SenseMakerTM Overview

Overview of SenseMakerTM* January 2011

* Developed and owned by Cognitive Edge Pte Ltd – Emerging Options Ptd Ltd use SenseMakerTM under license

Some facts - Humans…

•  can only see 0.01% of their visual range in sharp focus at any one time���

•  will only ever seen approximately 5% of what is available���

•  see the world as a series of dots based previous experience���

•  make decisions by scanning thousands of fragmented patterns stored in long term memory and applying the first pattern that matches���

•  are pattern recognition intelligences NOT information���processing devices���

Source: Theories of Visual Perception - Ian E. Gordon

Everything is Fragmented

•  IF the world as a series of dots joined up on the basis of past experience

•  IF Humans are Pattern Recognition beings NOT Information Processing machines...... ���

How do we make sense of the world so we can act?

•  Narrative and visual images are ways to convey complex knowledge and ideas - a supplement to traditional ways of learning and interpretation of our world

•  Decision making occurs through the blending of fragmented experiences gained through narrative and personal understanding���

•  Multiple fragments provide the basis for interpretation

Narrative Capture

Narrative Capture Entry Point

Customised workflow for each application

•  Specific to each instrument •  Language tailored to target group •  Designed to elicit range of experiences

•  Specific to each experience •  Language tailored to target group •  Provide basis for tracking relative���nature of experiences over time •  Established as double negative slider bars

Prompting Questions •  Specific to each instrument •  Language tailored to target audience •  Designed to elicit a range of experiences

Experiences from participants

MCQ’s about experience •  Specific to each experience •  Provides context for experience •  Lens through which patterns are recognised

Filters about experience •  Specific to each experience •  Provides basis for tracking relative nature of experiences over time •  Can be either Triads or Polarities

General research questions •  Not related to experience told •  Exploration of related areas •  Optional

Demographics •  Not related to experience told •  Provided only once per data entry session

Elements of a SenseMakerTM Narrative Capture

Prompting Questions: to elicit a response about the program

•  Place people in a context they can understand

•  Provoke people's memories by creating a context around extreme boundaries (moments of pleasure and pain)

•  Allow the question to be answered in the third person

•  Do not privilege a certain type of experience over another (ie ask for either negative or positive experiences)

•  They pertain to the issue at hand without revealing the nature of the study or any hypotheses held by the project team

Prompting Questions: Examples

Think of a time when you found training really hard but chose to keep going. What happened?

Vocational Excellence

Imagine you are in a lift (elevator) with 2 people who are discussing how people and institutions are reacting to climate change. One person mentions that several obstacles constrain the extent to which people are able to prepare for impacts and/or adapt. The other person says that he knows of a few examples in which people and institutions are already responding. They turn to you and ask for your perspective on what makes preparation / reaction possible or difficult. How would you respond?

Climate Change

You have been asked to outline what has happened in applying the learning from your program in your workplace. What experience would you relate?

Impact of Executive Education

A Local newspaper article stated in part…. “The government has announced an inquiry into the amount of additional funding that will be needed to deliver services to the community that are currently provided by volunteers. The competition for people’s time, the differences in attitudes to community service between the younger and older generations, and increased selfishness are regarded as key to the level of funding required to the level of additional funding required to deliver services”.

How would you respond?

Future of Volunteering

Narrative fragments: material captured in the field in its original form

Australians wont act till it's too late.

I know very few people who are living an appropriate life for the 21st century. Hopefully I am, or getting there.

Lack of awareness of the scale and enormity of the issues engenders apathy and complacency, which is reflected in the (lack of effective) political responses. For many people, there are strong cultural biases against the need to restructure the economy and an inability to see a different future. They are in psychological denial. Vested interests capitalise on this and the confusion of the complexity of the issue to stir doubt. Others believe in action, but not action that affects them materially in any way. We are living in a fools paradise, and borrowing the future from our children.

