Sarah Fraser & Associates Ltd

Sarah’s Strategies in 2008 Many of you ask what I am up to, my current areas of interest, where I am travelling, and so on. So I thought I would let you know my broad strategies for the year. Please check the website pages for more details (like recent clients or masterclasses)

Passions and interests

• Implementing, spreading and sustaining good practice continues to fascinate me. After the success of “Undressing the Elephant; why good practice doesn’t spread” www.undressingtheelephant.co.uk I intend to continue publishing more of the practical lessons learnt about spread and implementation. I’m also working on some new ideas about sustainability in the context of complex systems. As always I feel my work is only as useful as it is practical so I continue to build on project work in these topics; at local, regional and national levels. I am particularly interested in working with a few organisations who may be interested in working on implementing widespread, deeply embedded spread of existing ideas (rather than the patchwork of implementation that so often occurs). I have some new and radical methods to effect this.
• Engaging minority and/or disadvantaged groups is often challenging for improvement initiatives and I believe often because we approach with inappropriate methods and processes. I'd like to focus more of my time and skills on working in this area and in partnering with others to discover effective ways to make a difference.
• Harnessing the virtual experience; thinking two steps ahead, this links to many of my passions and I am working on a variety of training programs, frameworks, interventions and models - all of which aim to enhance the experience for both staff and patients. I'm keen to work with small teams and larger organisations that are prepared to make the leap to become world leaders in using technology to improve the content, the process and - to be ambitious - the total delivery - of care.
• Training the Trainer is a specialty that I am good at and enjoy. I'm interested in finding ways to scale up skills and to renew enthusiasm and inspire others. I like to do this using theory as well as very practical methods and tools. I'm particularly keen to create sustainable intervention and as such often use the training kits developed for this purpose (for further information ») I have video cameras and TVs and can develop a range of detailed training sessions for trainers to develop their skills.
• Dealing with transitions - this is a huge topic and ranges from individuals, teams and organisations. I use the Temenos® ABC techniques where appropriate, as well as other known and some lesser known models to help me and others gain meaning from the processes underway.
• One day masterclasses went local in 2007 and early 2008 by being run in the South & West of England, rather than the usual London. This has been successful and if other UK Regions are interested in a joint venture for later in 2008 then please let me know.
• Translating behavioural tools, games and books into other languages; in 2007 my "Accelerating the spread of good practice; a workbook for health care" book was translated into Danish and the book “Rolling out your project; 35 tools for health care improvers” was translated into Dutch. In 2008 we’re looking forward to a variety of items being translated into languages to suit the users – Danish, Swedish and Dutch. contact@sfassociates.biz
• Volunteering and donating my time is something that I have always done and usually for registered charities who may like facilitation for a Board awayday etc. This year and for the coming years, I intend to focus my consultancy related volunteer work to Southern African Projects. My company will continue to support Batsiranai in Zimbabwe http://www.batsiranai.co.zw/ and I personally continue my work with Rotary International (please also see the book Coping with Calamities www.copingwithcalamities.com). If anyone has projects in Lesotho, Zimbabwe or South Africa, then please feel free to contact me.

Where will I be hanging out in 2008?

• I am very committed to reducing my travel, reducing global emissions and rebalancing my lifestyle. I am fully committed to holding video and telephone conferences whenever possible. Where possible I prefer to combine visits in areas to reduce flights, car trips and train travel. During 2007 I reduced my number of travel days/journeys from 22% to 16% of total worked (while total days billed remained the same). I look forward to you helping me keep the wastage down
• In 2008 my European travel plans include trips to the Netherlands and to Sweden Both the West Coast and East Coast USA are on my travel agenda in 2008.
• I am open for more consultancy, training and project opportunities within the UK during 2008.
• Mini-Sabbatical : From 14th July – 13th September 2008 I shall be on leave.