Plan is when you map out the what, when and how needed to facilitate change in your practices and strategies for improvement in outcomes.

Why is it important to the Data Collaborative?

Plan is where the facilitator(s) gain clarity on when each rung of the Data Ladder of Inference will be completed within the Plan, Meet, and Follow-up steps of the Improvement Cycles. The rungs selected to be completed in the Meet phase will be those which are dependent on more than one person’s perspective.

The clarity and planning is important because it is the facilitators responsibility to understand what type of perspective -discover, analyze, ideate, and/or create- they need to facilitate and capture inorder to complete the rung(s) of the Data Ladder of Inference. The clarity gained in the Plan step will set the tone and direction of the following two steps. Without this clarity the following steps in the process can be a source of frustration and inefficient use of time for both the facilitator and participants.

Scaffold

Purpose:What question(s) answered will help you get to the next step in continuous improvement?

• What question/area of focus/challenge are you hoping to improve upon?
• Which rung(s) of the Data Ladder of Inference will you complete in Plan? What did you learn?
• Which rung(s) of the Data Ladder of Inference will you focus on in Meet? What questions/clarity do you need to collectively answer to complete these rungs? Where are you stuck or need additional thoughts?
• Which rung(s) of the Data Ladder of Inference will you complete in Follow-up?

___ Decide ____ Collect __ Prepare ___ Paraphrase ___ Explain

Perspectives:What perspective are the participants taking?

1. Discovery: focused on listing out and generating all potential reactions/reasons/thoughts about the question/challenge/focus area
2. Analysis: cluster all of the potential reactions/reasons/thoughts and creating a single question/challenge/focus area into a root cause
3. Ideate: listing out and generating as many ideas/solutions/suggestions as possible to the question/challenge/focus area
4. Create: developing a prototype(s) that incorporates the value generated from all the ideas/solutions/suggestions

Who:Who needs to be involved?

Plan:

Include the people whom you identify in the questions below:

• Who has expertise in the area of focus?
• Who can add perspective/experience?
• Who does this impact?
• Who has final approval on the decision?

Meet: Repeat from above

Follow-up: Repeat from above

Note: Think about who doesn’t need to come, but needs to be informed. Let this person know about the meeting, but explain that it may not be relevant enough for them and that you will inform them of the outcome.

Supporting Source(s):What information is relevant to the conversation?

1. Common assessment:
2. Observation:
3. Subject Matter Expert:
4. Research/Discovery: EBPs, Research, Program Models, etc.
5. Experience