Exercises and videos to help you to mobilise knowledge effectively.

Mobilising evidence and knowledge webinars

Created specifically for KNOWvember19, these four recorded webinars:

  • introduce mobilising evidence and knowledge
  • explore some of the learning before, during and after techniques  in more detail

Each webinar includes examples of how the techniques have been used by other knowledge specialists and consider how you can introduce the techniques into your daily practice.

Video: Mobilising Evidence and Knowledge - Introduction (Video 1)

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Female voice: Welcome to the first in our short series of bite-sized introductions about mobilising evidence and knowledge.

What is mobilising evidence and knowledge

Mobilising evidence and knowledge describes a process where people use research, data, insight and the skills, experience or ideas from other people to help them with their work. It can underpin informed decision making by tapping into what has been published and other peoples know how.

Why is this important for healthcare?

We know that healthcare is a knowledge based industry undergoing constant change with ever increasing demand and complexity of care. There is a call to become more streamlined and efficient to avoid unnecessary duplication. To continually learn so that future work builds upon best practice and avoids pitfalls. To drive innovation. This is why mobilising evidence and knowledge is important as it is by sharing and re-using what we know already that we can continue to make improvements.

How can this be achieved?

This can be achieved by encouraging more people in the health service to use evidence from research but also to connect with each other to share ideas, to collect this know-how and make it available for re-use by individual teams and organisations. There are some simple techniques available that can help with this such as those described in the NHS Knowledge Mobilisation Framework.

Quick reference cards

There are 13 techniques that are part of the Knowledge Mobilisation Framework. Each one is described on a postcard or quick reference “aide memoire” card. Each postcard shows you how to undertake each technique, the expected duration of the activity. The colour coding on the postcards shows you whether they should be used before, during or after a particular activity.

E-learning

To complement the postcards, we have developed a suite of 11 E-Learning modules featuring some of the techniques.

These resources are free to access via the e-learning for healthcare platform as well as via ESR. The e-learning programme incorporates a choosing tool to help people decide which tool may be best for them at a particular moment.

Each module briefly introduces each technique – highlighting the benefits, provides a quick overview of how to do the techniques and invites participants to have a go at using the technique either by completing a short activity or by planning use of the technique in a real life situation.

Four of the modules - Self Assessment Tool, Peer Assist, Action Learning Set and Retrospect also incorporate some video clips to show the techniques in use and the benefits of using them

The role of librarians and knowledge specialists

Your role as a knowledge specialist is to spot opportunities to encourage the use of evidence and knowledge by individuals, teams and your organisation. Make sure you are aware of key priorities within your organisation and be able to provide evidence to support decision-making. A simple next step would be to become familiar with some of the techniques in the NHS Knowledge Mobilisation Framework to see how you can apply them in your local context – this may involve you or your team facilitating a knowledge mobilisation technique or it could be as simple as making NHS colleagues aware of the benefits from using knowledge mobilisation techniques.

What next?

The next bite sized sessions will explore some of the knowledge mobilisation techniques in more detail, make suggestions for how to get started and provide examples of how they have been used by other knowledge specialists. For further examples visit the Knowledge Mobilisation (KM) Toolkit and take a look at the KM stories by using the link at the foot of this slide.

Further information

If you would like further information or to share what you have been doing to mobilise evidence and knowledge in your organisation, please contact members of the Mobilising Evidence and Knowledge Group.

Media last reviewed: 12 December 2023

Next review due: 12 December 2024

Video: Mobilising evidence and knowledge: Learning before (Video 2)

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Female voice: Welcome to the second video in our short series of bite-sized introductions about mobilising evidence and knowledge where we will look in more detail at some Learning Before techniques.

Effectively sharing knowledge

Healthcare is a knowledge based industry. Sharing the know-how of staff, using research evidence and implementing best practice are all business critical. The Knowledge Mobilisation Framework emphasizes learning throughout the an activity’s lifecycle: learning before, during and after. It provides a set of tools and techniques that are simple and quick to use that people can integrate into their daily practice, to encourage continual learning, replication of good practice and avoidance of pitfalls. The tools and techniques facilitate learning and support strategic planning, operational delivery and sustainability.

It is a cyclical process – learning before can lead to learning during and learning after which then feeds back into learning before.

Learning before

By improving learning before you consider who has done similar work before? Who has worked with this client before? Where have we similar skills?

