1. Implementation
Teams
When presenting this content make sure that you are making connections with your current work. That will make the content more relevant and will help your team understand who the work does connect to implementation science.
Give examples where they are available.
Honor the knowledge in the room.

2. Importance of Implementation Teams
Ever take on too much by yourself?
Have a hard time distributing responsibilities?
There is no “I” in team
When implementing an initiative, it is paramount to consider teaming structures that will support the implementation.
One person cannot implement an initiative with fidelity by themselves, it takes the efforts of multiple people, their skills, and knowledge to have successful implementation.
you have all had the experience in education of implementing practices, policies and programs that were eliminated when something new came along or was discarded because you did not achieve the results you wanted
Implementation science….
real life example

3. Implementation Teams have been called a new lever for organization change in education (Higgins, Weiner, & Young, 2012)
Research has shown that, without the use of implementation teams that keep a focus on implementation infrastructures, it takes an average of 17 years to achieve full implementation in only 14% of sites. However, with the support of implementation teams, we can reach full implementation in 80% of sites, in only 3 years. And that difference of 14 years is the full career of a generation of students

4. Implementation teams provide an internal support structure to move the program through the stages of implementation.
One Implementation Team is not enough to assure excellent outcomes for all students in a state. To use effective innovations on a useful scale requires a thoughtful arrangement of Implementation Teams. Implementation Teams make use of the same Active Implementation Frameworks at each level.
We use linking team structures to support implementation at all levels of the system. This linked teaming structure provides the organizational support for scaling up a program, and for sustaining that work. The focus on teams promotes sustainability, as it ensures consistent supports even as individual members experience life and work changes. The key to these linked teams is the establishment of formal, frequent communications between teams at each level. This ongoing, transparent communication is vital to scaling up a program with consistency across sites.
While this may seem complicated, keep in mind that Implementation Teams make use of the same Active Implementation Frameworks at each level. Each team is charged with doing its part to a) support the work of teams at the level “below” them and b) engage in activities that ensure that the overall implementation infrastructure is developed to:
Support staff in delivering interventions as intended and improving outcomes for students
Sustain the intervention over time and across staff
Scale-up the intervention over time and across units
Ensure continuous improvement of fidelity and student outcomes
Briefly define each team
Building Implementation Team- help teachers and staff use the intervention with fidelity, establish coaching schedule and system of support
District Implementation Team- support BIT by supporting development of BIT competencies, help admin and staff remove barriers and align systems and assure leadership engagement in the innovation and BIT functions
Regional Implementation Team and State Implementation Team - helps to support and develop the DIT through training and coaching, helps development of purposeful implementation with organizational support systems in place; resolves organization and system issues that arise; systems integration. RITs provide the leverage to link national and state policies to districts and schools, and to link the experience of districts and schools to state and national policy makers. RITs are the creators of capacity and coherence in otherwise fragmented systems.
each team ensures that rather than “letting it happen” or “helping it happen” they “make it happen”
(Additional info if wanted):
In their review of the literature on innovation and dissemination, Greenhalgh and colleagues made some helpful distinctions in levels of support for the implementation of programs. They categorized these levels of support as
Letting it happen
Helping it happen, and
Making it happen
In the first category, Letting It Happen, researchers publish their programs and findings and take no further steps toward defining programs or supporting additional implementation
In the Helping It happen category, the state may provide access to the materials and to training, but schools and districts are left on their own to implement
Teachers and schools are left to figure out how to solve problems that arise, and are held accountable for achieving positive outcomes.
In the final category, Making It happen, the active use of implementation supports and the use of implementation teams help to install implementation practices to actively support the new program.
The Implementation Team is accountable for developing the implementation support systems, resolving organization and system issues that arise, and achieving positive results.

5. Purpose of Implementation Teams
Implementation teams are accountable for:
guiding the overall implementation of an initiative/innovation from exploration to full, effective, and sustainable implementation
Implementation Teams are NOT advisory groups or committees or representatives.
are not groups who provide periodic input (e.g., occasional meetings for decision-making or discussion).
are actively involved on a daily basis with implementation efforts devoted to assuring the full and effective uses of effective innovations.

