What skills are required to bring implementation plans to fruition? Does the size of large- or small-scale implementation projects dictate the number of people assigned to the project? Is implementation support work a matter of technical skill, knowledge of best practices, human relation building and maintaining or is it a combination of each?

These questions point to a larger issue for leaders: successful implementation depends not only on how many people are assigned to the work, but also on whether the right people, with the right mix of skills, are involved.

Consider for a moment the individual(s) on your past or current implementation team. What unique skills made them equipped for the important task of leading out the organization’s change project(s)?  Often, the answer to this question focuses on the person’s length of service in the field, the reputation they have earned within the organization over their tenure, or their subject matter expertise in the finer aspects of the required practice change.

The expertise of the people selected for your implementation teams is essential to its success. Expertise, however, is not unique to those with extensive tenure, workplace reputation or what we may call subject matter expert (SME) status. In fact, choosing an implementation team based on these factors alone may be shortsighted. The fact is people responsible for supporting implementation work bring a range of personal, professional, and subject-related characteristics that make their participation necessary, even if they appear on the surface to be non-traditional change team members. These unique team members are practitioners of implementation support.

So, what characteristics are needed for implementation support practitioners (ISP)? The name alone may suggest a degree of specialization that precludes people from the change process rather than incorporates them into it. That does not have to be the case as leaders consider how to build implementation teams. Effective implementation support requires broad expertise and a unique set of skills.

Research suggests ISPs have skills ranging from emotionally based skills such as relationship building to more technical or academic skills, like implementing a particular evidence-based practice. ISPs are competent individuals with the ability to co-create change activities, promote ongoing improvements and build individual and organizational capacity to sustain change. No single characteristic assures success in supporting change efforts. Rather, success depends on a range of skills that enable ISPs to create effective relationships with change agents, support change processes and collaborate with internal and external resources.

Want to learn more?  CMHIS Southwestern Plains Hub is sponsoring a 2-hour learning session on the roles and characteristics of effective implementation support practitioners in April.  Learn more about the event here: https://www.cmhisupport.org/event/role-of-implementation-support-practitioners-in-organizational-change/