Sensemaking

Sensemaking is a process by which a large population of people are able to give meaning to their collective experiences, referred to as story-based or narrative-based assessment, and 'the first form of scalable ethnography'. By collecting real, unfiltered experiences on the ground, sensemaking can be used to create a story-based repository of insights and learning through a crisis or transformation. Sensemaking helps glean a clearer understanding of what is really going on to minimize the negative impacts from the past, find the evolutionary potential in the present, and help shape a regenerative future.

Video Tutorials

A Sensemaking Primer

The video below automatically starts at the 6:13 mark, which provides a clear and concise primer on sensemaking, by Dave Snowden.

A Sensemaking Case Study (Africa)

The video below documents the sensemaking process with multiple communities in Africa.

Resources

• Open Participatory Organization (OPO) - A self organization system that utilizes sensemaking.
• Collective Presencing - A study in sensemaking through collective presencing, sourced from the Art of Hosting co-creation framework.
• SenseMaker - A widely used sensemaking tool developed by Cynefin, Dave Snowden
• Narrative-Based Transdisciplinary Research Using the SenseMaker Tool - A case study site explaining sensemaking in Africa.
• Be The Change Cooperative - A co-creation organization that administers sensemaking scans in co-creation communities.
• A pilot SenseMaker scan to track ecosystem health, mutualistic, co-creative behavior - Please do not submit any scans! See screenshot below:

Case Study

See Also

• Cynefin Framework Created in 1999 by Dave Snowden, a conceptual sensemaking framework used to aid decision-making. Cynefin is a Welsh word for habitat.
• Cognitive Edge - The creators of SenseMaker and the Cynefin_framework