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Mindset #2: Work Systemically

What if the way we’ve been trying to help individuals who need it is actually holding us back from solving complex Health challenges?

Most of us have given to a food pantry, volunteered at a coat drive, or helped a neighbor in need. While those acts matter, to truly move the needle on Health in Kansas, individual acts of kindness aren’t enough. The 30,000 Kansans in positions of authority — elected officials, school leaders, business owners, pastors — have a unique power to shift not just how we help people, but the scale at which we help them. That’s the heart of Chapter 13: Working Systemically.

Joined by conversation catalyst, Kari Bruffett, President & CEO of the Kansas Health Institute, we unpack what it really means to think beyond the individual, how a simple framework can help you identify bigger leverage points, and why systemic change doesn’t have to be harder, just different.

Highlights

• The difference between an individual mindset and a systemic mindset is illustrated through Kansas examples regarding secondhand smoke, fair hiring practices and food desert policy. 
• The “2×2” framework: a quadrant that maps out individual vs. systemic thinking against upstream vs. downstream action and why the upper-right quadrant is where Kansas needs more energy.
• Why charity is essential but not sufficient and how the 30,000 can shift the conversation.
• Kansas’s extension of postpartum Medicaid eligibility to one year is a real-world example of systemic change that benefits individuals and the broader health system.
• How communities in the Pathways to Healthy Kansas program have evolved from downstream charity to upstream, systemic work
• Lawrence’s “A Place for Everyone” initiative is a model for systemic thinking around housing and the unhoused population.
• Why systemic thinking doesn’t remove individual responsibility — it levels the playing field so people can exercise it.
• How implementing the Five Whys questioning process can help identify the root cause problem and potential solutions by thinking systematically. 

Chapters

• 0:48 — Welcome & Introduction
• 5:28 — Individual vs. Systematic Examples
• 7:40 — 2×2 Framework
• 9:36 — Upstream vs. Downstream Efforts
• 15:33 — Kari Bruffet Joins the Talk
• 20:06 — Leaders Who Propel Different Thinking
• 21:17 — Kansas Postpartum Medicaid Example
• 24:41 — Community Upstream Success
• 27:39 — Why Systems Trigger Pushback
• 32:56 — Systems Involve More Than Government
• 35:15 — Five Whys in Action
• 37:16 — System Level Thinking Equals Different Thinking
• 38:44 — Key Takeaways

Resources

• Kansas Health Institute: Kari Bruffett’s organization, which produces research and policy analysis on health in Kansas.
• America’s Health Rankings: Referenced as the North Star for measuring Kansas’s health progress.

Continue the discussion with these resources:

• Book Clubs
• Speakers and Workshops
• Share Your Story

Leading Health is an invitation to move the needle on Health in Kansas, and we invite you to join us in leading the way. Claim your copy of the book and learn more about the movement.