Self assessment tool

The self-assessment tool is a simple framework has been developed to quickly assess how a team or health organisation can make better use of knowledge as an asset. Often referred to as “The Board Tool” this framework enables a dialogue between a representative of a library and knowledge service and senior executives in a health organisation to see how they are currently using external evidence and organisational knowledge and to devise an action plan to help the organisation develop best practice with targeted support.

The technique takes approximately 1 hour to use and helps to open up dialogue about the range of services the local library and knowledge team can offer to help the organisation meet their objectives.

Self-assessment tool in action

Rachel Cooke has used the self-assessment tool in her Trust, Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust. It has transformed the way her team works with the Medical Division. Rachel says:

“I used the evidence and knowledge self-assessment tool with the Medical Division at Surrey and Sussex NHS Trust. They found the tool easy to use and were enthusiastic about the opportunities it presented. As a result of using the tool a member of my team now regularly attends the Divisional Board Meeting to respond to knowledge and evidence needs that arise during the meeting and act as guardians for ensuring divisional policies are fully evidence based, updated and easy to access.”

Peer assist

A Peer Assist is a structured facilitated meeting or workshop where people are invited from other business units or other businesses to provide their experience, insights and knowledge to a team who have requested help.

Ahead of the peer assist session it is important to appoint a facilitator as well as circulating background information including purpose and objectives of the meeting.

There are four stages to the peer assist.

The home team present context, history and plans for the future and what they hope to get out of the meeting.

Visitors ask question and provide feedback about what worked well for them and what could have been done better.

The Home team analyses and reflects on what’s been learned and examines options.

Finally, the visitors present feedback answer questions and agree actions with the home team.

The duration of the process is usually half a day. The teams benefit by gaining insight into how someone else has approached something and confirming an approach that was taken.

Peer assist: A case study

View Martin Elliott's experience on YouTube 

Important: Information

The YouTube link provided is to Professor Martin Elliott's lecture on his experience with the Formula One team as the interview is no longer available 

To see real benefits from a peer assist, view the interview with Professor Martin Elliott a surgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Martin undertakes arterial switch procedures which is an open heart surgery that restores a normal blood circulation in a baby's body. He was concerned that it may be factors associated with the teams involved rather the health of the patient that may adversely impact on the wellbeing of the baby. This procedure normally takes a surgical team 6-7 hours; the baby is then transferred to Intensive Care where it is the responsibility of a new team to manage the baby’s care.

The idea to get in touch with the Ferrari Formula One Team came following a late night and early morning of surgery when a grand prix was on the television in the break room. The pit stops took as little as 6.8 seconds and everyone involved had specific jobs to do and it looked a very slick operation. A colleague of Martin’s got in touch with Bernie Ecclestone who put the team in touch with Ferrari. It soon transpired there was a mutual professional interest in doing something well.

The Surgical team travelled to Marinello to meet the Ferrari F1 team.

The F1 pit stop team have a clear definition of roles and leadership. They rehearse many times verbally and rehearse and try to anticipate what might go wrong. In the NHS there is often little time for rehearsal.

On returning to the UK the surgical team brought in a human factors expert who conducted and observational study which resulted in a number of interventions including structured handovers, defined tasks and rehearsals. The result has been a reduction in time transferring a patient from the operating theatre to intensive care and a reduction of the number of errors by 50%.

If you want to know more about this you can you view and interview with Martin via the YouTube link. 

Before action review

The Before Action Review helps a team state their intention (task, purpose and end-state) just before commencing the project, project stage or a piece of work, but also adds the discipline of predicting challenges and risks and, most important, drawing on lessons learned from past experiences at the start.

Four questions make up this technique;

What are we setting out to achieve?

What can be learned from similar situations and past projects from elsewhere?

What will deliver success?

What are the actions we need to take to avoid problems and apply good practice?

It can be run in as little as 15 minutes.

Appreciative Inquiry

Within appreciative inquiry the focus is on seeing the world differently. Participants are invited to celebrate what is working well, analyse why and then to imagine the best possible future outcome and how to achieve it. The process often involves creative expression of the future outcome.

Opportunities to use learning before techniques

Think about a recent enquiry you have received or about a key priority for your organisation – could you recommend a learning before tool to help the use of evidence and knowledge?

To get you started think about the following scenarios – how would you introduce a learning before tool

Putting it to the test

Which learning before tool might you use in the following situations?

In scenario one we imagine that we are supplying an article about new virtual fracture clinics, you notice from the abstract that these have been introduced successfully in a London Trust. What could you share with your requestor to encourage them to learn more?

