Act Phase

Navigate the Systems Change Toolbox

You’ve done the important work of structuring your problem and thinking deeply about it. Now it’s time to act.

Why Acting is Important

Now you need to decide what to do and how to do it. This is the act phase. This is when you develop a comprehensive strategy, which is a coordinated set of activities designed to address each problem objective you identified during the think phase.

Here are the overall steps in this phase:

  1. Define your objectives, and organize them by using the tool, Organizing and Understanding Objectives.
  2. Design a strategy that matches your problem, your capabilities and resources, and your environment. Your strategy should be in line with the toolbox’s principles of systems change.
  3. With limited capabilities, choose the set of changes that will have the most impact (i.e., those you’re most likely to influence given your reach and resources). Make sure the actions match what you or your organization is uniquely positioned to do.

Act Phase in Practice

Atlanta CareerRise is acting to transform the local workforce board system by coordinating a multistakeholder, human-centered design process. This process brings the client perspective into the daily decisions and actions of hundreds of system actors.

Tools You Can Use in the Act Phase

Cultivate Influence in Your Community

Get tactics for boosting your influence and impact.

Go to Cultivate Influence in Your Community

Conduct Effective Focus Groups

Review high-level guidance on how to run a focus group and gather applicable insights.

Go to Conduct Effective Focus Groups

Communicate Complex Problems

Review suggestions for how to effectively communicate systems change work and the problems you’re trying to solve.

Go to Communicate Complex Problems

Facilitate Successfully

Review guidance on successful facilitation of meetings, particularly virtual meetings.

Go to Facilitate Successfully

Achieve Consensus

See an approach to collaborative decision-making that is just and equitable.

Go to Achieve Consensus

 

Act Phase Resources

Regional and Community Case Studies

View demonstrations of systems change in various National Fund regional workforce collaboratives.

Go to Regional and Community Case Studies

Five Equity Reports

See how cities documented the impact of workforce inequities and analyzed findings from disaggregated data.

Go to Five Equity Reports

Four Stories of Systems Change

Review examples of systems change work from members of the National Fund network, specifically those focused on improving economic mobility.

Go to Four Stories of Systems Change