To see the light? Insights from Implementing Human Centric Lighting in a Norwegian hospital

The success of a project depends on the appropriate implementation of its results and that end-users find the results both relevant and effective, meeting their expectations and needs. In this paper we investigate the implementation of Human Centric Lighting (HCL), which refers to different lighting solutions with positive physical and psychophysical effects on patients. HCL was integrated into a new hospital wing in a Norwegian hospital, and we investigated the implementation in a psychiatric department at three different points in time. The data consists of observations and interviews. We found that HCL was not in use, even at our last ‘measuring point’ 3,5 years after the move into the new facilities. Two main barriers for the lack of implementation were identified: lack of employee involvement and ownership of processes, and lack of training. Organizational culture, psychological safety, and resistance to change are used as theoretical lenses to discuss our findings and were found to contribute to the difficulties of implementation.