Sue Kerns of The Kempe Center at the University of Colorado highlights the critical importance of pre-implementation readiness in supporting evidence-based practices to take root and sustain over time. With research suggesting that over 60% of implementation efforts fail before a practice is ever delivered to a single client, the video positions pre-implementation as a primary driver of success through a focus on organizational readiness. Readiness is defined as the alignment of three key elements: motivation among those implementing the practice (including the belief that the new approach is useful and improves upon current practice), overall organizational capacity and functioning (such as culture and climate), and innovation-specific capacity (including the necessary staff, structures, and resources). When these elements are aligned, implementation efforts are significantly more likely to succeed. Drawing on a theoretical model of change, this video emphasizes the importance of structured self-assessment to guide readiness efforts. Illustrated through Multisystemic Therapy as an example of how to effectively address pre-implementation gaps, this video offers concrete, actionable strategies to strengthen pre- implementation processes.

Resources

1. Kerns, S. E., Mitchell, C., Rolls Reutz, J. A., & Sedivy, J. A. (2023). Documenting the implementation gap: Pre-implementation supports. Global Implementation Research and Applications, 3(2), 85–98. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43477-023-00081-8 [2]
2. Prochaska, J. O., & Velicer, W. F. (1997). The transtheoretical model of health behavior change. American Journal of Health Promotion, 12(1), 38–48. https://doi.org/10.4278/0890-1171-12.1.38 [3]
3. Scaccia, J. P., Cook, B. S., Lamont, A., Wandersman, A., Castellow, J., Katz, J., & Beidas, R. S. (2015). A practical implementation science heuristic for organizational readiness: R = MC². Journal of Community Psychology, 43(5), 484–501. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.21698 [4]