Choose this track if you are:
- Governing body, Tribal Council, or Policy Council member
- Director, manager, or coordinator
- Parent leader
- TTA provider
Watch these sessions to increase your knowledge about:
- Tools to support systems thinking with ERSEA
- Strategies to effectively move ERSEA
- How to identify data to make decisions and plan for ERSEA services
- ERSEA services using the ERSEA Assessment Tool
- The requirements of ERSEA services
ERSEA Services from a Systems Lens
ERSEA Services from a Systems Lens
ERSEA Institute 2022
Session 1a
ERSEA Services from a Systems Lens
Nicole Holman-Alexander: Hello everyone. We are here for the ERSEA Services from a Systems Lens session. I’m happy to be here with you all today. What we’d like for you to do is enter your title and years of experience in that position in the chat and or the Q&A section, because we want to know more about what your position is and how many years you’ve been in that position as well.
Again, our session title is ERSEA Services from a Systems Lens, and we’ll be talking about all things ERSEA and looking at it through that systems lens. To support us in that, we have a handout for you, and it is “ERSEA: The Management Systems Wheel” with guiding questions. We will be referring to that handout often, and you may want to pull that up, as well.
As we move on, I would like to tell you about Interprefy. We have an Interprefy widget, and what really it does for you is it allows you, if you would like to listen to this session in Spanish, you just click on your Interprefy widget on the right-hand side of your window, and you can listen to it in Spanish. What we suggest that you do, as well, is that you mute your media player. There is an icon that you’ll see, a volume icon, that you can slide the volume down so that it is muted. We just encourage you, if that’s something that you’re interested in listening to this in Spanish, that you have that option, as well.
My name is Nicole Holman-Alexander. I am a member of the National Center for Program Management and Fiscal Operations. My actual title is program management and governance specialist. I am so happy again to be here today, to talk to you about ERSEA. I’ve worked in ERSEA for decades and done a lot with it. I’m always glad to talk about ERSEA services. I want to introduce you as well to my co-presenter, Tim Adams.
Tim Adams: Thanks, Nicole. Good afternoon, everyone. Again, like Nicole said, my name is Tim Adams. I’m a program management and governance specialist and also dabble in Early Head Start child care partnerships. Just glad to be with you today.
Nicole: All right. Thanks, Tim. As we move forward in this session, we want you to be able to identify one tool to support system thinking in ERSEA. We also want you to list one or more strategies to effectively move ERSEA services forward. We want to also invite you, since we know we have these learning objectives, we want to invite you to have your pen and paper ready, and you can write down your thoughts as you hear these two learning objectives come up because we are going to ask you to chat about these learning objectives to show us that you understand the information that is here.
Again, during this session, we’re going to talk about ERSEA. These are our learning objectives, but we’re also going to explore the connection between ERSEA and the Head Start Management Systems Wheel. But first we’re going to start off with a chat. This is a true or false chat. The question is “Are your systems designed to get the results you want for ERSEA services?”
As you all enter your answers in the chat, – so you’re going to put true or false. We’re going to talk to you a little bit about this, but as you’re putting true and false, some of you may be brave and you may want to tell us “why” – why it’s true or false. You can always indicate true or false to this question – Are your systems designed to get the results you want from ERSEA? Then you can tell us why, why is it true or false?
As you all are putting that in the chat or the Q&A section, I want to highlight a book entitled Upstream. It’s by the author Dan Heath. That’s a book that we at the National Center for Program Management and Fiscal Operation have been reading and sharing, because “Upstream”, the name of the book, it is really focused on the work of reducing the probability that problems will happen; and for that reason, the work must culminate in system.
What we’ve learned through this book and through our work with systems is, if you change the systems, you change the rules that govern the culture that influences those systems. Then he actually is quoted, the author, of saying, “Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.” In that vein, a system, whether functioning well or dysfunctioning, is getting the results of the system.
