As this issue is published there are some fortunate practice developers who will be at the international conference ‘Enhancing Practice 2012’ in Sydney, ourselves included. Looking at the conference programme it seems that practice development shares common foci across several countries. This is a very good thing to see because it means as practice developers we are exploring the challenges of developing thriving workplace cultures and person-centred care from a shared values base and drawing on similar theoretical principles. Ultimately, this will contribute to a more rigorous knowledge base on what practice development is and how practice development
contributes to improved care experiences and workplace cultures. However, there is always space for a curved ball or two. By this we mean practice developers taking different perspectives on something, drawing on alternative bodies of knowledge and ways of knowing. For some reason practice development seems to inspire passionate and sometimes unfair critique (see for example Rudge et al., 2011). As a community we need to make sure that practice development isn’t regarded as some sort of ‘Stepford’ community where its distinguishing features are blind obedience and sameness rather than positive deviancy and diversity. We are hoping you will see a diversity of approaches within the papers in this issue, along with a good sprinkling of criticality and creativity. We are also really looking forward to the Practice Development/Collaborative Action Research Network conference later in November hosted by The England Centre for Practice Development at Canterbury Christchurch University and experiencing just how much positive deviancy and diversity is around there. The IPDJ is aiming to publish a special issue in 2013 with a collection of papers from both the conferences mentioned here.

Turning to this issue, we have a broad range of papers for you to engage with which reflect adversity of approaches whilst sharing common principles; for example, one paper explores diversity within transformatory action research through a critical creative dialogue. The principle of working inclusively is a strong theme amongst the papers. From a theoretical perspective, a new inclusive methodology is presented as are creative and accessible tools and approaches including patchwork and poetry. Several papers reflect on how inclusion across professional boundaries; of patients, service users, families and carers; and of healthcare teams enabled the development of new understandings that led to the transformation of individuals, healthcare practice and workplace cultures. Collaboration, reflected in the opportunity to learn from and with others, is another principle demonstrated by two authors who experienced opportunities to learn from international colleagues and reflect on how this new learning can inform practice in their own healthcare context.

We would also like to celebrate and congratulate the achievements of two novice writers, and thank them for sharing their learning with us. We hope that you enjoy these and all the papers in this issue.
© FoNS 2012 International Practice Development Journal 2 (2) Editorial
http://www.fons.org/library/journal.aspx
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Our deepest thanks to everyone who has contributed to this issue and indeed to everyone who has
contributed to supporting and growing IPDJ throughout 2012. The editorial team at FoNS look
forward to working with you in 2013.