As an initial step of the MCH Workforce Development Center’s Learning Journey, teams invite collaborators to think through their challenges and opportunities in a virtual Systems Exploration Workshop. The workshop is an opportunity to do a deep dive with key partners to explore the complex system surrounding your challenge and begin to identify and prioritize potential action ideas. By gaining a holistic view of your system you will set the stage for creating positive transformation.
Who: This process works best with 5-8 diverse partners. We encourage you to thoughtfully:
- Include those with different perspectives than your own, who can help you better understand your challenge and potential solutions.
- View this as an opportunity to hear from your cross-sector/cross-agency partners, community-based partners, people with lived experience, etc.
- Remember workshop participants may or may not be the same people that participate on your Learning Journey team (i.e., this can be a one-time commitment of two half-days).
- Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you’d like to further discuss who to invite to the workshop.
What: This workshop utilizes group model building (GMB) activities. GMB is a participatory systems thinking method that supports groups to develop a response to a challenge, explore policy options, or design a new program or services. It is rooted in the co-creation of a systems map that serves to mobilize a team or community to advocate for and implement changes based on the insights that emerge and build capacity in the use of systems thinking tools. GMB is particularly useful in complex systems where partners seek to collectively develop a shared understanding of why patterns, trends, and outcomes are resistant to change in order to identify potential strategies for improving the system. Check out the Systems Exploration Workshop Video Overview to learn more.
“This was my first experience working with the Iceberg Model for System Thinking and loved it. The casual loop diagram was most helpful to me. The visual helped to identify how concepts and perspectives are connected and impact the other.”
“[What was most helpful to me was] gaining the knowledge on how to begin the process of change within a complex system”
– 2023 Systems Exploration Workshop Participants
Resources
Agenda
January 14th & 16th, 2025 | 12:00 – 5:00 PM ET (virtual)
Systems Exploration Workshop Objectives:
- Create a shared mental model of the group’s primary challenge
- Explore key factors that influence the challenge and the relationships between parts of the systems
- Identify and prioritize preliminary targets for action
- Build capacity to use systems thinking methods
Part 1: January 14th, 2025 | 12:00 – 5:00 PM ET
Welcome & Overview
Hopes & Fears
Participants share their “hopes” and “fears” for the workshop and improving their system of focus to create shared expectations for their work together.
Orientation to Systems Thinking
Introduce the Iceberg Framework for Systems Thinking
Behavior Over Time Graphs
Participants graph trend over time that they think are most important to address and share stories they captured in their graph(s) with the group to frame the challenge and identify one primary trend that’s most important to the group to focus on.
Challenge Statement
Using the primary trend the group identified, formalize a challenge statement.
Connection Circles
Participants begin to identify and connect the most relevant variables shaping key trends over time to continue exploring the challenge, boundaries, key variables, and connections between them.
Reflections & Wrap-Up
Reflect on Day 1 and share expectations for Day 2
Part 2: January 16th, 2025 | 12:00 – 5:00 PM ET
Welcome & Overview
Causal Loop Diagramming
Facilitators support participants in creating a visualization of the key variables and causal interconnections driving outcomes in the system. Causal loop diagrams are used to map the relationships between variables and parts of the system and uncover dynamic feedback within the system.
Action Priorities
Using insights from the above activities, participants identify high-priority leverage points and specific action ideas.
Aim Statement
Using the selected action priorities, formalize the group’s aim statement.
Reflections & Wrap-Up
Share key takeaways and next steps