I’ve been working with SenseMaker® now in development projects for a few years and I was recently reflecting on how far we’ve come in what we do. Lots of lessons - often learned the hard way in the early stages, but never disastrously. It’s time to share some of those lessons, for anyone who’s interested.
This one is critical. The biggest mistake - one that is thankfully rare in the development world - is expecting things to work first time out of the box perfectly. There are always hiccups, for all sorts of reasons, and resolving problems is rarely helped by a blame-hunt. The most important thing is to spot the problems early and then work around them. That starts with testing.
I’ll be honest - I saw this first done by Anne McMurray in Northern Ireland, but I’ve stolen and adapted it now for most projects. Up front, include a triad that’s locally-sourced but irrelevant to the project. It needs to feature three things that you have to blend - so tea/milk/sugar is one we’ve used in the past, as is “how do you like your dhal?” - lentils/onions/water. Then label three points in the triad - firstly one that’s only about one corner, then another that’s a blend of two corners, then a third that has elements of all three. Label them clearly - but then, if you’re feeling daring, include an actual triad with those points to it. By making them actually do it, rather than just read about it, you have a better chance of people blending three filters on each triad rather than treating it as three options of a multiple choice question.
(This depends a little on the nature of the project - if you have to bring academic rigour to your research, some of the following options may be restricted.) Depending on a single, formal collection route in a complex or chaotic environment is to put a lot of costly eggs into a single fragile basket. Better, in my recent experience, to build a framework and then use it opportunistically - collect material from multiple routes. Plan for five or six. The redundancy means less panic when a couple of collection routes fall flat. Routes I’ve used in the past include:
On those occasions when we use people to collect material in the field*, we now coach and mentor, take them to the field, get them to share practice and come up with their own list of hints and tips for the next tranche of collectors. In most places, everyone has heard something, everything has been heard by someone, but noone has heard everything - so getting them to work/talk together really improves the learning. Much better than berating/teaching from the front of the room.
This one parallels the “Test everything” up above. People forget things - how to “save” an example; technology systems change - upgrades can often result in downgrades as any long-term user of Windows or Microsoft Office can tell you; complex environments will continue to evolve. So check the data every so often - is it still coming in? is it still legible? are the collectors consistently skipping certain elements? Planning will only get you so far.
This depends again on the type of project. If it’s pure research, then a report may be the perfect output. I’m not a fan of reports - I’m far more interested in helping people get to grips with the new information, understand the consequences in their own terms and work to use the information to improve their projects. And I don’t believe that ever happens effectively through simply telling/writing/presenting conclusions - especially if they’re long and detailed.
This one I’ve learned over time - if you’re showing patterns of triad/dyad/MCQ/Stones data to stakeholders, make them fill in the full framework beforehand. On paper preferably at the start of the session where you’re presenting results. This forces them to think about what the triads are - and reduces the number of “But what is that telling me?” questions.
Here endeth the (long) lesson. I reserve the right to back off some of these depending on the context and the specific project. And there are no doubt more that colleagues would add - let’s hear them in the comments!
I'm also extremely grateful to all the clients, associates and partners with whom I’ve worked in all the various projects, with particular nods of the head to Milica Begovic at UNDP, Irene Guijt, Kecia Bertermann and Rebecca Smith at GirlHub and Dave Snowden. Their brains, spirit and patience has helped immensely in getting through the various learning moments to the point that we can now call it “experience”!