What to know
Learn how Thinking in Systems (TiS) can help address policy problems and potential policy solutions. Each section will cover a key TiS concept, provide a real-world example related to public health challenges, and explain how you can apply it in the CDC Policy Process.
Overview
Public health grapples with many problems that are difficult to resolve. Thinking in Systems (TiS) can help public health professionals think more effectively, and systemically, about the issues they face. This can lead to identifying possible policy solutions that may not have been readily apparent and can be helpful when using policy to improve the health and wellbeing of populations.
What you can do
- Identify system problems to recognize complicated and multi-factorial problems.
- Think dynamically about patterns of behavior over time to help identify public health problems or issues and its effect on population health.
- Get operational, use stock and flow diagrams to understand how the system works and to help find higher leverage policy solutions.
- Expand the boundary of inquiry to help focus on relevant policy levers by
- Considering a larger set of relevant relationships affecting how the system works
- Identifying what is causing the behavior
- Considering a larger set of relevant relationships affecting how the system works
- Look for feedback to identify when a condition in a system causes activity that impacts the initial condition which may result in unintended consequences for different policy options.
Resources
Webinars
The following under-an-hour videos were created to help you develop basic skills in using the TiS approach in your work.
An Introduction to Thinking in Systems
The Introduction to Thinking in Systems webinar introduces fundamental elements of the TiS toolset. In this video you will learn
- More about system issues
- How TiS can address some system issue challenges
- How to create a simple map of a real public health issue
- About some low-investment ways to develop your TiS skills
Thinking in Systems: Conversation Starters
The Thinking in Systems: Conversation Starters webinar introduces a set of systems-focused "conversation starters" that you can use to help begin applying the TiS approach to system issues. In the webinar you will see a case study showing how the approach was used to understand why a public health-focused initiative in a developing country had less than its desired impact.
Thinking in Systems: Applying the Framework
The Thinking in Systems: Applying the Framework webinar presents two case studies.
- One is drawn from a student project of the guest instructor, looks at eating disorders among adolescent girls in a small city.
- The other is drawn from work at CDC, looks at accessibility and affordability of evidence-based treatment for families with young children with behavioral, emotional, and attention disorders.