The most difficult part of communication is to ensure that it happens!

Editor's Notes

• #2: Hello, we are Jennifer Hunter and Amanda Khan, and we are from the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation and Parkwood Hospital / Lawson Health Research Institute respectively We are here to discuss our work with the SCI KMN, which is the Spinal Cord Injury Knowledge Mobilization NetworkQuick poll:Who here has worked on an implemnetation project?!Put your hand up if communication, either within an implementation team, or between impoementation teams funders and administrators, was a challenge for your projectHow many of your project spanned more than one unit, system or facility?If you have a multi-unit or multi-site project was communication between stakeholder, or to get buy0-in more difficult?The SCI KMN’s scale is 6 spinal cord injury rehab sites across 3 provinces in canada. To be successful we need to communicate effectively. Thus… Specifically, we want to discuss how we have been facilitating communication within the SCI KMN, because as we all know, the most difficult part of communication is to ensure that it happens
• #3: This is a brief overview of how our talk is structured We’ll first begin by discussing what the SCI KMN is, then we’ll discuss how online collaboration platforms can be used as a tool to help facilitate communication within groups We’ll then introduce Microsoft SharePoint, which is the online collaboration platform that we chose to implement for the SCI KMN
• #4: So what is the SCI KMN? It is a network of 6 Canadian rehabilitation centres across Canada that works together to uniformly apply the principles of implementation science to facilitate the adoption of best practices. We are funded by the Rick Hansen Institute, the Alberta Paraplegic Foundation and the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation We are supported by NIRN, which is the National Implementation Research Network, an organization that advises on implementation science- Our goal is to improved the quality of lives of those living with SCI by managing or minimizing secondary complications in Pressure ulcers, pain and bladder management.
• #5: This is how the SCI KMN is organizedThe overall Project Leadership Team is comprised of all the site leads from our 6 different sitesWe then have sub-committees such as the Knowledge Management and Collaboration Team (KMCT). The transformation specialists are key front line workers who are the team leaders of site implementation teams and are in charge of “doing the work” on sites.Our 6 member sites are highlighted in the red boxThey are: GlenroseRehabilitationHospital in Edmonton AB, FoothillsMedical Centre in Calgary, AB, Toronto Rehabat the Lyndhurst Centre in Toronto, ON, the Lawson HealthResearch Instituteat Parkwood Hospital, the IRGLM in Montréal, QC and the IRDPQ in Quebec City, QC
• #6: There are many benefits of being a member of this network. The highlights include: Collaboration between members to collectively be a force for change, so that together, we are working via a concerted effort. We can share work and expertise together, so that we do not replicate work at individual sites i.e. instead of having to design a training module at all the different hospitals, one hospital group can make it and then each site can tailor it to their own needs. We can also draw on each site’s individual strengths or even individual staff member’s strengths to accomplish tasks or provide instruction and insight.We have friendly competition between sites to help foster growth and keep timelines on track.Our network together is very innovative and dynamic. We are the first rehabilitation network of its kind.However, there are numerous challenges we need to overcome to be a successful network.Our 6 different sites span different physical locations and time-zones, so that there can be both scheduling conflicts and technical issues that limit communication. Also because we are comprised of sites in both English and French speaking portions of the country, there can be language barriers as well.** CONCRETE EXAMPLE: Toronto Rehab/ UHN reorganization. Our CoP and the SCI KMNetwork keeps this project high profile and thus has remained on the agenda through reorganization***
• #7: So how do we overcome these challenges?Our idea was to use an online collaboration platform
• #9: There are a Variety of Collaboration Platforms out there
• #10: SharePoint is a secure website that SCI KMN members can log into to work on material related to the project and share material with other members. The online collaboration platform that the SCI KMN uses is Microsoft SharePoint. The Rick Hansen Institute (RHI) made an in-kind contribution of their SharePoint licence to the SCI KMN. While RHI provides IT and technical support, the actual creation of the site, design and local administration is performed internally by the SCI KMN.Working virtually on SharePoint allows all SCI KMN members to: participate in content creation host discussions online share information / files give feedback / feedforward automatically archive changes An excellent example of how we have used SharePoint to foster feedback / feedforward is through the online communications between out Site Implementation Teams and Senior Management. SharePoint provides a direct mechanism for each site member of the SCI KMN to have a voice and directly interact with upper management by mutually engaging in discussion board chats, reviewing documents made by each other and providing transparency in day to day operations.The SharePoint website also acts as a “living library” of every communication, task and file created by all members. This allows organizational senior management easily first hand view how complex issues were resolved by members and understand the time/effort required to overcome organizational barriers.  Furthermore they can see similar and different issues at other sites.
• #11: A b enefit to SharePoint is that it gives us the flexibility to design a website that meets our project needs. It can be as simple or complex as you like (simpler the better!). It is private, easy to build and flexible to build. Each team/committee, recall the org chart, has their own protected space to work on their relevant documents within the site. All team pages are sub-sites of the main – public (SCIKMN) – page. This is an actual screenshot of how our SharePoint website looks. Here is the Knowledge Mobilization and Collaboration Team’s individual page. Here you can see the Discussion board, Tasks and Working Documents that this committee has created.Another key feature is Alerts.A user/team member can customize their alerts to key discussion boards or document libraries that they are involved in. This allows them to receive reminder emails (at their discretion – immediately, daily or weekly ) about updates or changes to SharePoint documents. This is key to follow rapidly changing documents/dicussions.
• #12: When transitioning to an online workspace from a more traditional model of communication, you must take into account that users have various levels of comfort with online technology. To help users easily understand how to use SharePoint, we pre-recorded Online “Webinars” to educate SCI KMN members on how to use the main features of SharePoint and answer Frequently Asked Questions. Some sample webinars are:Introduction to SharePoint (20 min)How to Upload, Download and Modify Documents (8 min)How to set up Alerts (8 min)Changing passwords (document)New SharePoint Tools (8 min)The graph on the right details how many SCI KMN members have been logging into SharePoint per month. You can see we have had a steady increase in the amount of users logging in per month, which starts to dip in the summer months as people go on summer vacation, but stays consistent
• #13: We have used Google Analytics to track update and usage. iT helps inform us what parts of the site are being used as well as some basic demographics. For example you can see that the number of new users is declining and the number of returning users is increasing. This means that users are coming back – google is recognizing their return – and checking in on what has changed or is using it to keep track of progress.
• #14: ** EXAMPLE: key concern for the SCI KMN and feedback was that email traffic was clogging up inboxes (noting that all SCI KMN members have day jobs too!) So we further transitioned to SharePoint to alleviate some of that. See arrows here: Highlighted posts have saved at minimum 8 – 14 emails based on the discussions alone.
• #15: ZOOMED IN discussion board for showing time of postings. PAT discussions. Not necessary to show who posts... Just for time of day examplesDifferent time examples top to bottom: 1:18 pm afternoon11:35 pm NIGHT6:13 pm evening10:32 am MorningEST
• #16: Example of organizing the data
• #18: Acknowledge the network
• #19: Questions/comments