Essential conversations How using basic anthropology will improve your outcomes Albert Linderman, Ph.D., CEO, Sagis Corporation

My attitude: You are the theorist of your world My goal is to understand how you see and work within that frame of understanding This brings with it certain feelings, depending on the situation and project: vulnerability, uncertainty, anxiety, confidence Copyright © 2013, Sāgis Corporation How I Approach Working with Organizations

Each time you work with an org (or a new division or dept) you are essentially doing ethno-research Right ethno-research, wrong ethno-research Interviewing is at the heart of ethnography Know how to ask the right questions Know who to ask Our goal today—to understand principles of efficient and effective conversation with clients Copyright © 2013, Sāgis Corporation Organizations are societies with a culture

They know what they want but they don’t always know how to explain it to someone else. Your clients often mistakenly assume that you: Know what they are trying to accomplish Know how their systems work Know what is more or less critical to them Other?? Copyright © 2013, Sāgis Corporation Organizations and the humans that run them

 Projects and initiatives lose momentum  Internal and external relationships disrupted - with customers, suppliers and distributors  Communication suffers  Blind spots cause problems  Resources shifted to training rather than work  Documents/processes must be re-created From the Client’s Perspective Effects of Poor Software Design Cost Metrics: Lost Sales/Decreased Time to Productivity/ Higher Operating Expenses, etc. Copyright © 2013 Sagis Corporation

Why Working with Clients Can be Complex: Handling a continuum of knowledge Explicit knowledge Tacit knowledge “ Surface Knowledge” “Deeper Knowledge” Copyright © 2013, Sāgis Corporation The continuum is found on both the individual “expert” level and the larger system level

Identifying Organizational Knowledge “Explicit” “Tacit” “Explicit” Descriptions Procedures Explanations Relations Strategies Evaluations Copyright © 2013, Sāgis Corporation

Complex Organizational Knowledge The baseline facts (who, what, where, when) that contribute to an expert’s activities. Descriptions The way the system is organized with its multiple elements. The efficient and successful actions that are an expert’s repeatable activities. Procedures The sequential actions (human or machine) embedded in the larger system. The reasons why an expert’s activities contribute to his/her success. Explanations The reasons why the system behaves the way it does between its elements. The way in which an expert leverages his/her social network. Relations The way in which individuals and other systems affect the system in focus. An expert’s plans and executions toward a vision. Strategies The deliberate and emergent responses the system undergoes within its environment. An expert’s perceptions and convictions that drive his/her actions in business contexts. Evaluations The capability of the system to adapt and transform itself. Copyright © 2013, Sāgis Corporation

Clients don’t know what they know. The complexity of organizational systems and culture leads us to conclude that we need to understand how to ask the right questions so that we discover what they know To accomplish this we need a basic understanding of human sense-making How do I know what I think till I see what I say as well as how I say it.

People Organize Experiences Into Time Segments Moment by Moment Day by Day Week by Week Year by Year

Some Experiences Seem Longer, More Meaningful While Others Seem Short & Meaningless People can remember in vivid detail important experiences in their life - a critical work project, an award, 1st semester of college, a wedding, a child’s birth, foreign travel, and so on. Each one of these experiences can be remembered as a whole or as a series of short segments.

Your experiences are made up of actions (initiated by you or by someone/something else that affects you). These actions are anchored in your memory at a particular time and place. As You Move Through Time You Are Always “Making Sense” Of Your Situation

When you make sense you: assess the situation, explore questions, harbor feelings. You may also at this point in time: draw conclusions, make decisions, formulate wishes. There Is A Time-Gap Between Actions

You draw from your internal resources (who you are) to make sense of this moment which is anchored in time and place. The process of how you pull pieces together for the moment can be illuminated. Your Sensemaking Moment Can Be Illuminated

Through careful interviewing the process of how a person constructed (made sense of) moments along the way can be illuminated. Experiences Consist Of A Number Of Actions & Gaps Moving Through Time

This interviewing requires multi-level questioning to bring less conscious elements of sensemaking to the surface. Experiences Consist Of A Number Of Actions & Gaps Moving Through Time

 This will illuminate the “why” of a person’s actions and reactions. Experiences Consist Of A Number Of Actions & Gaps Moving Through Time

Where does Sensemaking come from? B. Dervin Built on the nearly universal way humans experience their move through time and space By anchoring their talk around actions, the sensemaking under the surface can emerge to consciousness when the right type of questions are asked Copyright © 2013, Sāgis Corporation Sensemaking Questions

Level 1 questions—Anchored to time and space Situation—How do you see yourself/your context? Questions—What are you trying to figure out? What questions do you have Emotions—What are your emotions Conclusions/decisions—What conclusions and decisions are you making at this point in time Magic wand/wishes—What are you wishing for? If you had a magic wand what would you have happen? Copyright © 2013, Sāgis Corporation Categories of Sensemaking Questions

Level 2 questions—Anchored to Level 1 responses “What is leading you to see yourself this way?” and/or “What influences you to see yourself this way?” “What leads you to ask these questions?” and/or “What is influencing you to ask these questions?” “What is leading you to feel this way?” and/or “What influences you to feel this way?” “How would that help?” or “What leads you to that?” Copyright © 2013, Sāgis Corporation Categories of Sensemaking Questions