Four steps to successfully implement Mesma quality assurance software: Step One

You’re clear on the return on investment for purchasing Mesma but with so much going on, it’s difficult to see how you’ll find the headspace to implement it successfully.

Sound familiar?

Juggling the day job and implementing changes to the way we do things can feel tough. There’ll always be day to day pressures that keep us rooted in the status quo.

So, combining our years of change management consultancy with the experiences of our clients who have successfully introduced Mesma, here are a series of short blogs covering the four steps to help you to plan for success and make that return on investment a reality.

Focus on what you (and others) lose by sticking with the status quo

When we want to change the way we do things, we often start by setting out a version of the future; a vision or goal.

Yet we know people are more likely to be persuaded to do something different by what they will lose as opposed to what they will gain (See Robert Cialdini’s work on influence).

Focus on what will be lost if you don’t**** do anything different with your QA processes. Consider the perspective of your colleagues too; they might have other priorities that matter more.

Here are things we often hear when supporting our clients to onboard the software :


“If we stay as we are now, quality assurance will continue to be seen as a sideline to the main job, with too much admin and not enough impact.”
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“Our SAR and QIP won’t be as joined-up as we want them to be and curriculum teams will continue to be disengaged from the process.”
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“We will keep dealing with multiple unwieldly spreadsheets to coordinate developmental observations, deep dive enquiries, and the SAR and QIP. I’ll still spend hours trying to pull it all together when I could be doing other things.”

“We struggled with our Ofsted Early Monitoring Visit. If we keep doing the same as we are now, we might struggle with full inspection.”

What’s in it for me?

When you’re discussing Mesma with your peers or your boss, allow people to be a bit selfish about the case of change if you want to create a meaningful shift in thinking. There’s nothing wrong with asking a perfectly reasonable question; ‘What’s in it for me?’

Whilst a team member wants to understand why they shouldn’t just keep doing what they’ve always done, they also want to understand why they should do something different.

We’ll focus more on motivation in the next blog.

For now, let’s focus on practical actions.

Step One Simple Checklist

I've identified the key stakeholders in our proposed change to using Mesma.
I’ve explored the ‘What if we do nothing to our current QA approach?’ question with them.
I understand their current frustrations with the way we conduct quality assurance.
I’ve asked stakeholders to identify what they need from Mesma to make sure we get a return on investment.
I’ve worked this through with the (very lovely) Mesma team to make sure it’s the right solution for us.


The steps we’ll cover in this series are:

Step 1: Case for Change

Step 2: Motivation to Change

Step 3: Upskilling the Team

Step 4: Embedding the Change

Join the Mesma online community to download a free resource covering the checklist for all four steps here.

Updated on: 04/05/2022