When you think of ERSEA and you think of those “Upstream” interventions and truly having systems that get us the results that we want, reducing the probability of, let’s say, under-enrollment, could include things like flooding the program with income-eligible applicants. You would have to focus and target on that. Your focus may be foster care children, children receiving TANF, children receiving SSI, knowing that they’re within the income level. Those are just some examples of that. Tim, can you think of another example, either true or false, around this question, “Are your systems designed to get the results you want for ERSEA services?
Tim: Yes. That’s a really interesting question, Nicole, because I was trying to think … I think a lot of people out there would just say “true.” But I was really thinking about why might someone say “false.” False would be … the answer would be, “I’m not currently getting the results for ERSEA that I want, and maybe that’s because I really haven’t examined my ERSEA services from that system’s perspective.” It might be as some of the things that you had mentioned. Don’t have a particular example for you at the moment, but I think that maybe we asked that question again or in a few months to these people, to say, they saw this session. They started looking at it from that systems lens, and they noticed a couple of places that they could improve upon.
Nicole: That’s a good point. That’s really good. I know we’ll be getting some answers in the chat area for that “true or false.” That’s what we really want to highlight is that you’re asking yourself, “Are our systems designed to get the results that we want for ERSEA services.” On that note, what we want to do is we want to take a closer look at systems to make certain we understand how systems and services and system thinking works and supports ERSEA services.
Tim: All right. Thanks, Nicole. I think that a way to jump into that would be to review a definition of systems, at least the one that we like to use. What I’d like to do is just give you a chance you know, 10 to 15 seconds to read this definition to yourself and reflect on that meaning.
I imagine that you noticed that within this definition, there are four key characteristics of a system. We’ve got, first, a group of interacting, interrelated, and interdependent parts. Second, that idea of forming something complex; third, a unified whole. Then finally, has a specific purpose. Let’s take a closer look at these key characteristics.
Just take a look at this picture. Do we see a system? You can certainly converse with us in the Q&A. Do you see interrelated parts? What do you see in interrelated parts? Maybe the road, bridges, vehicles, lights, signs? From our view, I would say that this looks pretty complex. We usually don’t have this kind of view. Even if you said “vehicle” is a part of a system, that vehicle is a system in itself. A vehicle is a unified whole, just like each of our programs.
I think the highway system has a specific purpose. It’s integral to the way we live our lives and how we get to work. I wonder what parts of the system are affecting ERSEA services right now. I’m looking over, Nicole, at the Q&A and seeing if we have anybody sharing anything. Lots of people said, “Yes. A system.”
Again, what’s the purpose of the system for ERSEA: identifying the children and families for the program; bringing children and families into the program; and, of course, you think about attendance, helping keep the children and families in the program. Lots of pieces there. Nicole, do you agree? Anything to add?
Nicole: I just love it. I love looking at this whole view of things. It has the different concepts in it, but it’s really … When you’re looking at the system, you’re thinking about the outcome. The outcome is to get us to and from different places throughout the city. Knowing that outcome, you can see those interrelated parts and the complexity that it takes to make that outcome come to light – that it’s a whole, and that it has that specific purpose of getting us to and from safely to our direction. I love this image, Tim, and what you’re doing with it as it relates to ERSEA.
Tim: Let’s give the audience a chance to tell us. In the Q&A, why don’t you type in a system that you encounter every day. Then Nicole, let’s you and I look at those systems and relate it back to something we see in ERSEA. As those are coming in, Nicole, I was thinking about the nervous system in our bodies, and how that helps all the parts of the body to communicate with each other. When I think about ERSEA, how we have to rely on all the systems at some point to be communicating together.
Then I was thinking about the nervous system, also, reacts to changes both outside and inside the body; and how our ERSEA services really are responsive to both our families in the program, but also those who are not in our program yet and maybe just entering through the door. Let me see here. Do you have anything while I look at the chat?