A Peer Assist will enable one team to learn from another team who have put something similar into place. In this instance you may want to suggest to the person requesting the article that they may like to set up a peer assist with the team from the London Trust to learn more about how they set up the fracture clinic. You could offer to facilitate the session for them.

In scenario 2 you discover that the Trust are planning to refresh the Trust values. What technique could you share with the person leading this work?

Using appreciative inquiry is a great way to encourage people to imagine a positive outcome and would be a good way to engage people to think about Trust values.

In scenario three the new Director for Quality and Nursing visits your stand at Trust induction. Besides inviting him to become a member of the library what knowledge mobilisation technique might you suggest?

Using the self-assessment tool with newly appointed senior staff is a great way to have a conversation about the wide range of services that you can offer and put in place some actions to help them make improve the way they use evidence and knowledge

What next?

The next bite sized sessions will explore some of the knowledge mobilisation techniques in more detail, make suggestions for how to get started and provide examples of how they have been used by other knowledge specialists. For further examples visit the KM Toolkit and take a look at the KM stories.

Further information

If you would like further information or to share what you have been doing to mobilise evidence and knowledge in your organisation please contact members of the Mobilising Evidence and Knowledge Group.

Media last reviewed: 12 December 2023

Next review due: 12 December 2024

Video: Mobilising Evidence and Knowledge - Learning during (Video 3)

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Female voice: These are the slides and transcript from the third video in the mobilising evidence and knowledge bite-size series entitled "Learning During".

Welcome to the third video in our short series of bite-sized introductions about mobilising evidence and knowledge where we will look in more detail at some Learning During techniques.

Effectively sharing knowledge

Healthcare is a knowledge based industry. Sharing the know-how of staff, using research evidence and implementing best practice are all business critical. The Knowledge Mobilisation Framework emphasizes learning throughout the an activity’s lifecycle: learning before, during and after. It provides a set of tools and techniques that are simple and quick to use that people can integrate into their daily practice, to encourage continual learning, replication of good practice and avoidance of pitfalls. The tools and techniques facilitate learning and support strategic planning, operational delivery and sustainability.

It is a cyclical process – learning before can lead to learning during and learning after which then feeds back into learning before.

Learn more about the knowledge mobilisation framework.

Learning during

There are 7 techniques in this ‘Learning During’ section of the framework. These are approaches that help us to consider learning that is taking place during a piece of work, to share experiences and build partnerships.

After action reviews

This is a quick and simple technique – based around four basic questions.

Usually a short structured meeting held immediately after an activity – maybe a training session, or following a ‘go live ‘ day, at the Study stage of taking an initiative through the Plan Do Study Act Improvement cycle. Usually facilitated by one of the team members, the trick is to invite everyone involved in the ‘action’ to participate in the After Action Review. You only need 10 to 15 minutes to capture lessons learnt that can be put into practice immediately. So this is not about waiting to pull things apart at the end of a very large project but for really taking stock after a relatively short term activity that could be part of a much bigger programme.

For longer pieces of work you might take longer.

After action review: a case study

We introduced this technique at a workshop for colleagues working across primary care. Farzana put the After Action review technique to work straight away.

She has found it helpful in several different settings - for event analyses, staff performance meetings and Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspections and particularly favours in her words the "golden question" Why was there a difference? As it is much less judgemental than why did it happen. It shifts the conversation away from Blame and instead the focus is on learning.

As Farzana explains: “Using such simple questions can help the regulatory primary care CQC process feel kinder and more humane”.

Knowledge Cafes

Knowledge cafes are a great way to encourage productive conversations and allow people learn from each other. The value of the Cafe is in the conversation itself and the learning that each individual takes away. These Cafes can help people to solve problems - they help to break down silos, uncover actionable insights and so drive innovation and to build a community. Advance planning is key to running a café smoothly. . Time spent devising an open-ended question that will stimulate conversations and ensure participants can really get underneath the issues. Allow 1- 2 hours.

Sarah Lewis has successfully facilitated Knowledge Cafes for her organisation. Follow the link to hear Sarah interviewing Daniel Leveson, Deputy Director of Strategy at Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust about his experience attending the Knowledge Cafe.

BHT Impact of Knowledge cafes 2019.

