Section 2 – Stages of Implementation
A common practice in implementation projects is to spend a long time in careful and deliberate analysis, design, and selection of an intervention and then to leap directly to implementation, only to experience intense resistance, unexpected problems, and too often failure to achieve intended outcomes. What is neglected is the in-between work of readiness assessment, capacity-building, training, resource and competency development, and prototyping. This is the work of the first three stages of the approach that we used in IMPACT and is reflected in the first two areas of focus for the collective impact evaluation model (Figure 1). This section of the guide briefly describes the stages of implementation (Blase et al., 2013a) and helps to explain the accompanying Checklists associated with each of the stages.
We propose the following five overlapping stages for thinking and executing implementation of interventions:
- Exploration & Design – How are we planning for and designing an intervention?
- Capacity & Readiness Assessment – How are we identifying, supporting, and mobilizing what is necessary for successful implementation of the planned intervention?
- Initial Implementation – How are we adjusting, modifying, and supporting the intervention after initial trials or prototypes?
- Full Implementation – How are we scaling and improving the intervention across all the planned sites?
- Sustainability & Innovation – How are we monitoring and continuously improving the intervention to meet current and future needs?
While the stages are described in order, progression through the stages is iterative and should not be rushed. For example, it may be necessary to return to Exploration & Design or Capacity & Readiness in each of the later stages.
