Welcome to Censemaking: Making Sense of Change
Censemaking helps you to learn how to change and innovate by design.
Using Principles To Frame Strategy and Evaluation
Welcome to the Censemaking Methods Series where today we look at how to apply principles to guiding evaluation and strategy. This builds on our previous lessons on Principles-Focused Evaluation and the building blocks that underpin the approach. What are principles and why do they matter? Principles are anchors between values and strategy that allow for decision-making …
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A Metric for Innovation Productivity: The Prototype Death Rate
In this latest in the Censemaking Methods Series we look at the Prototype Death Rate, a metric for assessing innovation productivity. When an idea has matured enough in our design process, it’s time to create a prototype. This is a tangible or digital ‘mock-up’ of the concept that serves as its first real-world representation. Before …
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Fresh Start Effects and Pathmaking
The shift in seasons or a new page on the calendar can be an ideal moment to instigate change. The Fresh Start Effect demonstrates that you can engineer opportunities for transformation at any time — simply harness the power of your calendar. “The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second …
A Simple Systems Mapping Technique
Our Censemaking Methods Series continues with a focus on helping your visual thinking practice by introducing the simple Sketchnote and how it can help transform your team’s understanding of systems. Diagrams have a unique way of breaking down the complexity of systems, don’t they? Imagine a tool that lets everyone see and understand a concept from …
Evidence and Learning in the New AI-driven Arms Race
What happens when the AI-powered algorithms take what was once a peer-to-peer network and turn it into an AI arms race? Cory Doctorow has coined the term enshitification to describe the ways in which many large electronic media platforms from Google to Facebook to (now-called) X and others. He’s speaking to that feeling that I …
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Designing More Powerful Events For Greater Impact
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 …
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What Complexity In Everyday Life Looks Like
When we talk about complexity, what does it mean? I’ll peek at an everyday phenomenon to illustrate why things are far more complex and complicated than they used to be. The term complexity is used a lot to describe social life, institutions, and the state of the world, but what does it really look like? …
Leading As Design And By Design
Learning takes our exposure to new things and transforms our thoughts and actions. How we do this is – and whether its done well — is where design comes in. Our learning is framed by where we are and where we want to go. The volume of content available to people puts attention at a …
Three Questions to Enhance Evaluative Thinking
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 …
Allostatic Change And Why It Matters
Allostasis is a term that can make a big difference in shaping our understanding of change and what it means for us. Biological processes can provide explanations and metaphors that guide how we view and approach change. Among the most popular is homeostasis. Homeostatic processes view things from a set point or baseline and view …