Great Partners: Strategic Decisions & Narratives

“Stories are the fundamental patterning device through which we understand the world. They are fragmented and anecdotes, not composed stories but they basically comprise a hugely valuable set of research data.” — Dave Snowden

I recently found out about a very interesting software call Sensemaker. I am fascinated by the prospect of using technology as a tool that prioritizes human narratives as critical data to solve problems and expands understandings of almost any issue or problem that a system, organization or government might be tackling.

Value of collecting narratives for problem solving

Large amounts of narrative data can be a hugely valuable source of research data.

If we can analyze actual stories from people in context there is an opportunity to gain insights that are more relevant and productive to decision making and problem solving. Maybe if we were able to manage and curate these soft data sets, we would have more relevent and strategic ideas about how to start solving problems in systems and organizations all over the world. I think that would be very cool.

How does it work?

One of the main premises behind Sensemaker software is to capture material in the field. It seeks to avoid analysis only by computers or experts as the default because the semantic web is limited and experts often interpret with cognitive or cultural bias.

The person that provides the narrative or story in each case decides what it means. This is call “self-signified” micro-narrative/fragments. It seems logical and strategic to get specific pieces of information that incorporates contextual perspectives from the people experiencing the issues directly.

Interested in the potential behind this software?

Check out this video introduction or peruse the info and case studies on the Sensemaker site. I love the idea that software can partner with human intelligence to solve real world problems.