Client Projects
Previous Narratives and Sensemaking Case Studies
(including projects managed under original branding of Human-Equity Ltd)

Frameworks for Investment Narratives

Narratives Sensemaking Due Diligence

This French VC investor was interested in the governance of the collective investment review process, where portfolio managers report on the qualitative data in naturally diverse formats and styles. Recognising the subjectivity in this dimension of the analysis (e.g. how an investment manager listens to and understands the management team in a portfolio company), a process and framework for the reduction of biases and increasing a level of discipline in covering the same set of analysis criteria for each portfolio investment was facilitated.

Multi €bn Global House Furnishings Brand

Candidate and Recruitment Experience Feedback

For a pro-active HR strategy in brand image through the interview and retention process

With ever more emphasis placed on a brand's image not only from its direct customers, but from all domains of its relationship with the social and employment community, a deeper and richer understanding of the candidate experience was needed. Design, narratives capture implementation and results debriefing workshops were run.

Start-Up Founder Narratives

Narratives Sensemaking Due Diligence

Investors universally recognise the core of their decision making process is based on narrative interpretation of complex data - both quantitative and qualitative. Yet few investors have reflected on the frameworks they use in order to improve consistency in the interpretative/Sensemaking process across their portfolio managers. A structure of 12 dimensions of founder teams' dispositions and personal narratives was implemented, providing an ethical, transparent two-way process of interviewing Start-Up teams.

360 Leadership Journaling

Narratives Sensemaking

Using the Competing Values Framework (Cameron and Quinn), a fresh approach to continuous leadership development was deployed. With both journaling and 360 peer review inputs, a process of learning on an individual basis was facilitated, in complement to collective leadership review sessions, with anonymised narratives.

Multi €bn Global House Furnishings Brand

Onboarding Experience Feedback

Understanding the integration and cultural acclimatisation journey

This brand's distinct global image was reflected in the very distinct internal working culture and values. With a conscious investment in cultivating and maintaining these values, the onboarding process was identified as an essential area of development. A narratives sensemaking project was deployed to capture the experiences of recent recruits, over their first 6-12 months of employment. Narratives were contributed both via text and video.

Market Insight - investment sentiment of airlines

Mapping the investment attitudes of airlines across the world,

Airbus' passenger aircraft interiors division was implementing a 5 year strategy of increasing the value-add to their product lines with increased digital entertainment and Internet connectivity features, The strategy was both a direct revenue opportunity with their existing customer base, but also a competitive advantage move with regards the wider market. Obtaining increased visibility of the fleet investment strategies from international airlines and attitudes towards trends in digital entertainment and connectivity, was essential to steering Airbus' own product development and technology choices. Whilst detailed investment planning information from the airlines is closely guarded, using both open ended qualitative questions (for a narratives approach) along side quantitative data trends, it was possible to map airline purchasing sentiments on a risk/opportunity map.

Organisational Change Management

Narratives Sensemaking

In the context of a major reorganisation process, a narratives Sensemaking process was deployed to extend a deeper listening and consultative process with co-workers.

Multi €bn Global House Furnishings Brand

Global Charitable Foundation - Impact Assessment

South East Asian Education Charity For Women's Employment Opportunities

Building on a well established educational partnership in South East Asia that focused on increasing the employment opportunities for women, a longitudinal insight into the outcomes for the programme's graduates was needed. The project's assessment for a narratives Sensemaking approach was delivered, with initial design and preparation for the project's delivery with a partner was provided.

Multi €bn Global House Furnishings Brand

Franchise Partners Conference Live Narratives

Attitudes Capture During International Conference

Taking the opportunity of an annual conference gathering, a narratives Sensemaking capture was deployed to tap into the more spontaneous feedback of participants - getting to a deeper sense of attitudes than is typically accessible in public forums.

Multi €bn Global House Furnishings Brand

World HR Manager Days

Live Narratives Sensemaking Process

Hosting a group of 70+ HR managers from 30+ countries, a live process of gathering narratives was facilitated. Breakout groups identified patterns, and presented their interpretations and opportunities for future developments.

Corporate Intranet Integration - Sensemaking Narratives

Prototype Implementation of Integrating Narratives

In the context of replacing a corporate social media intranet platform with an intuitive and interactive in-house design, the need to include open narratives was identified. A demo implementation was developed for Space10's portfolio of solutions.

Multi €bn Global House Furnishings Brand

360 Leadership Feedback

Sensemaking Insight Project Design

Peer feedback has been established as a rich and context specific source for continuous leadership development. However, the traditional 360 leadership feedback platforms remain survey-based (closed questions and Likert scales) and use calibrated indexes of performance. The lack of qualitative information and the bias in the indexed scores present significant challenges for sustainable implementation and genuine opportunities for learning. A narratives based 360 design was developed, to contribute to a more nuanced approach to leadership continuous development.

Multi €bn Global House Furnishings Brand

Navigating Procedural Compliance Vs Autonomy

International project to guide culture development of purchasing agents, as they navigate between procedural compliance practices, and contextual autonomy in decision making.

Deployment of a narratives capture across international procurement sites, to inform the development of a new culture of practice in balancing the requirements for common standards and protocols in the purchasing decision making, whilst supporting individual discretion and adaptability depending on local contexts.

Multi €bn Global House Furnishings Brand

International Women's Day

Sensemaking Insight Project Design

Celebrating the diversity and inclusion opportunities, a Sensemaking design was developed for gathering attitudes and sentiment on the practical implementation of the values of inclusion.

Co-Worker Engagement

Sensemaking narratives capture at large industrial site - open narratives invitation and collective processing of results

As a fundamental review of the annual co-worker survey process, narratives Sensemaking was selected as a leading alternative to the limitations of traditional closed-question Likert-scale surveys. With the principles of open micro-narratives and self-signification (the participant interpretes their own narrative on a series of scales), a more meaningful experience was created for co-workers, through to the development of data that presented both macro insights of patterns, without loss of the access to the unique, contextual narratives.

The Sensemaking design responded to limitations identified in other competing solutions such as semantic text analysis - where contextual and cross-cultural meaning can be lost.

Multi €bn Global House Furnishings Brand

Organisational Metrics: Culture and Values Best Practice

Inventory and Pilots To Benchmark Culture and Values Metrics Platforms

6 month study of world's leading methodologies for measuring and developing organisational culture and values, in the context of a multinational corporation.

Benchmarking and pilot deployments of competing frameworks and methodologies, from surveys to focus groups.

Multi €bn Global House Furnishings Brand

Live Sensemaking Process - Navigating Complexity

For a team of in-store design managers and technicians

Even with a well established brand with decades of experience, established team structures and departmental protocols, co-workers experience frictions and ambiguities that drain energy and reduce clarity. This was occurring despite the organisational culture being consciously cultivated with as few layers of hierarchy as possible. The opportunities for dialogue between roles and responsibilities being regular and informal, the benefits of a narratives and Sensemaking approach were identified.

Working with live sharing of free-form narratives of daily experiences, a deeper level of reflection and listening was introduced. With the help of the Complexity segmentation (Cynefin Framework, Snowden) map, a gradual and mutual segmentation of departmental challenges were identified, directly informing future priorities and team actions.