SENSEMAKING OUT LOUD™

Aligning Teams Around Action

Bringing Emerging Trends To Life

Sensemaking Out Loud™ is a process led by Andrea Kates, Dave Marvit, and Jennifer He that combines the creativity of design thinking, the makers’ mindset of charrettes, the research and analytics of strategy sessions, and the energy of a co-creation sprint. There are no back seats. We discover together and create a path forward.  

Sensemaking Out Loud™ brings co-creation to the NEXT level through active immersion in future realities and committing to brave bold new actions. 

Sensemaking Out Loud™ is an original innovation discipline that brings emerging trends to life so you can decide what to do about them. Beyond Ideation, Design Thinking, or Charrettes is Sensemaking Out Loud™  

Who is this for?
This Get To Next Sprint is designed for leaders who need to make decisions and connections in an uncertain environment that can be chaotic, unpredictable, and rapidly evolving. 

Obstacles and Opportunities
How do we focus on where to go next in a world that’s changing faster than ever?

Sensemaking Out Loud™ is necessary (not optional) if we are going to act wisely in a chaotic world. If you have not had a recent intense, structured possibility thinking session, you need to step back now and make sense of what’s happening (before you make decisions.) 

Sensemaking Out Loud™ is a structured process—guided by a team that’s expert at breaking through biases and blindspots. 

We help you see untapped opportunities coming to the forefront because of the new state of the world around us.. 

Until now, we started our planning sessions with ideas. We assumed that everyone’s view of the facts was relatively consistent. We believed that our insights about tomorrow would fall along the same lines as our habits from today, with some modifications. 

But, in an environment where so much change confronts us every day, we need time to step back and make sense of what’s new. 

BEFORE we formulate what’s next. 

Before we apply Design Thinking or create a challenge for Open Innovation or apply business model generation to our ideas, we need a structured and disciplined way to synthesize new information, interpret the patterns of change and what they might mean, and articulate burning questions that need to drive our innovations.

Objectives And Outcomes
You’ll have clarity about where to place your bets.

You’ll come away with an expanded perspective, new colleagues, and a game plan for your organization.

You’ll have a well-articulated path forward based upon a novel and clear way of seeing. A new framework that explains what is and points to what will be. The comfort of knowing that your plan makes sense.
Tangible value: You’ll leave with insights about your own work environment and new opportunities ahead.

What you’ll learn: What are the real issues that need to be confronted? When the old ways of thinking no longer apply, what are the new ways? Which cliches and buzzwords do we need to toss out? What are the burning questions that will drive growth for your organization…next?

The SOL process can be focused on industry-specific topics in areas like:
Fintech, Manufacturing, Healthcare, Talent 3.0, Consumer Products, and more.

What will the post-pandemic workplace look like? What should it look like?

What are the most pressing shifts in work that should define the built environment?

How will virtual, global, asynchronous, multigenerational forces open new possibilities for diversity, equity, and inclusion?

How can our workplace best serve people?

The client gathered a group of leaders representing their customers to participate in the Sensemaking Out Loud session. Live in San Francisco with virtual links to other global offices.

Result + Impact:

1. Breakthrough initiatives to redesign the workplace for their current clients 
2. New offerings for flexible work with novel technologies and compelling design.

Workshop Labs
Through a series of hands-on sessions designed to activate the creative expression, uncensored ideation, imagination, intuition, and pattern recognition we answer your most pressing and challenging questions.

〉Burning Questions
Provocative questions set the stage, based on the theme (example: Future of Work)

〉Wind Tunnel
Physical walk through a collection of facts, data, headlines, and statistics that need to reframe our thinking

〉Metaphor
Collective response to the new information. A guided experience in moving from a fact (for example, the shift to working from home) to a business opportunity (for example, flexible workspace design). 

〉Cliché Bin
The participants generate a set of clichés or old ways of thinking that need to be discarded.

〉Car Wash
A bubble machine sets the stage to transition to a new mindset. For example: How might technologies or new relationships in our ecosystem open up new possibilities?

〉Theater
Guest speakers provoke and inspire

〉Test Kitchen
The participants combine ingredients in new ways and formulate challenge statements for their companies.

〉Campfire
A collective session to synthesize themes and create new narratives. 

The Sensemaking Out Loud™ session ends with tangible and specific Challenge Statements that guide the practical application of trends to create new corporate initiatives.

Sprint Sequence
Cycle 1: Gather trends, facts and headlines. Generate Burning Questions
Cycle 2: Full-day live immersion. Generate challenge statements.
Cycle 3: Extend the challenges to workgroups
Cycle 4: Presentation of final work products, creative expression, business initiatives

Deliverables
Particpants will receive bespoke trend research, burning questions, challenge statements to guide innovation initiatives that bring a truly distinctive level of innovation to their future strategy. And, they end with guidance for a sprint that brings the Challenge Statements to life with tangible initiatives.

Format
In-Person – Virtual – Hybrid options.
Group size: From intimate (8-12) to large group (50+)
Location: Large space with room for multiple hands-on sessions.
Sprints can also be conducted for individuals, teams or cohorts in 6-12-week cohorts.