6. Establishing Implementation Teams
Begin by assessing current teams and personnel
Team Size
minimum of 3-5 individuals as core Implementation team
Selection Criteria based on competency
know the initiative/innovation
know and use Implementation Science
employ improvement cycles
promote and participate in systems change
An Implementation Team is an organized and active group that supports the implementation, sustainability, and scale-up of usable interventions by integrating the use of implementation stages, drivers and improvement cycles. Forming an Implementation Team does not require new staff to engage in the work of implementation. Many times existing positions or teams can be repurposed to achieve the functions required of Implementation Teams. Important selection criteria from Implementation Team members are as follows:
Implementation Teams consist of a core group of individuals (usually a minimum of 3-5):
have core team, add others as needed to participate based on the expertise that is needed
Who have adequate and dedicated time to allocate to implementation activities and supports
Who have special expertise with regards to effective innovations (EBPs/EIIs), implementation, and improvement strategies
Selection criteria of team members
based on competency with:
knowing the innovations
know and use Implementation science and best practices
employ improvement cycles
promote and participate in systems change
It is not expected that any single team member have expertise in all of these areas. Rather, the composition of the full team is with attention to ensuring that expertise in each area is present across the team.

7. Function 1: Ensure Implementation
assessing and creating “buy-in” and readiness
installing and sustaining Implementation Drivers
monitoring implementation fidelity
action planning: aligning system functions and managing work
solving problems and building sustainability
assessing and creating “buy-in” and readiness
an important function of Implementation Teams is to work with various individuals and groups to help them think about the need for change, get ready for change, and to actively participate in the change process. 80% of the work of an Implementation Team is creating readiness.
installing and sustaining Implementation Drivers
Each Implementation Team has a role to play in ensuring Implementation Drivers are of high quality, funded, sustainable, and improved over time. And collectively the Implementation Teams need to ensure that all the Implementation Drivers are put to good use to support teachers and staff so that students benefit.
monitoring implementation fidelity
Fidelity and outcome data help determine whether the innovation is being used as intended in interactions with students and if the use of the innovation is producing positive results for all students in a classroom, school, or district
Data about fidelity and outcomes give an Implementation Team the detailed information needed to develop action plans. Very different action plans will be developed depending on the results of this analysis
action planning: aligning system functions and managing work
guide and direct activities based on data collected for each stage of work
ensure implementation supports are in place
ensure that system functions are aligned to support the new practice
solving problems and building sustainability
establish feedback loops amongst the teams to identify and remove barriers to successful implementation and routinely communicate to leaders who can address roadblocks and develop systemic solutions

8. Terms of Reference (ToR)
Terms of Reference is a documented internal memorandum of understanding that is developed as groups form in order to:
build consensus on mission and vision
ways of work
levels of authority
decision making protocols
and to develop formal linking communication protocols to create hospitable environments for implementation and sustainability
Purpose: A process for creating alignment, structure, and transparency and ensures:
“Face time” time to work as a Team
Timely access to data, i.e. academic, behavior, implementation fidelity
Clarity of the role of the Team and its members
Reminders of the focus of the work and of the agreed upon ways of work
Connections to teams horizontally within an organization and vertically within the education system (classroom to capital)
ToR facilitates the work because:
It is a proactive way to ensure that there is agreement about important dimensions of the project or work of the group.
It clarifies both the role of the team and may also clarify individual roles on the team
Increases comfort and legitimacy of “all voices” on the team
Such agreement, in the absence of work or issues, helps the group talk more openly about diverse opinions and reach consensus.

