Change|Making in Colour: Censemaking No. 57
A splash of colour and texture can transform your world
Welcome to the latest Censemaking Innovation Newsletter.
Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere brings colour into our lives in new ways, making every day a new adventure. Our ability to perceive colour is a survival mechanism, and when employed in design, it communicates deeply without using words. I love this time of year.
This issue is inspired by this connection between colour and how we navigate our world. It begins with a story about one of the most beautiful portrayals of data to tell the story of the hidden loneliness epidemic using data, storytelling, and design. It’s a masterful case study in behavioural design.
Please take a look at the colours throughout this newsletter. How do they affect your experience? Or do you happen to notice it at all? That’s the fantastic thing about colour — it’s a storyteller to our hearts and minds whether we pay attention or not.
Thank you for your attention. Have a great week! - Cameron
"Good communication is just as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after." — Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Coffee Talk
This week’s coffee talk focuses on this incredible use of data, graphic design and storytelling that tells the story of an invisible epidemic (loneliness). Alvin Chang’s piece on Pudding showcases data visualization and storytelling as you’ve never seen before. The work is stunning in bringing alive data and evidence. It illustrates the diversity, complications and daily interactions of people that manifest in loneliness and how that influences their well-being.
Moreover, Alvin walks us through how he made this in a separate piece on Big Charts. It’s a fascinating read for anyone looking to tell stories about using data, behavioural science, and design. Pour yourself a cup of something good and give yourself time to review both articles. You’ll see how you (and others) spend time differently and learn about our hidden loneliness epidemic simultaneously.
Imagine how we might tell more complicated, nuanced stories using data if we took Alvin’s approach to housing, education, work stress, or poverty. What kind of innovation tales could we tell, showing others how something might come to be? There’s so much here to read, study and think about. Thank you Alvin!
"Keep your face always toward the sunshine—and shadows will fall behind you." - Walt Whitman.
Change By Design: Making and Creating
I’ve used Evernote for ten years, but when it comes to creative work, I rely on its more visual cousin: Milanote. It uses visual elements to organize files, web links and pictures, which I find enormously helpful for projects like this newsletter.
Bruce Mau’s Massive Change Network has an initiative called Massive Action. They recently brought together change-makers worldwide to showcase decolonized, indigenous, and youth-led programs making a difference. Worth a follow.
Could you reduce methane from a land-based natural polluter by 95% using something from the ocean? This profile of Alexia Akbay highlights how seaweed can feed cows, reduce their burps and waste, and tackle climate change by design.
Futures and foresight work rests partly on our ability to detect signals and forecast possibilities. The Institute for the Future’s Mark Frauenfelder presents five key principles for generating engaging and effective forecasts.
Want to do better user research? The Nielsen-Norman Group has a cheat sheet to help you do it.
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Behavioural Science & Change|Making
The Decision Lab has published a case study on habit formation using coffee as an example and how to leverage these habits to create a more sustainable cup of coffee. I’ll drink to that!
Psychological Safety is at the root of any sustainable organizational or social change. Amy Gallo’s article in the Harvard Business Review provides an excellent orientation to the concept and how to apply it in your organization.
How do you get people in authority to give your ideas a chance? Aditya Shukla describes the techniques, strategies, and theories of persuasion that can help you convince people why they should follow you and innovate.
Do you know if your note-taking apps make you smarter? They probably don’t. Here’s why (hint: it’s all about their design and how we learn).
The Fresh Start Effect is a simple, time-focused strategy that can leverage changes like seasons, holidays, or anniversaries into behaviour change. I profile this approach, what it does, and how it works on Censemaking.
"Believe in the beauty of your dreams and have the courage to chase them, for within pursuit lies the magic of becoming." - ChatGPT 😄
Impact and Value
The Cynefin Company has released a new White Paper on using its SenseMaker® software suite for monitoring, evaluation, and learning for impact. It’s a unique look at how a sensemaking tool can support decision-making and program learning.
Emily Gates recently delivered a keynote to the UK Evaluation Society on Five Ways for Evaluation to Deliver Value and posted the slides online. It’s a helpful look at ways to evolve and expand how we connect evaluation and systems for value.
Natalie Cargill’s recent TED talk boldly asserts ways to solve the world’s biggest problems. Linking policy, data, and strategy, she points to examples of how we are making a significant impact by following the money, not just ideas.
CECAN is hosting a webinar on Setting Boundaries in Evaluation: The Role of Critical Systems Heuristics on Wednesday, October 18th, with the remarkable Bob Williams. Bob is a terrific and informed speaker. Registration is free.
"I will not have my life narrowed down. I will not bow down to somebody else's whim or to someone else's ignorance." — bell hooks.
Look and Listen
Scott Barry Kaufman’s Psychology Podcast is so good. This is a must-listen if you’re interested in conversations between and about psychology in its many forms.
Do you post on LinkedIn? Are you looking to have more influence on the platform? This podcast episode from Entrepreneur looks behind the algorithm to show how to get noticed, why LinkedIn doesn’t want you going “viral,” and why that is OK.
Wired’s Have a Nice Future is an eyes-widening, brain-expanding podcast that hosts bold ideas about the future with fun anecdotes, facts, and conversations about enormous, provocative ideas like why post-secondary education is dying.
"Coffee is a reminder that even on the hardest days, we have the ability to start fresh and brew something beautiful." - Unknown.
Thanks for reading!