Chapter 7: Coming Together around a Shared Aim
Chapter 8: Chartering an Improvement Journey
Section IV: WHAT CHANGES CAN WE MAKE THAT WILL RESULT IN IMPROVEMENT?
Chapter 9: Change Ideas
Chapter 10: Shared Theory of Improvement
Section V: HOW WILL WE KNOW THAT A CHANGE IS AN IMPROVEMENT?
Chapter 11: Testing Changes in Practice
Chapter 12: Measurement for Improvement
Chapter 13:Improvement Routines
Section VI: HOW DO WE GET CHANGES TO WORK ACROSS A DIVERSE SET OF CONTEXTS?
Chapter 14: Change packages: Preserving knowledge, preparing for spread
Chapter 15: Organizing for Spread
Chapter 16: Guiding the Journey
Chapter 17: Conclusion
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
"Improvement Science is a mindset. Its aim is to develop pathways to equity-centered systems change in Education and allied disciplines. This extraordinary volume will help us use Improvement Science to sharpen our collaborative skills and support evidence-centered action to improve the life chances of the people we serve."
— Louis Gomez, professor of education, University of California, Los Angeles
This book offers a masterclass on the work of improvement teams. Its authors are extraordinary teachers, mentors and facilitators for such teams. Their practical expertise infuses the pages of this book. It is an essential read for anyone working on an improvement team as well as for those who may be positioned to support such teams. It is literally the best available book in this genre.
— Anthony Bryk, president emeritus, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Grunow, Park, and Bennett have thought of everything, and they’ve packaged it neatly for easy consumption. From roles team members will play, to mindsets they will manage, to measures they must collect— this text is both relevant and comprehensive. It is a must have introduction or reference for any improver, coach, or social sector team member seeking to systematically make the world a better place— one [PDSA] cycle at a time.
— Brandi Hinnant-Crawford, associate Professor of Educational Leadership, Clemson University
The Journey to Improvement is thoughtfully grounded in research and skillfully practical. I’m grateful for the shared passion and meaningful insights this work will leverage. Our children, teachers, and leaders have navigated decades of isolated reform effort, our fragile processes produce the results in our painfully complex systems. Building the capability and capacity to improve allows teams to see their systems at work and work together to really improve for impact.
— Pat Greco, PhD, Senior Director of Thought Leadership, Studer Education
This a must read for educators that are looking to take a scientific approach to systemic improvement. This is the invaluable guide you need in your library. You will reach for it again and again.
— Taqwanda Hailey, chief analytics officer, Schools That Lead
This book is a treasure trove for teams in the social sector wanting to make things better. Grounded in the Science of Improvement, it teaches how to understand problems, use everyones skills, and learn together. This book makes it easy for teams to follow a map of their journey and learn their way into improvement.
— Lloyd Provost, Associates in Profit Improvement
In my work in the social sector, I have come across two types of people: those who like to talk about reform and those who actually make a difference. This book offers a practical guide for anyone committed to doing the hard, collaborative, and messy work of changing complex systems.
— Sherry Lachman, head of social impact, OpenAI
This is a fantastic guide for anyone interested in improvement science generally, and especially for those toiling to improve outcomes in the social sector. The authors present a masterclass on improvement – from its philosophical and scientific underpinnings to its continual adaptation and refinement in practice. I’m particularly pleased with the focus on equity and the evidence that shows how keeping equity at the forefront of teams’ minds will lead to deeper engagement and better results. Anyone who wants to improve the lives of individuals, communities, and even whole populations needs to read this book.
— Kedar Mate, MD, President and CEO, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)