Community of Practice

Building a community of practice brings people together who have a common purpose or shared interest where ideas and experience can be shared. The best communities of practice are nurtured to encourage interaction and keep the content relevant to group members. Often a community of practice maintains a set of knowledge assets or resources to support the learning taking place.

A basic community of practice for those interested in knowledge management has been set up by colleagues in the HEE internal knowledge specialist team. To join follow the details on the Knowledge for Healthcare blog.

Knowledge assets

A knowledge asset packages knowledge in one place to make it easy to use by other people. They may contain key lessons learned, case histories, key contacts, best practice and published documents organised and curated to make them easy to re-use.

Katie Nicholas, Knowledge Specialist with the Health Education England internal knowledge management team helped to create a knowledge asset of resources for champions supporting the armed forces community. The resource brings together lots of useful information from a range of different sources and uses Sway, an interactive reporting tool embedded onto webpages, to help organise the information based upon themes in a set of Evidence Summaries also prepared by the team. You can find out more about this knowledge asset by visiting the knowledge management toolkit on the Knowledge for Healthcare Blog.

Have a look at an example with the Armed Forces Champions Resource.

Action Learning Sets

Meeting regularly as a small group these provide a safe-space for people to bring real life issues. The postcard sets out a standard structure you can use and the focus is on using coaching techniques, posing open questions to identify and trial actions to overcome issues.

Alison Day has been working with colleagues in the Organisational Development Team at The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to facilitate action learning sets for individuals taking part in a senior leadership development programme.

The organisational development team were looking for more people to facilitate action learning sets as part of their senior leadership development programme. I had taken part in action learning sets before and found them a really helpful way to learn from other people and find solutions to overcome work blocks and to support my own development. I had six middle leaders drawn from two local Trusts attend the five sets I facilitated. My job as facilitator was to keep the group focused on the structure of the set and to avoid the temptation to jump in with solutions before individuals had had an opportunity to fully explore the issue via a series of open coaching style questions. It was also important to create an environment where all participants were able to take away learning and where actions to put the learning into place were agreed, trialled and then discussed at the next action learning set.

Randomised Coffee Trials

Randomised Coffee Trials are short and fun. You randomly match people to have a conversation with each other. It’s a great technique to strengthen networks, bring different disciplines together, irrespective of role. You’re simply asking people to pair up and talk for 30 minutes whether by skype/phone or face to face. Displayed is some feedback following a Randomised Coffee Trial that took place at Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Fishbowl conversations

Fishbowl conversations are a useful technique for debating “hot topics” or sharing ideas and knowledge from a variety of perspectives. They can be used as an alternative to the traditional panel discussion or debate enabling more dynamic participation.

Opportunities to use learning during techniques

Think about a recent enquiry you have received or about a key priority for your organisation – could you recommend a learning during tool to help the use of evidence and knowledge? To get you started think about the following scenarios – how would you introduce a learning during tool.

Putting it to the test

Which learning during tool might you use in the following situations?

In scenario one you are asked if you can provide a room for a small team to meet in to prepare new care pathways for rheumatology. Can you think of a knowledge mobilisation technique you might be able to offer this group? You could offer several knowledge mobilisation techniques to support this group including offering an embedded knowledge specialist to join the group to proactively source evidence to inform the new pathways. You may also offer a horizon scan or bulletin to keep the team updated about the latest evidence and may suggest that they use the simple questions from the After Action Review to reflect upon the work and make changes to their approach as they go along.

In scenario two you are asked to share information about the library and knowledge service with a group of newly qualified nurses. Is there a knowledge mobilisation technique you could also highlight to the practice educator? You may want to offer a range of options to the Practice Educator - perhaps offer to help facilitate some action learning sets, organise a knowledge cafe or fishbowl conversation, set up a horizon scan or bulletin or you may help to set up a community of practice to bring the group together to learn from each other and maybe develop a specialist webpage, sharepoint area or intranet page specifically for this group to share their learning.

Scenario three is a follow-up from providing a research paper where you discover that a study day will be taking place. In addition to having a stand to promote the evidence search service what other learning during technique could you offer? As the organiser is particularly keen to get people to meet you may share with them the idea of holding a randomised coffee trial as this is a great way to encourage participants at an event to go and speak to someone they have not met before.

What next?

The next bite sized sessions will explore some of the knowledge mobilisation techniques in more detail, make suggestions for how to get started and provide examples of how they have been used by other knowledge specialists. For further examples visit the Knowledge Mobilisation Toolkit.

