Playbook Creation
Our team has developed dozens of playbooks for our partnering organizations, guiding them in addressing their gaps and driving systemic change. Playbooks are an effective tool for organizations that know their pain points but not how to best address them – they are particularly fit for organizations looking to integrate best practices that reduce harm and improve care in a very practical way. Playbooks are focused on specific topics and most often used by providers and those on the front lines of healthcare. Over the past few years, our team has created playbooks on sepsis, social drivers of care, reducing readmissions, and more.
In 2024, we partnered with the North Carolina Healthcare Foundation (NCHF) to develop their Social Impact Playbook, which serves as a strategic guide for healthcare systems, community organizations, and residents to collaboratively address non-medical drivers of health such as housing, transportation, and education.
The Social Impact Playbook serves as a strategic roadmap for Community Development Teams to transition from reactive “sick care” to proactive health interventions that address the root causes of systemic inequities. By functioning as the connective tissue between community needs and systemic action, these teams align health systems, grassroots organizations, and residents with lived experience to co-design sustainable solutions. To bridge the gap between abstract social challenges and concrete results, the playbook utilizes human-centered design tools like the Empathy Map Canvas, which grounds planning in the actual daily realities of community members rather than external assumptions. Additionally, the Systems-Thinking Logic Model helps teams look beneath visible symptoms to analyze the deeper patterns and mental models that maintain the status quo over time. To ensure these initiatives are financially viable, the guide provides a dedicated ROI Calculator to project cost savings from reduced emergency department visits and shorter hospital stays. Beyond hard numbers, the framework also tracks intangible but vital benefits such as strengthened community trust and improved staff retention, which traditional fiscal tools often overlook. These outcomes are eventually funneled into a Value Proposition Canvas to create an evidence-based call to action for prospective funders and policymakers, aiming for long-term scalability and lasting community change.
Maps the broader ecosystem of a challenge, including demographic trends, regulations, and localized uncertainties.
Used to deeply understand the lived experiences, motivations, and pain points of community members.
Helps identify and vet potential community influencers and partners to join the development team.
Customizes a tool to evaluate if potential partners have the leadership and resource capacity to collaborate.
Captures the specific values, expectations, and “drivers” of individual organizations within the team.
Establishes a shared “North Star” and identifies the bold steps needed to achieve long-term social impact.
Uses the “Iceberg Model” to uncover the deep-rooted systemic structures and mental models behind social issues.
Outlines the team’s mission, behavioral norms, and specific roles to ensure accountability.
Establishes project guardrails by defining what must, should, could, and won’t be included in an initiative.
Crafts an explicit aim statement by defining the specific population, goal, timeline, location, and guidance.
Acts as an operational roadmap to flesh out project outcomes, deliverables, and success measures.
Standardizes the application process for potential pilot projects based on community priorities.
Provides a framework to vet and prioritize pilot initiatives based on their feasibility and impact.
Builds a phased implementation plan that identifies specific action steps and necessary supports.
Creates a consensus on what data is needed to demonstrate success and identifies potential data risks.
Allows pilot sites to define their specific process and outcome measures for evaluation.
Identifies candidates to adopt a solution long-term based on their financial and organizational attributes.
Translates project results into quantifiable benefits (gains) and problem-solving (pain relief) for stakeholders.
Profiles the specific needs and fears of decision-makers to help tailor impact stories.
Structures a narrative using a “head, heart, and eyes” approach to pitch collective impact to future funders.
To learn more about our work with maternal health leaders across the country, or to ideate around how to best leverage your state’s RHTP and other funding to improve maternity care outcomes, contact us below. We would love to chat!


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