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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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 …
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 …
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 …
Censemaking helps you to learn how to change and innovate by design.
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 …
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 …
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 …
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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 …
It’s easy to say a lesson was learned and far more difficult to show it to be true. What can we do to best to learn from what’s happened to us and not allow often difficult, painful, hard-fought lessons to go unlearned? When the student is ready, the teacher will appear Unknown A lesson is …
