Recently, I’ve spent time with smart, compassionate social sector leaders in Cincinnati and Columbus who are wrestling with the same reality: community needs are rising, funding is shrinking and unpredictable, burnout and workforce shortages are everywhere, and too many organizations are ending the year with deficits. Data confirms what we already feel in our bones—this strain is not simply cyclical; it is structural.
Leaders are working harder, collaborating more, and chasing diversified revenue streams. The current systems are asking too much of people and organizations that are already giving everything they have. For many, it feels like an exhausting hamster wheel, not a flywheel of progress.
James Clear’s quote in Atomic Habits, is constantly in my head. He says, “We do not rise to the level of our goals. We fall to the level of our systems.”
When communities come together to tackle deep-seated social issues, they typically start with an inspiring goal, something like “end homelessness,” “‘close the achievement gap,” or “build economic mobility.” Yes, we need to work on all these goals, AND we need a high-quality system to move the right needles.
In the social sector, organizations don’t fail because they lack passion or noble intentions—they fail because they lack a coordinated infrastructure to bridge the gap between intent and impact.
As I’ve listened to conversations lately, I keep thinking, “There’s a proven system for supporting organizations and communities as they navigate deep change.” It’s called Collective Impact. It’s powerful and complex—systems change always is. We don’t need to stay on the hamster wheel if we can summon the will and courage to work differently.
MRC has recenly launched a new service. We’re excited about what the future can look like for organizations and communities with new systems that result in human flourishing.
To me, our Collective Impact Backbone Services mirror James Clear’s habit-building framework in Atomic Habits. Because, at the end of the day, we must break the old habits that no longer serve us and get to work on building new habits that do.
Six Steps for Building Successful Collective Impact:
1. Strategic Facilitation: Move from Vision to Execution
Clear notes that, “Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress.” A collective strategy can easily remain an abstract wish list without structured execution.
Strategic facilitation is the catalyst that moves partnerships beyond high-level planning into measurable implementation. It designs the intentional roadmap, while aligning stakeholders around an active process rather than a static goal.
2. Expert Coordination: The Operational Glue
Clear reminds us that habits are easier to build and maintain when friction is removed from the environment. In a multi-agency coalition, friction from things like administrative overload, mismatched schedules, or communication gaps block momentum.
Expert coordination is key for supporting a rigorous infrastructure of the partnership. By taking on the operational burden, an expert coordinator removes friction, allowing community partners to focus entirely on their core mission rather than logistics.
3. Rigorous Measurement: Establish a Feedback Loop
True long-term progress requires continuous learning and feedback loops. Clear argues that your trajectory matters far more than your immediate results. If you aren’t tracking micro-indicators, you cannot make the compounding “1% adjustments” needed to make progress.
We are experts in co-creating rigorous measurement infrastructures designed to inform daily, data-driven decisions rather than backward-looking compliance reporting. This gives coalitions the real-time feedback necessary to evaluate their trajectory and adjust strategies quickly.
4. Continuous Coaching: Build Long-Term Capacity
Clear emphasizes that true change is about identity and capacity, stating, “The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity.“ For a system to last, the individuals within it must grow.
We all need coaching when we’re building new habits. As a backbone partner, MRC helps teams strengthen leadership, use data well, and embed continuous improvement practices that will sustain the work over time.
5. Systems Thinking: Design for Repeating Wins
“Goals are for people who care about winning once. Systems are for people who care about winning repeatedly.” Traditional nonprofit work often produces important short-term wins. However, if our deeper aim is to improve people’s lives in lasting, measurable ways, then we need systems that help communities keep learning, adapting, and making progress together.
Systems thinking helps partners move beyond surface-level alignment to change how organizations work together, creating the conditions for repeatable progress year after year—the spinning flywheel.
6. Deep Understanding: Understand the Context
A system cannot operate in a vacuum; it must be calibrated to its unique environment. Clear emphasizes that behavior is heavily influenced by context.
This work must fit the place and the people. A strong collective impact effort listens closely to the community, honors what is already working, and builds practical systems that make sense for the people who will use them every day.
Trust is the glue. Without it, partners may sit at the same table, but they won’t align their work, share power, or build the system needed for lasting change.
So, back to my original question: What will it take for your community, or a committed cohort of organizations, to stop circling the same challenges and begin building the trust, will, and structure for a new system? In what ways can you serve as a catalyst for the conversation? We stand ready to support you.
