MCHnow: Advancing MCH Leadership Skills

MCH Leadership Competency 11: SYSTEMS APPROACH

Introduction

Seeing the Forest and the Trees for Comprehensive MCH Impact...

Picture yourself trying to reduce childhood asthma rates in your community. You could focus on individual treatment, but systems thinking reveals a much more complex picture: housing quality affects exposure to triggers, transportation systems determine access to care, school policies influence medication management, environmental conditions shape air quality, and insurance systems affect treatment affordability.

Each element connects to the others, and small changes in one area can create ripple effects across the entire system. This is where systems thinking becomes powerful. Instead of tackling problems in isolation, it helps you identify the leverage points where strategic interventions create lasting change. Sometimes the most direct route isn't the most effective. You need to understand the terrain of interconnected factors and find the paths that generate maximum impact.

Through this month's Ready-Set-Go resources, you'll develop the systems thinking skills essential for creating sustainable change in MCH. You'll learn to map complex relationships, identify strategic intervention points, and build the partnerships needed for systems-level impact. Whether you're working on program development, policy change, or community improvement initiatives, you'll gain practical tools to think and act structurally—creating meaningful improvement in maternal and child health outcomes.

READY: Understanding Systems Thinking in MCH

Watch this short video to gain an introduction to the competency.

Read more. The Systems Approach competency helps MCH leaders recognize and work within the complex, interconnected factors that influence maternal and child health outcomes. This essential skill enables leaders to see the bigger picture and create sustainable improvements across multiple levels.

For MCH leaders, systems thinking skills are crucial for:

• Understanding how organizations function within broader systems
• Practicing effective resource management and quality improvement
• Developing projects that reflect systems-level approaches
• Identifying external partners and collaborative opportunities
• Managing projects effectively from planning through evaluation
• Building sustainable coalitions for population-level outcomes

As MCH leaders, developing these skills allows us to:

• Align organizational missions with broader system goals
• Use implementation frameworks to promote evidence-informed practices
• Acknowledge factors from the past that have shaped current challenges
• Build effective partnerships based on trust and shared understanding
• Create meaningful roles for MCH within community improvement efforts

Core knowledge areas include:

• Understanding how organizations function as systems, including business and administrative principles
• Learning how organizations relate to broader systems and principles of systems thinking
• Recognizing features and issues of complex systems, including health economics and policy
• Understanding coalition building and collaborative engagement strategies
• Learning implementation concepts and factors that influence analysis translation

SET: Expand your Knowledge with Trainings and Resources

Deepen your understanding of Systems Approach with these trainings and resources:

• Systems Thinking in Public Health [60 min]: This webinar from the Northwest Center for Public Health Practice explores how systems thinking can be used to understand and resolve difficult public health problems. It's an excellent introduction to identifying stakeholders, interconnections, and upstream interventions.
• Using Process Flow Diagramming to Understand and Improve MCH Systems [60 min]: This practical presentation from AMCHP provides detailed instruction on how to create process flow diagrams (a key systems tool) to map out MCH processes and identify opportunities for improvement.
• The Eight Steps to Effective Coalition Building [Guide]: This framework from the Prevention Institute provides concrete steps for building effective partnerships, a core component of a systems approach, to achieve results beyond the scope of a single organization.

GO: Apply Your Knowledge with Practical Tools

Use these tools to strengthen your systems approach practice:

• A Collection of Systems Thinking Tools: This article provides a concise overview of several other practical tools, including causal loop diagrams and system archetypes, to add to your systems thinking toolkit.
• System Mapping Toolkit [Digital Toolkit]: A step-by-step toolkit from the System Mapping Academy that provides a guided process to help you visually break down complex challenges, map key relationships, and identify solutions.
• Stakeholder Mapping Tool (County Health Rankings & Roadmaps): A practical guide and worksheet to identify key partners, understand their interests and influence, and create strategies to gain their support for your MCH program.