Nicole: What comes to mind to me is when we were thinking about, as you mentioned, what a system is, it’s made me think about some of the examples. I’m thinking, OK, to know what a system is not might be helpful, too. A system just in general … We can think about … If you think about something that’s not a system, like a pile of sand. It’s not a system. If you remove a sand particle, you still have a pile of sand. However, like you mentioned it when we saw before, if you think about a functioning car is a system. If you remove the carburetor and you no longer have a working car, that’s a challenge.
As we look at our systems and our services – and we are looking at ERSEA as that – we can see too, that it takes all of those interrelated parts working well to get the services that we need. I just like that point that you’ve made there.
Tim: Yes. I see some other things coming in, like “a subway system” or an “airport.” I think that they definitely see those. I’m going to go ahead and move us on. As a summary, again, when we talk about a system, we talk about the interrelated parts. We talk about a complex and unified whole, and then we talk about a specific purpose.
One thing that we’d like to share with you is from Otto Scharmer and Katrin Kauefer in Leading from the Emerging Future. They say that a person who sees things from a systems lens has an open mind, an open mind to challenge our assumptions. I think that’s really what we need to do in these times when we’re focused on ERSEA, and we think that maybe we said, “I’m just assuming that I’m looking at all my systems in regards to ERSEA, but maybe I’m not.”
Then you have to have that open heart to be vulnerable and truly hear what others have to say – is part of that. Then finally, that idea of an open will, to let go, to think broadly, to see what really is needed and really what is possible.
Nicole, we know that Head Start is in continuous motion. We’ve had to pivot with the times necessary and make sustainable shifts in order to meet and serve our children and families, including our staff and the communities that we serve. In doing so, we say this all the time. “Systems” is not just a buzzword. It’s not just a buzzword. It’s something that we do every day in and out. It’s not something special. It’s not a buzzword. It really is the piece that helps keep everything in constant motion – that well-oiled machine, if you will, of Head Start. Nicole, I think I’m going to turn it over to you and look at some management systems approach.
Maybe before I do, I do want to clarify a little bit. It wouldn’t be a PMFO session if we didn’t remind people that a management-systems approach really must be kept in mind around the legislative and regulatory requirements found in the Head Start Act and the Head Start Program Performance Standards.
Those standards are built on expectations of progress and continuous improvement. We’re expected to design and implement management systems, enabling them to adapt to a dynamic environment on an ongoing basis. To most effectively meet the needs of those children and families for not only today but for tomorrow.
We need to think about those adaptations that we make. They need to be thoughtful, analytical, based in sound planning. Of course they need to be responsive, not only to the feelings and the place where our children and families are but also in the sense of timeliness and the sense of reliable data – again, not reactive, really very responsive. Those are critical for designing responsive ERSEA services in supporting our enrollment goals. Now, Nicole, I would like to pass the virtual mic to you.
Nicole: Well, thank you, Tim. I’m so glad that you mentioned those parts about the Head Start [Inaudible] Performance Standards, because it guides us. It guides us in what we’re doing. We also have that additional resource for you, which is the Management Systems Wheel guiding questions that you’ll want to take a look at as well as we continue to look at ERSEA from a Management Systems Wheel.
What I’m going to do now is, we’re really going to look at this Management Systems Wheel that some of you have seen often; and some of you that may be fairly new, it’s nice to get this refresher. We’re going to give you a refresher, and we’re going to look at it through the lens of systems as well.
First, when you see that outer blue area it talks about leadership and governance. That signifies that leadership and governance is the foundation of any Head Start program. Head Start program leadership includes the governing body and tribal council, the Policy Council, and the management staff. They’re all responsible for working together to provide leadership and strategic direction. What we want you to remember as it relates to ERSEA and leadership in governance is that directors should not be shouldering the burden of outreach and recruitment alone. The Policy Council, the board, and also the management systems and the managers should also be recruiting and getting things out because we know that enrollment is everyone’s business.
