Grady 2.0 | Adaptive Practice for Social Impact - Igniting a Movement



What is Adaptive Practice?

Adaptive Practice (Doug’s framework) is a disciplined way of tackling complex, evolving challenges by shifting from activity-based outputs to outcome-driven learning cycles. Instead of assuming linear plans will hold, it emphasizes:


Challenges as the organizing unit – framing the real problem (e.g., “How do we get Black men into primary care earlier?”).

Three-part clarity – Vision (where we want to go), Strategy/Process (path to get there), and Dissatisfaction/Motivation (why change must happen now).

Prototyping & iteration – starting small, learning from “before–during–after” experiments, then scaling what works.

Assumptions vs. knowledge tracking – surfacing hidden assumptions, testing them quickly, and converting them into shared knowledge.

Politics & power mapping – knowing whose support matters, where resistance lies, and how to mobilize allies.

Deeply simple tools – practical methods (e.g., outcome-based goals, support mapping, dissatisfaction formula) that teams can reuse across challenges.



How it Applies to Grady 2.0 Social Impact & Sustainability (SIS)

Doug positioned Adaptive Practice as the operating discipline for Grady 2.0’s Social Impact & Sustainability work, helping Crystal and her core team move from good intentions to measurable, repeatable community impact:


1. Events as a Superpower (prototype at RICE Men’s Health Event)

Treat events not as one-off activities but as repeatable engagement processes to drive outcomes:

% of men screened.

% signed up for MyChart.

% connected to PCP.

% who took steps toward insurance.


“Before–during–after” framing ensures every event has learning loops built in.



2. Outcome over Activity

Instead of “we held an event,” the test is: Did we reduce the number of men showing up at the ER with late-stage cancer?

Adaptive Practice helps set SMART outcome-based goals (e.g., 80% MyChart signups among non-users, 20–30% insurance follow-ups).



3. Integration Across Stakeholders

SIS challenges (supplier diversity, anchor partnerships, foundation engagement) are inherently political.

Adaptive Practice provides tools to map who owns, who supports, who delivers – making partnership asks concrete instead of vague.



4. Scaling Social Impact

Start with prototypes (Back-to-School, RICE, county outreach), capture the learning, and codify a playbook for “Events as Superpower”.

This approach can then extend to supplier partnerships, equity initiatives, and sustainability campaigns, always with outcome-focused loops.



👉 In essence: Adaptive Practice gives Crystal’s SIS team a language, discipline, and repeatable toolkit to turn vision (equity, sustainability, anchor mission) into measurable community outcomes, while building adaptive capacity inside Grady 2.0.



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