Further information

If you would like further information or to share what you have been doing to mobilise evidence and knowledge in your organisation please contact members of the Mobilising Evidence and Knowledge Group.

Media last reviewed: 12 December 2023

Next review due: 12 December 2024

Video: Mobilising evidence and knowledge - Learning after (Video 4)

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Female voice: Welcome to the fourth and last video in our short series of bite-sized introductions about mobilising evidence and knowledge where we will look in more detail at some Learning After techniques.

Effectively sharing knowledge

Healthcare is a knowledge based industry. Sharing the know-how of staff, using research evidence and implementing best practice are all business critical. The Knowledge Mobilisation Framework emphasizes learning throughout the an activity’s lifecycle: learning before, during and after. It provides a set of tools and techniques that are simple and quick to use that people can integrate into their daily practice, to encourage continual learning, replication of good practice and avoidance of pitfalls. The tools and techniques facilitate learning and support strategic planning, operational delivery and sustainability.

It is a cyclical process – learning before can lead to learning during and learning after which then feeds back into learning before

Learning After

Learning After techniques ask us to consider what did we actually deliver? What did we achieve?

Did the outcome differ our goal? What went well? What went not so well? How will we retain knowledge when from people move on to new roles?

Retrospect

Retrospect has a similar structure to the After Action Review but is a longer version right at the end of a piece of work so you can capture the knowledge before the project team disbands. You would usually invite a beneficiary of the knowledge and lessons being learned to participate. Particularly powerful is the final stage - marking a piece of work out of 10 and considering what would have made it a 10 to identify key learning to pass onto others as knowledge assets that can be accessed at anytime or from any location.

Retrospect: In Action

You can see the benefits of holding a retrospect by viewing the video clips within the Retrospect Module of the e-learning – free to access online from the link shown.

Knowledge harvesting

This technique is framed around knowledge retention.

What happens when valuable members of staff move on? It is not just about staff leaving but also useful at end of projects and when secondments end and helpful when new people start to help get people up-to-speed more quickly.

The key is to start early, ask the right questions and decide how to package the knowledge to make it useful for others – not collecting everything but ensuring key learning is captured for re-use.

The Leaver's Toolkit

The Leaver’s Toolkit presents a range of knowledge transfer activities that a leaver can adopt to capture and pass on their knowledge and learning.

At Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust the Library and Knowledge Services Manager delivers a 30 minute session, Valuing your Knowledge Legacy, on a preparing for retirement workshop for Trust staff. The session encourages participants to think about the unique work-related knowledge they have and discusses ways of sharing this with others in their team

Take a look at the Leaver's Toolkit.

Opportunities to use learning after techniques

Think about a recent enquiry you have received or about a key priority for your organisation – could you recommend a learning after tool to help the use of evidence and knowledge?

To get you started think about the following scenarios – how would you introduce a learning after tool

Putting it to the test

Which learning after tool might you use in the following situations? In scenario one you receive an enquiry about continued use of the library service from a matron who is transferring to work for the newly formed Integrated Care System.

In addition to explaining how she can continue to access library services you may also offer a bulletin of the latest evidence to keep her updated and informed and may share with her the tools from the Leavers Toolkit so that she can transfer key learning from her existing role to others in the team

In scenario 2, you are asked to source some articles by a project team implementing a new information technology (IT) system. When you send the articles you may also send details about the technique of retrospect so when they reach the end of their project key lessons and learning can be captured and shared with others doing similar work in future.

In scenario 3, a chance conversation whilst a new manager comes to join the library uncovers that they need some additional help to get to grips with working in the NHS (they are new to this sector). You may share some information about the NHS or offer a bulletin to keep them updated in their field of interest. However, if you have previously used the leavers’ toolkit with the outgoing manager then there will be valuable knowledge that has been captures and which can be used by the new manager. Knowledge used in this way is often described as rapid on-boarding.

What next?

Revisit the other videos in this bitesized series to explore some of the knowledge mobilisation techniques in more detail, make suggestions for how to get started and provide examples of how they have been used by other knowledge specialists. For further examples visit the KM Toolkit and take a look at the KM stories.

Take a look at the KM toolkit.

Further Information

If you would like further information or to share what you have been doing to mobilise evidence and knowledge in your organisation please contact members of the Mobilising Evidence and Knowledge Group.

Media last reviewed: 12 December 2023

Next review due: 12 December 2024

View the video slides and scripts in an accessible format:

Page last reviewed: 16 June 2021