Incredible things can happen when the right group of people are focused on a shared purpose, when they trust each other, and when they seek out opportunities to support each other’s work. For true systems change to occur, however, collaborations must identify and act on opportunities to affect the whole system.

Doing so requires zooming out to grasp the big picture, and seeing the forest for the trees. It requires that participants address the root causes of problems, rather than just mitigate th...