Secondly, as we look at that gold area around the management system, you’ll see that it says “program management planning and oversight.” That helps us look at that five-year project period. These systems support management planning; well-developed oversight, as well; and it enables programs to comply, increase quality, and strive for excellence. Thirdly, you will see in the light blue area, it outlines those individual management systems in Head Start. There are 12 of those.
When we talked about before – that a system is a group of interacting, interrelated, interdependent parts – we can see that in the Management System Wheel and these 12 management systems in that outer blue circle, the light blue circle with the comprehensive services that make up those parts that we are referencing right now. But it’s also important for you to note that when we have – as we talked about before –when there are different systems and there are different parts, then parts within one system can also be systems within themselves.
When we think about all of the systems working together to inform and influence the program service delivery in that inner blue circle – we see education, health, mental health, family and community engagement – this is where we can feel the pulse of an agency when families are viewed as equal partners and are respected and are engaged in enhancing their children’s educational goals. What that does, along with the content, the service area of ERSEA, is that those parts form that complex and unified whole that we talked about before.
We know when innovative leadership, strong management systems, and well-designed services are working together, we get what you see in the middle. That is the quality child and family outcomes as a result. That really helps us get to what the outcome is. During this session, we’re going to look at and talk about ERSEA services as you see with the arrow there. We’re going to talk about ERSEA service delivery from a management system. Just know that, at the end of the day, all of these systems work to effectively operate a Head Start program. We’re going to look at ERSEA just a little more.
Just keep in mind that ERSEA is a service and is supported by those management systems. It’s the responsibility of the Head Start program leadership to make sure that those ERSEA services are working and functioning well, as they would with any system. Keep also in mind that ERSEA is oftentimes the first view of a program that anyone gets for the Head Start program. If we’re recruiting, if it’s that we’re talking to someone one on one in a grocery store, if it’s through our marketing and radio, if it’s through a variety of ways, we know that ERSEA becomes that first window into our program. It’s important that we prioritize what that looks like.
On your screen, you will see the makeup of what ERSEA stands for. It’s eligibility, recruitment, selection, enrollment, and attendance. We’re going to take a look at this more and give you some examples for how you can connect ERSEA together with management systems. First we’re going to start with eligibility.
You will see here, we have a question. This is a common question when it comes to eligibility and it is pretty much “How do we determine, verify, and document eligibility?” Again, that is one of those common questions. A lot of times, if you’re new to the area of determining eligibility, or if you’re a new program, this is a question that you’re going to have to ask yourself.
It’s one of those questions that, when we think about systems thinking, what makes it important is that when it comes to –if you’re thinking, “Should we think about this systemically or not?” –there’s a few characteristics that play into it. One of them is, “Is it an important issue?” Yes, eligibility is important because we have regulations that say we are to serve the neediest of the needy. The other one is, “Is the problem chronic, or is it a one-time event?” Has under-enrollment been a concern? Or can you see it as a concern in the future? Yes, because we know that we’re returning to full, in-person services. That’s definitely important.
Then, “Is it a program that we’ve had challenges with in the past?” We can say from a national standpoint, we have experience that there are opportunities to get more children into Head Start and Early Head Start. When we’re thinking, “Should we look at this from a systemic standpoint,” we’re asking ourselves, “Have people unsuccessfully tried to correct this problem?”
We know that, as we’re looking at this time right now, that may be one of the areas we need to focus on. We have got to meet that funded enrollment, and we got to get there as quickly as possible. This is a question that is important to eligibility. What we want to do is we want to look more closely at this common eligibility question and notice how using a systems approach to strengthen eligibility and ERSEA services in general, can be very, very helpful.
On your screen, we’re going to take a look at data and evaluation. The question again, and we’re bringing over, is “How do we determine, verify and document eligibility?” You’ll see here in the data and evaluation management system, you want to use data to make decisions, inform planning, and manage and evaluate outcomes.
