Adopt a Systems Mindset

In completing their Root Cause Analysis, teams adopt a system mindset. By systems mindset, we mean going hard on systems and soft on people. The Pitt County Schools Model of Improvement recognizes that systems and the organizational norms and structures within them are generally responsible for the social problems we face.

The resources here help teams to “see the system,” revealing the complex and interacting subsystems (e.g., instructional, human resources, psychological support services) that operate at multiple levels (classrooms, schools, district) to create the outcomes the system gets.

These resources can help teams to consider how the complex systems in which they operate contribute to their problems of practice, and how those systems may enable or constrain their efforts to improve.

Tools for Systems Thinkers: Systems MappingSystems thinking requires a shift in our perception of the world around us. In order to build a new multidimensional thinking framework, we…

Create a System Improvement MapThe system improvement map is an analytic tool representing how an institution is organized to carry out work in a particular area. The formal organizations of an institution can be thought of as a...