David Cornforth

Situation

At CQC we had a challenge where four different programmes were sometimes working in silos to implement a new Target Operating Model (TOM). The lack of cross-collaboration was leading to inefficiencies and inconsistencies in our approach.

Task

My task was to realign our team structure and topology, and create cross-functional delivery teams that would work across these four programmes with a focus on a particular domain or service. The goal was to foster better coordination, collaboration, and improve our capacity to deliver end-to-end services effectively.

Action

I identifying key specialists from each of these four programme to commence a pilot, which achieved results in a number of weeks. This pilot not only proved the concept but also helped to solidify a service design approach and ways of working in the teams.

Multidisciplinary delivery teams were formed, ensuring that each team included a diverse range of expertise and perspectives from across the four programmes - policy, service design, organisational design, delivery and data specialists - and clear success measures were articulated for the Operating Model implementation for a service domain.

Result

The formation of these delivery teams greatly improved the implementation of the new Operating Model. The successful pilot and the subsequent scaling of this approach led to the creation of Service Ownership as an executive-level role for decision-making. This meant that roadmaps were service-led and outcome-focused with delivery was aligned across four programmes.