When you’re looking at that, when you’re thinking about that, some things to consider and ask yourself is “What data is collected to plan and assess data currently. How do we use it to inform our approach and practice.” Also, you can think about how do we collect and use data to inform ongoing monitoring and continuous improvement. You’re looking at, when you’re looking at that, what data is used to track trends and make decisions that are critical for determining, verifying, and documenting eligibility and maintaining full enrollment.
You can see here – once you’ve looked at that, and you’re thinking about what data is used to make those decisions, and are you gathering the right data on that and evaluating that – you want to look at your identified strengths and needs. Some of those could be – well you may recruit well, however, you receive a lot of applications of over-income applicants. What can you do to offset that? You may want to target your service area a little more, or do something a little different.
What you come up with that, as far as your needs is, you know you have a need for more income-eligible applicants. Then from there, you know that need, you can use your strength and recruiting to help support it, and you can decide what you’re going to do and record those agreed-upon actions. That is an example of using systems thinking.
We’re going to give you another example, as well. The next one is the human resource system. We’re taking the same question: “How do we determine, verify, and document eligibility.” What we’re doing here is, we know that our people are our greatest assets here. We want to ensure that our staff and volunteers have the credentials and competencies needed to fulfill their responsibilities.
Some of the things we can do with that is we can conduct a wage and comparability study and factor that into the design of program and the positions that we had. We can ask ourselves, “How does our organizational structure support our staff to provide high quality services to children and families?” We can look at the number of staff and how efficient it is. We can also ask ourselves when we’re talking about hiring, “What skills do staff need to build relationships, to identify strengths and needs, and to determine and verify and document?”
We can look at this, so we’re looking at that, and then we’re also going to look at again, our strengths and our needs. One of the strengths, you could have enough workers to perform that task of verifying and documenting eligibility but a need could be for income eligibility training. You have a need for that. Or you may want to streamline the process more. Once you have that information, you need to then make a decision, and make sure that you’re recording those agreed-upon action steps.
I’m going to turn this over to Tim in just a little bit, but we have a question and a chat for you, and it is “Identify one tool to support systems thinking in ERSEA.” We want you to put in there which one would you choose. Our options are a list of buzzwords. You can use the handout: “The Management Systems Wheel with Guided Questions.” Or you want to use a map of Route 66, or none of the above. We’re hoping that you will put that information in the chat, and tell us how that works. What are we going to use, Tim? What is the answer to this question, Tim?
Tim: All right. If I have to give it Nicole, it’s going to be Number 2 – that handout, those “Management Systems Wheel with Guided Questions.” The nice thing about that handout is it’s not made to give answers. It’s to help you form your answers because we know every program is different, and it’s not all the questions that could exist around the management systems, but it’s a great way to get that conversation started in your program.
Nicole: I’m going to turn this over to you to talk more about ERSEA.
Tim: That sounds like a plan. I’m going to go ahead and also animate some ERSEA pieces coming up here. But we’re going to talk about it from that lens. Think about the questions and the challenges of providing ERSEA. Like Nicole said, when we talk about eligibility. She even mentioned some of this. What questions might we ask ourselves around this? What about the wage increases? What about the regional booms in the economy? What’s happening in our community? What’s happening with the homelessness? How is that fluctuating? How does our process effectively capture the family make-up and the countable, the actual countable income to actually determine and verify eligibility?
Then when we talk about recruitment, the question is “How do we recruit and identify eligible families? Have there been changes in the community that impact our recruitment focus and our areas and our efforts and our messaging. Not only lots of questions, but you can see how those questions can easily start to connect back to some of our systems.
The selection – “How do we prioritize who receives the services?” Programs are facing changes and sometimes licensing requirements – there’s lots of changes in the community, could be refugees coming into our community. How are we looking at what’s happened? Maybe COVID is something that’s happening, different in the community versus my community. Are we on top of that? Are we looking at that and really thinking about who gets prioritization of the services?
