More about the key characteristic ‘Core leadership structures’

The leadership is described as shared, distributed, or horizontal with no team member holding more power and control than others.

The leadership structure is not hierarchical and does not apply a top-down ‘command and control’ approach.

Each team member has roles and responsibilities and is accountable to their team members.

Decision-making is shared and equitable amongst the team members.

In cases where the core team determines their structures, roles and responsibilities, they may be self-governed and autonomous.

Content experts are those who understand change processes and the implementation of evidence uptake and sustainability. Content experts can also be those with subject matter expertise in a clinical and/or work environment area.

Context experts are those who understand the local context – i.e., the dynamics and the meaning of the shared concern or strongly desired change in a setting (i.e., wherever the change is occurring). They have lived experience of the shared concern and strongly support it as credible and valued.

Both of these expert types must value one another’s knowledge and contributions to the team to create committed ownership.

An individual can be both a content and context expert.

To be effective, a core leadership structure must be flexible and engage the support of others, including formal leaders (e.g., managers or directors of care) and peer champions.

Formal leaders can be instrumental in moving a change forward (e.g., approving a budget or collective action activities).

Peer champions or change agents act as influential leaders who advance and translate the messages and goals of the core structure to their peers.

Core leadership structures are variable and can include change teams, community coalitions, or social movement organizations (SMOs).

A core leadership structure typically has members from one setting and includes both informal and formal leaders whose roles are focused on guiding evidence-informed practice change.

Community coalitions include a group of diverse individuals who represent community services, such as health care, education, or policy. Their combined efforts are targeted at mobilizing for change.  

SMOs function in cases of larger social movements where there are regional chapters or groups and a need for a centralized organization to support and guide the broad goals of the social movement.