As the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted with greater urgency than we have felt in a generation, healthcare sits at the intersection of hundreds of questions: the natural science of research and investigation, the needs of people in pain, the pressures on and from their families, the structures of economic systems, and the needs and capacities of people trying to deliver it all come together to create a knot that cannot be unravelled. Like any complex, entangled, human problem, health must be approached as a whole.

Our SenseMaker® tool and surrounding methods have been used in the context of healthcare across the world for over a decade, across a wide variety of subjects which are both patient-facing as well as around structural and workforce issues. These approaches aim to democratise the research and engagement process by placing the respondent at the intersections of statistics and storytelling, asking them to be the owner of their own narrative. Located within an ecosystem of participatory methods, whether you’re looking to understand the experiences of healthcare professionals and leaders, patients and their relatives, or get a pulse check on employee wellbeing, our programme provides a platform for real-time distributed network response to key issues, as well as in defining collective insight to taking action.

This programme is open to governmental, not for profit, academic institutions, and occasional commercial organisations who orient themselves towards the public good. We also welcome students who are interested in experimenting and gaining experience with our tools.

To get in touch with one of our experienced consultants, send us a message!

As a membership-focused organisation, The Cynefin Company aims to provide practical and methodological scaffolding for practitioners in healthcare looking to make use of sense-making in their organisations and beyond. By joining our healthcare programme, you will be connecting to a wide and diverse community of practice, a movement of practitioners and organisations looking to make meaningful change for social good. Due to the varied work we have built in the area of health, we can offer levels of service varying from tailor made bespoke projects, to tried and tested pulse survey options and signifier libraries around issues such as staff wellbeing and leadership journaling amongst others.

Our previous projects includes:

• 10,000 Voices (Public Health Agency, Northern Ireland)
• An evaluation of the School for Change Agents, Continuing partnership with NHS Horizons
• Student and staff wellbeing during COVID, University of Georgia, USA
• Staff wellbeing, NHS Ashford and St Peters Trust
• Women’s experiences of the BRCA service, Ashford and St Peters Trust
• Exploring drivers of child and early forced marriage, Women’s Refugee Commission
• Experiences of youth and adolescents during COVID and their SRH needs, barriers, and opportunities, Save the Children
• Collecting stories from nurses, Royal College of Nursing
• Leadership Journaling, Various

ARTICLES ON CYNEFIN AND SENSEMAKER IN HEALTHCARE Read More

Like all our programmes, members of the Health & Care programme have access to the following support:

• A network of practitioners in their area of expertise and beyond
• Pre-designed and literature-supported material for their SenseMaker® collectors
• SenseMaker® user licenses, the number of which depends on the type of membership
• Training in designing and understanding SenseMaker® projects
• Access to webinars and additional resources
• Support in developing new methods, themes and areas of research that are consistent with the aims and direction of the citizens engagement programme.