Narrative research & SenseMaker®

Dr Shawn Cunningham of Mesopartner is trained and licensed to use the Sensemaker® research instrument developed by The Cynefin Company. Sensemaker® is part of a suite of instruments used in ethnographical research that allows respondents to share their stories and immediately add meaning to them using self-signification. Self-signification means that the persons sharing stories give meaning to their own stories using prompts developed by the research team. This approach avoids the epistemic injustice of third-party or algorithmic interpretation. In other words, we can make sense of both the narratives shared and the quantitative data without experts interpreting and adding their meaning to the results.

This approach is ideal for development contexts, as it assists organisations in understanding nuanced shifts in the development context. It also lends itself to the ongoing monitoring of change initiatives over time. In the last 10 years we have used Sensemaker to:

• Assist an international NGO in assessing how informal waste workers used technology in five countries (waste pickers' perspective)
• Support a TVET project to evaluate how effective green technology training methods have been at different colleges in South Africa (students' perspective)
• Track how knowledge workers leveraged new information to improve their innovation efforts
• Conducted a survey of how small and medium-sized entrepreneurs perceived support to improve quality in their production environment (entrepreneurs' perspective)

The Sensemaker® surveys can be completed on a mobile phone app or web browser and use text, images or audio inputs. 

The process to implement a Sensemaker study is as follows:

METHOD 1

1. A Sensemaker® engagement project typically starts with developing a set of signifiers to guide the respondents through self-signification. These signifiers are designed based either on a deep understanding of the research context or from coherent theoretical frameworks.
2. The next step is to design the survey using the Sensemaker® Suite.
3. A short pilot process provides feedback on the language and the signifier frameworks.
4. The survey is launched and promoted by the client. A dashboard interface can be designed to analyse data in real-time.
5. When sufficient data is collected, the research team and invited stakeholders meet to make sense of the data together. The intention is to reduce the dependency on expert interpretation, so the client must be directly involved in making sense of the data.  
6. Mesopartner will produce a short report based on the findings and statistical analysis.
7. Most clients present the results of the study back to the study population. 

METHOD 2

Another way to engage with Sensemaker is via a Pulse. A pulse is a Sensemaker scan based on our experience with a specific topic or instrument. Because it is based on a generic signifier framework, it saves our clients money. 

Each Pulse bundle includes:

• A concept note that explains the framework or theory behind the signifiers
• A set of signifiers
• 4 hours of consultation before the scan to make adjustments to make sure the Pulse will work in the clients context
• A 4 hour facilitation of a results workshop where we help our client to make sense of the results.
• A standard report that explains the scan, the workshop results and high-level recommendations.

We are currently developing Pulses in the following areas:

• Knowledge management and flows between development organisations
• Technological change and disruption
• The effect of emerging technologies on workplaces
• Green Economic Development instruments
• Diagnosing the dynamics of an innovation system
• Instigating innovation
• Making decisions under conditions of uncertainty
• Assessing the health of an entrepreneurial ecosystem

What is SenseMaker® - a new generation data collection and analysis tool. Watch this introduction video.

The learning Power of Listening, Practical guidance for using SenseMaker

Visit the Cynefin co Sensemaker® website