ABSTRACT
The clinicians who undertook these service improvement projects reflected upon the lessons they had learnt from them. These lessons have been collated to provide key themes for consideration by those setting out on their own service improvement journey. In the young carers project, stakeholders were engaged through a collaborative approach designed to drive improvement and innovation, thereby building relationships and finding mutual goals that could be used to improve the service offered even in the context of multiple priorities and limited resources. The importance of good and sustained communications was noted in all of the projects. Networking with those involved with or affected by a project built connections and kept these stakeholders informed. Emotional intelligence may be common to all good leaders but so is the skill of good communication, which includes active inquiry, reframing situations, sharing the vision, motivating and admitting fallibility to build up a team.