Act now

It is imperative that all individuals, agencies and business organizations start to plan for the impacts of climate change now. Credible international science indicates that climate change is real and we now have benchmark data and preliminary modelling to start planning for different scenarios. We need to examine the projected climate change impacts for each of our areas of interest and in the larger context and to start developing adaptation options to prevent, avoid and minimise detrimental impacts. We need to change our outlook and to recognise that the environment or the land and its systems is fundamental to all life on earth. We can no longer pursue purely narrow economic interests on the assumption that if things become too difficult or too dirty we can move on to a new frontier (Boulding, R.G. (1967) 'The coming spaceship earth'). Economic and social values are important but they need to be considered in the context of the 'a priori' value of the environment in a hierarchical approach. We need to think outside of the square and to change our practices from reliance on organizational and professional standards and structures that rely on past models which have actively contributed to the current situation. We need to stop theorizing and start acting. We need to stop describing the problem and to start developing best practice guidelines to assist in implementation of adaptation measures. Above all we need political leadership and professional courage to avoid foundering on short-term, political agendas and inaction based on self-interest.

Our steps to climate adaptation.

Some individuals and businesses are already trying to "do their bit" so to speak, which is a step in the right direction.

Signification – Multiple Choice: The person who provides the experience decides what it means

Signification - Triads: Assessing the relationship between three competing Interests

Signification - Polarities: Opposing opposites to uncover layers of meaning

Absence of Ideal State Excess of

Making Sense of Narrative

Triad Interpretation: How three competing themes relate

Process

Money Clients

Encouraged use of new learnings

Risk Averse

Too much else going on

Work environment open to new initiatives:

Difference to the business:

Area of the business most impacted:

Team

Me Organisation

Context: derived from participant experiences

Encouraged use of new learnings

Risk Averse

Too much else going on

Work environment open to new initiatives:

Managing Customer Relationships

One area I learnt in the course was around leading a project ethically. In the current project I am working on, I have taken over the role of Project Manager of a project that has had up to 15 resources at different points in time. The majority of these (e.g. 80%) are company resources. The Project Lead (a customer resource) who I report to has a very confronting management style and requested for the previous project manager to be replaced.

Much emphasis in my role briefing was on how to work with this Project Lead and to understand and meet her expectations. As weeks passed I have felt that much of her behaviour did not seem reasonable. This was supported by a total of 3 resources leaving the project, 2 resigning from the company. I witnessed a lot of pressure placed onto staff and behaviour that I felt didn't align to our values. This project is a secondment that will extend for 12 months. In addition I felt that she was extraordinarily wasteful in the utilisation of our resources and we were not given the opportunity to provide enhanced value at every point.

It reached a point that I felt it was my responsibility to communicate to my senior manager and HR that our staff are being exposed to unreasonable behaviour and requesting guidance on how to manage this. In addition I felt that the company had to protect our position and that we had to communicate someway that the customer is not getting maximum value for the revenue we are earning. I am currently in the middle of this process. The examples within one of the final sessions of the course (a while ago now and can't exactly remember) highlighted the importance of leading ethically. Hopefully my actions currently will improve the working environment for our staff, allow us to provide enhanced value to the customer and ensure we are protecting our relationship with the customer moving forward.

Impact Dashboard: Measurement of Impact over time

Learning

variety of skills, approaches and thinking in the business - evident from working together in teams. Insight from watching colleagues present as a client - increased awareness of how a customer might see us when we pitch to them.

Polarities: Uncovering issues not readily visible

Idea

l Sta

te

Safe learning environment

Too scared to try anything new

Over protected

Engaging with colleagues

I would share my positive thoughts on the interaction with colleagues, the challenge in delivering an outcome in a short time frame. Would also suggest that the classroom learning and activity were disconnected but it didn't undermine the overall value of the course.

Role management

Being often the leader on projects, I took less of a leading role to help others. I was able to observe the project management leadership and role definition process and the impact of these in reaching an outcome. This was very educational to see from the outside and the positive (consensus) attributes and adverse impact of not having clear roles which I will use in my role.

What interventions might be required to shift the mean back towards the Ideal State of “participants having the ability to experiment in an environment where it is safe to fail”?

Relationships between Polarities

Leadership vs Dominant Attitude

As leadership becomes more unnecessarily interfering, people become more frustrated and powerless

Dom

inan

t Att

itude

Leadership

Going through the motions

Frustrated &���powerless

Non existent Unnecessarily���

Interfering

All responses Most Significant Barrier: Attitudes of Senior Management

When the focus is on Most Significant Barrier to progression being the Attitude of Senior Management, a cluster of participants who go through the motions when leadership is non existent stands out

Overview of SenseMakerTM* January 2011

* Developed and owned by Cognitive Edge Pte Ltd – Emerging Options Ptd Ltd use SenseMakerTM under license