How to find your Changing and Improving examples

You almost certainly have Changing and Improving examples already — you just have not labelled them yet. This step-by-step guide helps you search your work, volunteering, education and caring history for evidence that scores.

Start in the right places

This behaviour lives wherever routines exist. Anywhere there is a process — a rota, a form, a queue, a handover — there is a potential example, because processes can always be improved.

• Work: a task you found a faster, safer or cheaper way to do.
• Volunteering: a charity process you simplified or helped modernise.
• Education: a group project where you changed the approach mid-way.
• Caring and community: a routine you reorganised that worked better for everyone.

Do not filter for seniority at this stage. Write down every candidate, however small. You will choose the strongest later.

Follow the steps

1. List your routines

   Write down five to ten processes you use or used regularly, in any role. Include the boring ones — boring processes produce the best improvement stories.

2. Mark what annoyed people

   Next to each routine, note anything that caused delay, errors, waste or complaints. Improvement examples start from a problem.

3. Find where you acted

   Circle the problems where you personally did something: suggested a fix, tested one, or changed your own method after feedback.

4. Check for feedback moments

   For each circled item, ask: did anyone criticise my idea or my work, and did I adapt? That moment strengthens the statement significantly.

5. Score the results

   Note what changed afterwards. Look for at least one number — time, money, errors, people. No number at all usually means a weaker example.

6. Pick the best fit for the grade

   Choose the example whose scope matches the grade: your own tasks for AO, a team process for HEO and SEO, wider change for senior grades.

Test each candidate with three questions

Before committing to an example, answer these honestly. If you cannot, move to the next candidate on your list.

1. What exactly was poor or slow before, in one sentence?
2. What did I personally do, in three or four actions?
3. What changed afterwards, with a number?

For example, a teaching assistant might answer: handover notes were missed at shift change; I suggested a shared notebook by the door and asked colleagues each day what was missing; missed handover items fell from about five a week to one.

What if you genuinely cannot find one

Think smaller. People often overlook feedback examples: a time a manager corrected your work and you changed how you did it permanently, or a customer complaint that made you adjust your approach. Those count, especially at junior grades.

If you are still stuck, create the evidence now. In your current role or volunteering, spot one small improvement this month, suggest it, and see it through. A fresh, real example beats a stretched memory.

Ask colleagues, friends or family what they have seen you improve. Other people often remember your changes better than you do, because they felt the benefit.

Your final checklist

• The example shows a real problem and a better way you found
• Your personal actions are clear and in first person
• There is at least one moment of feedback or adaptation
• The result includes at least one number
• The scope matches the grade you are applying for