Community engagement project leaders recently learned how to use the SenseMaker® platform effectively to not only capture and report their activities but also to measure the societal impact of their initiatives.
Prof Dave Snowden, creator of SenseMaker® and the Cynefin Framework, led the training that took place in Potchefstroom on 6 August. Twenty-nine staff members participated in-person and eight online. These staff members included deputy deans, research directors, support staff and Student Life directors from the various campuses of the North-West University (NWU).
“The workshop highlighted the potential of the platform to revolutionise how community engagement impact is measured within academic settings, while also acknowledging the challenges in adopting such tools in complex and multifaceted research environments,” says Bibi Bouwman, director for Sustainability and Community Impact.
She says SenseMaker® opens up many opportunities for community engagement project leaders to better understand and manage their projects. “It is an exciting platform that provides rich insights and tools to help staff understand all the complexities of their community engagement projects and make informed decisions.”
Prof Jeffrey Mphahlele emphasised the importance of universities assessing their societal impact during the workshop. He said it is a challenge that is not easily addressed by traditional research metrics.
Categorising problems
According to Prof Snowden, problems in measuring societal impact can be categorised into five domains. These are: clear, complicated, complex, chaotic, and disorder. “The framework helps leaders understand the nature of the problems they face and choose appropriate actions accordingly.”
Prof Snowden highlighted how SenseMaker® enables self-signification, empowering individuals to interpret their own experiences, thus avoiding the biases associated with third-party analysis.
The workshop concluded with several recommendations that, among other things, the next community engagement annual report should explore the underlying cultural and motivational issues relating to community engagement as a core pillar at the university and that SenseMaker® should be used to study these challenges and plan future community engagement activities.
More about SenseMaker®
It is a web-based, multi-faceted tool that was developed by the Cynefin Company. The application is rooted in the Cynefin Framework.
It is designed to bridge the gap between quantitative data and narrative context, allowing individuals to interpret and give meaning to their own experiences through distributed scientific descriptions (ethnography).
The group of community engagement project leaders attended the SenseMaker® workshop at the NWU’s Sports Village.
Bibi Bouwman, director for Sustainability and Community Impact, with Prof Dave Snowden, creator of SenseMaker® and the Cynefin Framework.
Prof Dave Snowden (centre) visited the office of the vice-chancellor on 5 August. Meeting him were Philip Malan, manager in the office of the vice-chancellor, Clement Manoko, executive director for Corporate Relations and Marketing, Prof Linda du Plessis, deputy vice-chancellor for Planning and Campus Operations (Vanderbijlpark Campus), Prof Dave Snowden, Cynefin Wales, Elmi Bester, Cynefin in South Africa, Ntsikie Kote, chief director for Strategy, Bibi Bouwman, director for Sustainability and Community Impact, and Nkosinathi Tom, NWU director for Strategic Partnerships and Special Projects.
