CI Conference 2023

Colleagues from across the University came together on 6 July to share their experience of using Continuous Improvement to reduce everyday frustrations in their work. 

It was great to see so many colleagues gathered at the Continuous Improvement (CI) Conference 2023 to learn, discover and be inspired by the difference CI is making across the University. The buzz and energy at the event were amazing, new connections were made, ideas were gathered and people left the Mathematics Institute ready to start making the small changes that will cumulatively lead to transformational improvements in their everyday frustrations.  

“All the sessions I attended were fab and I left feeling inspired but also with an idea of what CI tools I would like to employ next.” 

CI Conference 2023 delegate 

The morning began with an inspiring keynote talk by Peter McCulloch, Professor of Surgical Science and Practice at the Nuffield Department of Surgical Science. Peter shared with the audience his story of how adopting a continuous improvement mindset using quality improvement (QI) and Lean practice led to a dramatic reduction in mortality during gastro-oesophageal cancer surgery. The audience were inspired to hear how even in a very different setting, use of the same CI tools can achieve impressive results. 

We were delighted to welcome two professional services colleagues to the stage next to talk about how they had used CI in their departments. Rizwana Rashid, Classroom and Research Technician, Department of Pharmacology, described the positive impact that making more effective use of laboratory teaching space has had on the student and staff experience. We found out that at the Said Business School an impressive 3,000 hours (125 working days) of staff time annually has been saved following a project led by Krisztina Suranyi-Cseko, Governance Manager, to improve course committee governance. This was achieved by reducing the number of committees and introducing consistent approaches. 

At the vibrant CI Showcase exhibition colleagues were able to discover even more stories of CI improvement projects across Oxford. The posters covered projects on improving the new starter process, payments to examiners, recruitment, the flight levy and administration of research funds. Delegates were able to talk to the people responsible for leading projects to find out how making small changes had a big impact. 

The CI Showcase was also a chance for colleagues to network, talk to CI practitioners based across the University, join the CI Community of Practice (CoP) and learn about some of the CI tools and skills development opportunities available.  

We also offered four very popular bitesize CI discovery sessions, each one run 3 times across the conference to allow maximum attendance. The sessions were an opportunity to discover more about some of the CI tools that were shared in the plenary sessions and how they can make their working lives easier and better. 

Thank you to everyone who attended, we’re already looking forward to welcoming even more colleagues to our CI Conference 2024! 

Recordings, posters and other materials that support the presentations and activities are now available via the link below.  

Click here for conference materials

Thank you again for your interest and your support.

If you have any questions please email enquiries@focus.ox.ac.uk