8 minutes
The eight-step loop A repeatable method: benefits and burdens, the statement, names and dates, alignment, and whether it is actually funded.
What you’ll be able to do Identify the practical implication of “The eight-step loop” and apply it to one live DHS decision connected to DHS Equity Analysis Toolkit. Compare the responses to this question and explain your choice: When should the method be used? Document a next step for The eight-step loop: Choose one live work object, name a change or formal escalation, assign an owner, and set the date the result will be reviewed. If the method needs a 40-page binder, the cover sheet will win. Write short, specific lines.
How do you know it is working? You already did steps 1–3 (results, data, engagement). The rest of the official toolkit is: benefits and burdens plus a design change; a short impact statement; accountability with names and dates; alignment with equity people and policy; sustainability — is this funded and able to collect the data you promised.
In this lesson Run toolkit steps 4–8 on the same piece of work.
Treat “we will monitor” as not a modification.
Write a statement only this proposal could wear.
Refuse an unfunded mitigation.
A mitigation that lives only in a “we will monitor” sentence is not a modification. Change the design. If it is not funded, write that.
The rest of the loop 4. Benefits, burdens, unintended consequences Who is better off. Who pays in time, money, access, dignity, or risk. What you will change in the design before approval. Does this still match step 1?
5. Equity impact statement Six to ten sentences: action, groups, what data and engagement showed, main benefit, main burden, design change, remaining risk. No slogan.
6. Accountability Three rows: impact review (who, when); outcome review (who, when); communication (who, when, which audience — including people who carry the burden).
7. Alignment Sit with the equity director or committee before the freeze. Match equity policy and the strategic plan. Do not bcc after the packet is locked.
8. Sustainability Personnel, money, data collection, engagement. If the phone line in your mitigation has no FTE, you did not mitigate. You wrote fiction.
We are moving visit requests online. People with disabilities, limited English, and greater-Minnesota households without reliable internet will feel this first. Data shows phone requests are already how those groups reach us. We will keep a staffed phone and in-person path, in plain language and the languages we already fail. The remaining risk is night and weekend coverage — named, dated, and owned.
A statement that could only belong to this proposal Where in the loop? Keep a translated phone path because the burden is already visible.
Choose a category Benefits / change the design Statement / dates Align / fund it Six sentences only this proposal could wear.
Choose a category Benefits / change the design Statement / dates Align / fund it Sit with the equity director before the approval date.
Choose a category Benefits / change the design Statement / dates Align / fund it Impact owner + date; communication owner + audience.
Choose a category Benefits / change the design Statement / dates Align / fund it No FTE for the mitigation — delay the launch.
Choose a category Benefits / change the design Statement / dates Align / fund it Check matches Reset Apply this — toolkit steps 4–8 on your work Two benefits (who). Two burdens (who). One design change — not a monitoring promise.
Draft the six-to-ten sentence impact statement. Read it out loud. If it could fit any other project, rewrite.
Three dated rows: impact, outcome, communication (name + audience).
Who in the equity role you will sit with, and whether the mitigation is actually funded.
Last lesson: take this back to the live packet, repair a cover sheet that already moved, and use the job aid this week.
Put this lesson to work What you can change You control whether the eight-step loop changes a live DHS process connected to DHS Equity Analysis Toolkit or remains information on a page.
What to watch for The team completes the learning, keeps the same default, assigns no owner, and never checks who carries the burden.
Your next step Choose one live work object, name a change or formal escalation, assign an owner, and set the date the result will be reviewed.
Fictional working example
Carry the visit-request example through the decision This fictional continuation applies the lesson's toolkit discussion to an online visit request. Use the original toolkit for its complete method and applicable requirements.
1
Benefits, burdens and a change → The portal offers flexible submission but assumes a usable connection. A staffed phone route is proposed.
Examine this handoff Describe who raised the barrier and what the phone route changes. A promise to monitor does not itself create the route.
2
Impact statement → The proposal would let people submit the same request by phone during confirmed staffed hours.
Examine this handoff Keep the statement specific to this proposal. Do not claim access improved before the route exists and people have used it.
3
Accountability and alignment → Identify who can authorize the arrangement, who will respond to feedback, and when it will be reviewed.
Examine this handoff Check the proposal with relevant equity and policy contacts. A role on this example is not a real person's agreement.
4
Resources and sustainability Staffing and funding are not yet confirmed in this example.
Examine this handoff Record the route as proposed. Resolve capacity, hours, language support and evidence collection before presenting it as available.
Try it with the work What must change in the packet when the phone route has no confirmed staffing?
Draft a specific impact statement with an explicit unresolved resource and the next decision needed.
Carry this forward A repeatable method: benefits and burdens, the statement, names and dates, alignment, and whether it is actually funded.
You control whether the eight-step loop changes a live DHS process connected to DHS Equity Analysis Toolkit or remains information on a page.
Choose one live work object, name a change or formal escalation, assign an owner, and set the date the result will be reviewed.
Completion is shown by a scenario decision, a knowledge-check response, a completed sort and a saved one-minute commitment.
Choose one live work object, name a change or formal escalation, assign an owner, and set the date the result will be reviewed.
Browse and download only. Course notes are not typed or saved on this page.
Reset this lesson
Previous lesson Next lesson Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.
