Session 4.2: Ecosystem Mapping — Aligning Plans and Strategy Building

Introduction

As Title V agencies work to align plans and build strategy, an ecosystem mindset can help reveal new options and opportunities. Drawing on the biological concept of ecosystems, maternal and child health outcomes can be seen as the complex result of numerous interconnected factors and assets. Ecosystem mapping is a process that visually depicts the agencies, resources, and relationships that support desired MCH outcomes.

This session explores how Title V teams can use different types of ecosystem maps to understand their current landscape, identify gaps and opportunities, and improve alignment to strengthen systems and impact. The key to this process are the following considerations:

• Adopt an ecosystem mindset. Think beyond individual programs to see the complex combinations of factors and assets, including intangible ones like cooperative norms, that combine to improve health outcomes.
• Map the connections. Use tools like Network Maps to visualize the tangible ties between people and organizations. This helps reveal how your program is currently connected and where there are gaps or opportunities to improve cooperation.
• Use maps to improve alignment. Leverage ecosystem and network maps to see who is doing what toward a given MCH goal. This allows you to better align existing resources and improve outcomes for maternal and child populations.

Join us below as we explore how different mapping techniques can help you align plans and build strategy.

READY: Adopt an Ecosystem Mindset to See Options for Alignment

Video 1: How an Ecosystem Mindset Can Help You See Options for Alignment

Drawing on the biological concept of ecosystems, maternal and child health can be seen as “downstream” complex combinations of factors, including assets that may combine to improve outcomes. This video describes how Title V teams have been mapping the ecosystems affecting maternal and child health in their states. Ecosystem Maps visually depict the agencies and other resources supporting desired outcomes, including intangible assets such as cooperative norms.

Resources to Dig Deeper and Tools to Use:

• Interaction Design Foundation: What are Ecosystem Maps? Defines ecosystem maps from a user experience (UX) perspective as tools to visualize the relationships between all the actors and parts that create a customer experience, helping to identify areas for improvement.
• Systems Innovation Network: Why "Ecosystem Approaches" are Key to Systems Level Innovation Makes the case for using "ecosystem approaches" to address complex challenges, arguing that success requires a shift from seeking single solutions to building collaborative networks that can achieve systems-level innovation.
• Visible Network Labs: Ecosystem Mapping: A Tool to Strengthen Systems and Impact Introduces ecosystem mapping as a practical tool to strengthen systems and impact, explaining how visualizing interconnections can help identify leverage points and offering a free map template to begin the process.

SET: Map Connections in Your Ecosystem

Video 2: How Network Maps Can Show Connections in Your Ecosystem

This video focuses on Network Maps, a type of Ecosystem Mapping focused on ties between people and organizations with common goals. Network Maps are useful for seeing how Title V programs are currently connected and where there are gaps or other opportunities to improve cooperation

Resources to Dig Deeper and Tools to Use:

• Network Science 101 Introduces the fundamentals of network science, covering key tools like Social Network Analysis (SNA) and foundational theories such as the "strength of weak ties" to explain how networks function and can be leveraged effectively.
• Measuring Aligning Across Sectors Provides a toolbox of resources, including measurement overviews and data collection instruments, for measuring and assessing alignment efforts in cross-sector collaboratives.
• Virginia Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems Network Map Presents an interactive Kumu map visualizing the stakeholders, services, and relationships within Virginia's early childhood system, offering a concrete example of a complex network map in practice.
• Overview of Kumu software Introduces Kumu as a platform for organizing complex data into various types of relationship maps, including stakeholder maps, systems maps, and social network analysis.
• Using Kumu to Visualize Interview Data Details a step-by-step process for using Kumu to turn qualitative data from stakeholder interviews into an interactive, visual map of concepts and causal relationships.
• Using Google Sheets with Kumu Explains how to structure data in Google Sheets for a one-way sync into Kumu, allowing for the real-time mapping of crowdsourced data or survey results.

Thank you to Lorie Wayne Chesnut, DrPH, MPH, University of Kentucky College of Public Health, Network Analysis in MCH Practice, 2014.

GO: Use Ecosystem Mapping to Improve Alignment

Video 3: How to Use Ecosystem Mapping to Improve Alignment in MCH Systems

This video summarizes how to use Network Mapping and other Ecosystem Mapping to see who is doing what now toward a given MCH goal and improve outcomes with existing resources. Network Maps focus on ties between people and organizations working toward common goals. Other types of Ecosystem Maps also include intangible assets such as norms supporting sharing across agencies.

Resources to Dig Deeper and Tools to Use:

• Collaboration Factors Inventory Offers a free tool to assess a collaboration's effectiveness based on research-tested success factors, available as both a downloadable report and an online inventory.
• Jefferson County, CO Ecosystem Map Showcases the Jefferson County, CO community partnership database, a public-facing tool that maps the county's collaboration ecosystem across multiple focus areas to make the network visible, align strategies, and reduce redundant efforts.
• Visible Network Labs: Ecosystem Mapping: A Tool to Strengthen Systems and Impact Introduces ecosystem mapping as a practical tool to strengthen systems and impact, explaining how visualizing interconnections can help identify leverage points and offering a free map template to begin the process.
• Systems Innovation Network: Why "Ecosystem Approaches" are Key to Systems Level Innovation Makes the case for using "ecosystem approaches" to address complex challenges, arguing that success requires a shift from seeking single solutions to building collaborative networks that can achieve systems-level innovation.