1. What are the criteria for choosing a successful new practice or method?

New practices or methods that have been successfully implemented tend to share a number of common characteristics. The following provides a summary of some of key issues that may assist you in the selection of a new practice or method.

• Obvious Need:  Staff and service users will accept change if the change proposed can be understood as a solution to an existing problem.
• Clear Benefits:   Stakeholders or service users must be convinced that change will result in benefits, e.g. a more efficient or effective service.
• Congruent Values:   New practices or methods that are in line with individual and organisational values, norms and working methods stand a far greater chance of success.
• Simple:   The more complex a new practice/method, the harder it is to implement. Keep things simple and small scale, at least initially.
• Testable:   New practices that can be tested on a small scale and with minimal risk are easier to introduce.
• Visible:   Quickly observable  benefits will make change easier to achieve.
• Adaptable:   Being able to adapt a new practice to existing conditions can make it easier to implement.
• Transferable:   A new practice which has applicability to more than one service context or more than one group of service users may prove easier to implement.