When we think about enrollment, how can we best serve the families and children? Will it be in a center, will it be in a combination? Do families even feel comfortable right now sending their families to us? Did we change? Are we offering full day? How can we continue to support working families? Or how can we be ready to make the changes and plan as situations evolve?
It’s really important to collect and analyze, like Nicole said, this current data in relationship to answering these questions. You can think about also the partnering aspect and including building on cultural and linguistic ties. Are we providing services in the right location? Are services provided at a high quality? All of these things that can impact our enrollment.
Finally you have attendance. What about – they’re already enrolled, so how do we encourage and support their participation in our program? Just think about some other ERSEA questions as you go through that Management Systems Wheel. Then when you ask those questions, again, think about how you can go back and look at ERSEA through that system’s lens.
Now I’m going to move us back to the wheel and give some examples, just like Nicole did not too long ago. We’re going to look at how do we identify and recruit eligible families. That’s the key question. Let’s go to this example. We can see here that we’re talking about –I mentioned this at the beginning in the regulatory slide; we talked about how do we look at ongoing monitoring and continuous improvement – so we need to think about that one and think about how do we adapt to better address those goals and objective. Nicole said that everyone’s business is in the process of planning and in continuous improvement.
We need to think about what are our ongoing monitoring methods to inform our program? That’s one of the systems that we look at. Do we file a review? Do we do audits? What is the timeline of that? Because it’s going to be timely. We discussed that too. What is the timeline for ongoing monitoring activities? At the end of the program year is not the time for that, obviously. We need to think about what we’re learning. Like Nicole said, they looked into their thing, and they saw that they got a lot of over-income families. You need to be tracking that so that you can make the change very quickly and be able to be nimble with that change.
Then we think about how the staff are trained and engaged in ongoing monitoring efforts. Who might be responsible? Finally, how are you tracking something like the recruitment of children with disabilities, for example, while emphasizing the ongoing screening and evaluation of children that may be enrolled? Then, just like the examples before, you look at those things, you identify the strengths – what’s working well and your successes – and you identify the needs, those areas that you might want to improve. You engage in a plan, and then you record upon that, and you start acting and do an action plan on those pieces there.
Let’s move to a question that we want to ask you, and you can answer in the Q&A if you’d like. Where are you in the process of evaluating each of the five ERSEA elements through the lens of the Management Systems Wheel? Nicole, do you see anything coming up just yet?
Nicole: Well, I hope that we are seeing or about to see [Laughter] that they are “complete” or they are “in process” or “progress,” and then we also should see some “not started yet.” That’s OK, too. I see some “in progress,” and that’s so important.
Tim, I’m just reminded of what you were saying before when we were thinking about “where are you in this process of evaluating those five ERSEA services and elements.” What you were talking about before: it’s about recruiting and emphasizing things around disabilities for children and ongoing screening, and just knowing that we’re in a new recruitment environment, because as we think about this [Crosstalk] when we’re thinking about evaluating those five systems, we want to make sure that we know that and that we’re leveraging those partnerships, our MOUs and our LEAs and all that, too. That’s all a part of evaluating those five ERSEA elements through the lenses of a management system.
Tim: Yes. Nicole, I’m seeing a lot of “in progress,” as well, coming up. I’m hoping that this session is actually getting people to think, “Maybe I haven’t looked at all the systems in that Management System’s Wheel.” That’s great, going back to this conversation of identifying your strengths and your needs. You’re opening your heart and your mind and your will to say, “You know, maybe I need to take another fresh look at that. Maybe we need to look at that Management Systems Wheel questions and start to have a conversation about that system and how it supports and impacts our ERSEA services.”
All right. Nicole, I’m going to finish up here and have just a couple of things to wrap this up. Nicole, you said it, in the beginning, that we consider the ERSEA is really the gateway, to our Head Start service. It’s that sometimes that first impression really opens the door to getting program and children and families in the community into our program, and we can definitely strengthen it.
