Impact is the ultimate outcome for any social change initiative yet it’s also the most elusive and poorly defined of our evaluation metrics in practice. How do we change this? In this first post in a series, I bring us into the world of understanding impact. Non-profits are in the business of making a positive […]
What Does Impact Look Like? Read More »
In this latest in our Censemaking Methods Series we turn our focus toward applying design to generating impact through better events and gatherings. Crafting an unforgettable gathering is an alchemy of art and science. Through intentional design, we can learn from service design From board retreats, annual general meetings, to brainstorming sessions, a stellar event
Designing More Powerful Events For Greater Impact Read More »
Welcome to the Censemaking Methods Series dedicated to profiling tools, techniques, methods, and issues tied to strategic design for impact. Today we look at evaluative thinking, the bedrock of understanding our influence on the world. Evaluative thinking is a disciplined approach to reflective practice, inquiry, and creative design that forms the backbone for any initiative
Three Questions to Enhance Evaluative Thinking Read More »
The confusion between whether something is used to teach or to guide underlies much of the dissatisfaction with the use of models to inform the way we work, learn, and behave. Let’s talk about systems and models — but stick with me, this is a practical and not just academic matter. I’ll start with a
Are You Using Teaching Models or Action Models? Read More »
Creativity is something highly valued in individuals, yet is rarely supported in organizations. That requires designing a creative culture. If you don’t create a lot, you won’t be able to ship (what you create) because everything will be too precious to give away Seth Godin Creative work requires an exercise in ways of thinking and
Designing For Creative Organizational Cultures Read More »
Censemaking helps you to learn how to change and innovate by design.
Welcome to Censemaking: Making Sense of Change Read More »
Disruption is often described in abstract terms with time horizons that look long enough to act on. What we see now is far different from that — faster and more intense. You might have had relatively few ideas of what artificial intelligence looked like until last week. That was when the news of ChatGPT made
Our Living Disruption Experiment Read More »
The story of learning through conferences and Twitter intertwines in a story that might be coming to an end for both. To say there’s a lot of change in the air is both cliche and an understatement in November 2022. Of the many notable changes, two of them are of particular importance to me this
Learning Farewells and Chapter Turns Read More »
This second in a series on Principles-Focused Evaluation (PFE) draws our attention to the concepts of systems and complexity and how can PFE help us navigate both. Systems (thinking), complexity, and principles all go together. Principles-focused Evaluation (PFE) brings them together in meaningful ways, but to understand that, we first need to understand what we
Systems and Complexity: Implications for Evaluation Read More »
A new documentary profiles the life and perspective of Bruce Mau, a designer who had contributed more to my passion for the field than any other. Bruce Mau is an enigma. He is a designer in the fullest sense of that term and has demonstrated the power of design thinking (in it’s fullest sense of
Design’s Inspiring Possibility Read More »
