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Panel 1 Introduction, "Understanding the Complex Context of Implementing and Sustaining EBPs in the Real World"

Watch and listen as Paul Florin, Professor of Psychology at the University of Rhode Island, introduces the first panel of the Forum which explores the topic of, “Understanding the Complex Context of Implementing and Sustaining Evidence-Based Practices in the Real World.”

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Transcript

Hi, my name’s Paul Florin.  I’m really happy to be here because from the very first moment that I started speaking on the phone several months ago with people from ASPE, other federal partners, the folks from AIR, other folks that have been brought in from all over the country, it was clear that this forum was going to be a meeting of consequence.  A meeting of consequence in two ways.

One way was consequence in terms of pushing the envelope of thinking.  Abe Wandersman told everybody, the other co-PI, said, “We want the equivalent of TED Talks for these folks.”  So, there are approximately 12 minutes, and part of my job will be to keep people on time.  We hope that there won’t be too many pyrotechnics, but we know that there will be conceptual sophistication such that Cirque du Soleil would be happy to see it.

[Laughter]

I’m going to introduce the first panel.  And the first panel is to, of course, stimulate discussion.  And there’s going to be three panelists.  I’m going to describe all three of the presentations right now, and then I’m going to talk about the process.

First, David Osher, Vice President and Co-Director of the Human and Social Development program at AIR, will remind us that whenever we enter a system to implement any kind of intervention, as Ajay did so well, we are sticking our toes into an ongoing, dynamic, and complex stream of forces that really warrants our sophisticated attention.

Gene Hall, Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, will introduce his Concerns-Based Adoption Model and how it captures the dynamics involved in innovation adoption across several useful metrics, I think, that can allow cross-innovation comparisons.

Then John Roman, Senior Fellow at the Justice Policy Center at the Urban Institute, takes on a kind of considerable challenge.  John is going to apply Return-on-Investment thinking to place-based initiatives where there are multiple programs or interventions occurring simultaneously.

Well, those are the three contents.  I want to talk for two minutes about the process.  Each presenter will have 15 minutes.  I’ll try to make sure that they stay on time.  That will be followed by a short five-minute Q&A, and that five-minute Q&A, I would like to limit to clarifying or substantive questions about the presentation.  That is, not implications and applications.

Why?  Because another part of the consequential aspect of this meeting is to make sure that people really think about how these ideas, tools, conceptual maps can be applied in the real world.  We’re going to begin to whet our appetites for responding to and grappling with these issues by having two distinguished discussants: Thaddeus Ferber, Vice President of Policy at the Forum for Youth Investment, and Bill Trochim, Professor of Policy Analysis and Management, College of Human Ecology, Cornell University.

They will each provide us with their thoughts for ten minutes.  We’ll take a break, but as I love the saying, “Thought is easier to organize than reality,” because thought is easier to organize than reality, we’re going to spend the rest of the afternoon, after the break, applying these concepts.  First in a large group debriefing, and then in small group workgroups on particular topics.

And I’d like your commitment that because you’re here, and because you’re part of this process, you will be co-creators of that process.  No one should walk away asking themself, as they drive home, “Oh, I wish David Osher would have mentioned this,” because everyone will have an opportunity to interact with all the panelists and, more importantly, with each other.

With that, I’ll call David up, and we will begin.
[End of Audio]