We can really strengthen it by again, thinking about this and looking at it through that systems lens. As we do that, we have a story that we want to wrap up with, and we’re headed home, Nicole. Let’s tell on this story.
Nicole: [Laughter] OK Tim. I’ll get started with this story. On the screen, you’re going to see an idea around system thinking and how to shift the system thinking. You will see on the screen – if you are looking at the same screen I see – you see an elephant there. This elephant, this is a visual, and it’s tied to an ancient story. The story is about blind men and the elephant.
What it’s designed to do is it’s designed to illustrate the challenges that people often have of seeing the big picture, given their circumstances. We want you to picture this in your mind. You can close your eyes if you want to, but we’re going to get this story started, so you can see some of those challenges that often come across when we’re looking at systems thinking. Tim, do you want to get it started?
Tim: Sure, Nicole. The first man felt the elephant’s trunk and said, “An elephant is like a snake.”
Nicole: [Laughter] All right. Then the second man, he’s a blind man, and he’s basically sitting on the elephant, and he’s saying that the back of the elephant, he rubs it, and he said, “The elephant has a hairy back” and says, “An elephant is like a bush.” [Laughter] Again, he can’t see, but he’s rubbing the back of the elephant feels like a bush to him.
Tim: Well, if you think that sounds silly, Nicole, the third man actually hugs the elephant’s leg and he says, “An elephant is like a tree trunk.”
Nicole: [Laughter] That’s a good one, and then the fourth man grabs the elephant’s tail –and you see it there in the back – and says, “An elephant is like a rope.” All of the five men are touching a piece of the elephant, and each interprets their piece as being the entire elephant. They do not recognize that they are touching only one part of the elephant, which is more complex than any individual part. That’s just an idea for you to think about, and we want talk a little bit about systems thinking as it relates to this, too. Tim?
Tim: Well, yes. When you think about systems thinking, it’s that ability to see and understand the interconnections and the relationships of and between all the parts of a system. In that manner that allows you to accomplish your desired purposes. [Crosstalk] Talk about systems.
Nicole: Systems thinking is about relationships and understanding those relationships and how they work together and accomplishing something bigger than themselves, being aware of the entire system and not just those individual parts. We’re really trying to connect the dots as it relates to this.
When we move from conventional thinking to a systems-thinking approach, three shifts need to occur. They are – we want it to go from seeing the parts, just individual, to seeing more of a whole system, seeing that bigger picture. Then we also want to look at moving from hoping that others will change to seeing how one can first change themselves.
To do that, we have to increase self-awareness and personal responsibility. Then, lastly, the consideration is moving from focusing on individual events to understanding and redesigning the deeper system structures that give rise to the events. We’re looking for those deeper systems and structures.
We hope that this story helped illustrate that for you as we talk to you and share the resources, a resource that we talked about today and that is available for you as you look at ERSEA through a management systems lens.
Tim: That is perfect, Nicole. Again, we have that resource there, so hopefully you downloaded it. Then the other question that would – to wrap up this session. You guys have been great. What’s one strategy that you’re going to use to effectively move your ERSEA services forward? How are you going to take a look at that systems part and really put those systems glasses on and look at your ERSEA services? With that, I’m going to give you a pair of glasses. Then we want to thank you for being such a great audience. Nicole, final words?
Nicole: I think we’ve said what we need to say. Like you said, they’ve just been great with information in the comments and giving us feedback on these questions that we have. We’re glad that you got an opportunity to touch base on these learning objectives that we have for you. We hope that you continue to use system thinking as it relates to ERSEA so that you can get those quality child and family outcomes that we all want.
CloseThe word “systems” is not just a buzz word. Explore the elements of ERSEA and show how they intersect and impact the Head Start management systems.
Learning Objectives:
- Identify one tool to support systems thinking with ERSEA.
- List one or more strategies to effectively move ERSEA services forward.
Last Updated: March 3, 2023