9. Suggested ToR Components
Vision/Mission of Team
Goals and objectives
Scope and boundaries
Roles and responsibilities
Communication plan
Available resources
Authority
Deliverables
Implementation plan
Vision: What’s the overarching vision for your team? Does this align with your organization’s vision?
Goals/objectives: What are the main purposes of the team?
Scope: What are the expectations of the team’s responsibilities?
Boundaries: What boundaries exist related to their roles or functions?
Roles/responsibilities: Who participates and in what ways?
Communication: How does this team communicate internally? How does this team communicate with other teams or entities? How is communication facilitated and how often? Development of a communication plan.
Resources: What resources are available to support the work? What resources are important to document in the ToR?
Authority: Over what decisions or processes does the team have authority? What are the limits of the team’s authority?
Deliverables: What are expected deliverables of the team and its members?
Implementation plan: Are there specific stage-based activities related to implementation components that should be included in the ToR?

10. This is an important component of the team
Communication Plan
Purpose: To establish a transparent feedback process and provide a systematic way to report systemic barriers
Essential components:
Establish a rationale for developing the communication plan
Determine what information to communicate
Identify individual responsibilities
Create a schedule for communicating
Establish a consistent format for the feedback/communication
Identify a timeline for responding to feedback/communication
Determine a response format for any feedback/communication received
This is an important component of the team
Purpose: One goal of a communication plan is to establish a transparent feedback process. In our communication plan, we will develop and use linking communication protocols. Using the communication protocol, we will intentionally communicate progress and celebrate success throughout our system. Another benefit of communication protocols is that they can serve as a systematic way to report systemic barriers that are preventing or hindering implementation and should be resolved by one of the groups. Issues can be identified that need to be moved ‘up the line’ to the group that can best address the barrier. Linking protocols ensure that previous actions are still functional.
Connecting policy to practice is a key aspect of reducing barriers to high-fidelity implementation. Frequent, regularly scheduled communication from classroom to district office and back is the major foundation of this successful implementation. And the implementation team is the structure that can ensure this practice.
Effective policy should be in place to enable good practice in the classroom. But those policies can only be effective if they are informed by the teachers themselves, and that communication needs to occur on an ongoing basis. This ongoing communication is really the key to having that enabling context, or hospitable environment, in support of the work of your teachers.
As you develop these communication processes, consider the frequency carefully – if this communication only occurs quarterly, then you only have 3 or 4 opportunities in a school year to make adaptations, or even a course change, in the implementation of a program. How quickly would you want to know if there is a barrier to implementation fidelity? How soon would you want to know about successful strategies that can be operationalized across the district? The frequency of these communication protocols determines how responsive you can be to teacher and program needs.
Essential components
Establish a rationale for developing the communication protocol
Determine what information to communicate (e.g. updates, successes, challenges)
Identify the individual that will be responsible for contacting other teams and communicating the key messages
Create a schedule for communicating with other teams and identify the allotted time for the communication
Establish a consistent format for the feedback/communication
Identify a timeline for responding to feedback/communication
Determine a response format for any feedback/communication received

11. Function 2: Engage the Community
parent/family partnerships
representative of the community
community partners
In Education, depending on the EBI/EII, “Community” may include genuine parent/family partnership that is representative of all students as well as school improvement and community partners such as mental health, early childhood services, etc.
Genuine outreach and transparent communication support Implementation Teams in making sound decisions and monitoring the impact of their decisions.

12. Function 3: Create Hospitable Environments
Any given Implementation Team has areas that are under their control; areas that they can improve to create a more hospitable environment (e.g. scheduling, resources, curriculum choices, professional development resource allocation). Other areas are beyond their sphere of influence. Still, they need to be addressed. This means the Implementation Team needs to systematically and transparently communicate with other teams who can positively influence the policy, regulatory, and funding environments at their level.
they have the authority and time to address barriers and to identify and refer issues they cannot resolve to teams who can.

13. Create Hospitable Environments
Activity: Think about an implementation team you have been involved with or are currently working with.
Are/Were there formal and regular methods for hearing from the “practice level” or “next level” to determine what is working and what needs to change?
What barriers and facilitators exist for practice-policy feedback cycles?
Is there an established problem solving approach to review feedback and make implementable change?
Reflect on these questions
Solo write your response
Find a partner to discuss
Find another pair to discuss and look for commonalities

14. Exit Ticket
How will you use this information to inform the work you do?