Narrative, Complexity and Change
SenseMaker® is a software tool developed by Cognitive Edge which integrates decision support, research, monitoring and knowledge management.
Described by a leading anthropologist in the British Government as the first example of distributed ethnography, the software represents a radically new approach to narrative research.
We spent last week working on a new narrative research framework using SenseMaker® with a new client – a quick snapshot of the organisation ahead of a big leadership and organisational design event in a month’s time. The week started with a workshop to explore the issue and the potential angles for the SenseMaker® triads, dyads, […]
I’ve realised that site changes mean that one of the best case studies of using SenseMaker® in field has disappeared from both the Cognitive Edge and GirlEffect websites. I was lucky enough to work alongside both the authors – in Rwanda and to a lesser extent in Ethiopia – on these brilliant projects. If you’re looking for […]
If you’re thinking of running a SenseMaker project – I’d strongly recommend reading these first. In recent years, the Narrate team has been working closely with UNDP staff on SenseMaker projects across Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East. UNDP staff regularly blogged about their experience of using SenseMaker in field on the UNDP website, but […]
NetIKX: Working In Complexity Just announced in the past week, a variety of opportunities to learn more about complexity, Cynefin and SenseMaker®. I’ll be in London on 7th March from 2pm running a session for NetIKX – all welcome. It’ll be a mix of theory and exercises, along with the obligatory side stories and examples. […]
This week, Tony joined fellow complexity explorer Marcus Jenal for a webinar hosted by Laurie Webster for Cognitive Edge. Looking at social change, both presenters talked about recent experiences of using SenseMaker to explore social and attitudinal change. The webinar was recorded and is available for watching at Cognitive Edge’s Wistia site here. Tony’s slides are […]
I’ve just finished Tim Harford‘s excellent Messy (paperback just out) alongside Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa‘s The Leopard and both have thrown up examples of phrases that brought a smile to my face and, along with an example from a conference earlier this year, highlight one of my concerns about automatic forms of text analysis. To be […]
Moving cultural beliefs and patterns is tough – the way that people behave generates micro-narratives and stories that then inform (constrain) how other people behave. Feedback loops and patterns that can strengthen over time, making change seem impossible*. In our work with SenseMaker, we see this in organisational cultures, in national values and beliefs and […]
It’s a couple of months ago now, but Narrate’s Chief Storyteller, Tony Quinlan, was invited to talk at the fourth UN Data Innovation Learning Lab event, held in Nairobi, Kenya in March 2017. The event focused on “making data meaningful and making the invisible visible“. The video of the talk is available on YouTube here: […]
Nice article today on the WorldBank and its behavioural change aims – my favourite piece was this: Toilets, for example. Nowhere is open defecation more prominent than in India, where more than 600 million people have no access to a toilet. But even where proper sanitation has been installed, “people tend not to want to […]
There’s more to come on the results of the recent Fragments of Impact event in Istanbul – the current plan is to write the projects up properly as soon as we can a) find people who can write effectively on this topic or b) find the time ourselves to sit and write. (Volunteers welcome…) But. […]