Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore and describe the perspectives and reasoning of seniordevelopment leaders in healthcare organizations, when reflecting on design as theory and practice in relation tomore traditional methods and tools for improving quality and support innovation.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on a qualitative interview design with fivedevelopment and innovation leaders from separate healthcare regions in Sweden. They have, to varyingdegrees, applied design theory and practice for quality improvement and innovation in their organizations. Theinterview transcript was analysed using a content analysis together with an interpretive approach.
Findings – The major findings are to be found in the balancing act for leadership and organizations inhealthcare when it comes to introducing and combining different theories and practices for improving qualityand support innovation. The balance is between the change in power dynamics and pushing traditional boundaries in a complex healthcare world.
Practical implications – The narratives from the leaders’ experience of applying design theory and practicefor improving healthcare quality can help us create readiness and knowledge about how we prevent and/orfacilitate planning and implementing design theories, practices, methods and tools in a healthcare context.
Originality/value – The study provides a unique insight when it captures and illustrates five differentorganizations’ experiences when applying design for developing healthcare quality.