When Departments Don't Talk: Making Sense of Organisational Complexity
by Tony Quinlan on Feb 28, 2025 12:30:00 PM
Complex organisational issues rarely have.... no wait, let’s try that one again.
Building Teams That Can Effectively Manage Conflict
by Tony Quinlan on Nov 11, 2024 3:37:00 PM
Conflict is just a part of working in any team. Whether it's a disagreement on strategy, a clash of personalities, or different ideas about tackling a project, conflicts are going to happen. But here's the thing—not all conflicts are bad. When handled right, they can actually help wit …
Argh. When a helpful example is kept confidential
by Tony Quinlan on Nov 4, 2019 12:46:00 PM
No great thoughts today – the upcoming post on how not to restrict necessary feedback is drawing those for the moment.
Transforming organisations – slides from the Agile2019 workshop in DC
by Tony Quinlan on Aug 20, 2019 4:14:00 PM
A big thank you to everyone who came along to our workshop last week in Washington, DC. A whistle-stop hour-long session saw us sense-making – gathering about 80 experiences from people and signifying them on the walls (see the photos below), then visiting the Cynefin framework and ta …
Join Tony and Ken Power to hear about how to transform your organisation
by Tony Quinlan on May 9, 2019 10:56:00 AM
For three years, Narrate worked closely on a large-scale global organisation transformation programme with an in-house team led by Ken Power. As part of that programme, Tony ran in-house training courses on Cynefin and Complex Facilitation Techniques for dozens of in-house teams; desi …
Reflections on developing a SenseMaker framework to understand company culture
by Tony Quinlan on Nov 5, 2018 10:32:06 AM
Two examples of SenseMaker triads for exploring company culture
SenseMaker contours of narrative - how a culture might evolve, where a culture won't shift
by Tony Quinlan on Oct 12, 2017 9:20:03 AM
Moving cultural beliefs and patterns is tough - the way that people behave generates micro-narratives and stories that then inform (constrain) how other people behave. Feedback loops and patterns that can strengthen over time, making change seem impossible*. In our work with SenseMake …
Resilience from weak links and acquaintances, not strong links and friends
by Tony Quinlan on Sep 5, 2017 3:23:29 PM
A recent conversation with client-turned-friend Kecia Bertermann*, Monitoring and Learning Director at GirlEffect, prompted some thoughts around global social networks - something Kecia's been working on generating for young girls in varying countries.
Catching up - Learning From Incidents slides
by Tony Quinlan on Nov 5, 2014 10:52:18 AM
It's been an "interesting" few weeks at breakneck pace, so I'm a bit behind in putting things up. So, catching up bit by bit - here are the slides from the ESRC Learning From Incidents seminar at Southampton University on 15th October, along with some reflections from the morning.
Washington DC - courses coming up in September 2014
by Tony Quinlan on Sep 12, 2014 10:38:06 AM
Early bird discount's finished, but there's still time to book on the upcoming Washington DC Cognitive Edge courses - which would be highly recommended even if I weren't teaching with Michael Cheveldave. (I won't be there for the Narrative day on 2nd October, though - I'll have gone t …