Weakness of Strong Signals

Don't take my word for it. www.amazon.com/product-revi...

When wisdom seems thin, and complexity seems high. What way do find through it all? My thoughts on what happens when we go past our ability to make sense of where we are and our place in… https://censemaking.com/2026/01/29/when-complexity-exceeds-wisdom/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=jetpack_social

Want to learn how to practically apply systems thinking to health and social impact design? Try Boundary Critique. We introduce the questions to get you going in the latest Design Loft lesson #systemthinking #strategicdesign #healthdesign designloft.substack.com/p/designing-...

Want to resist the algorithmic prison that our feeds have become? It might be time to check your email. https://censemaking.com/2026/01/16/algorithmic-anti-design/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=jetpack_social

Remembrance and Care

What does it mean to create or make strategy? If you're creating a healthier future, you'll want to read this and consider how to build your strategy, by design. #strategicdesign #strategy… https://censemaking.com/2025/11/09/the-practice-of-strategy/?utm_source=bluesky&utm_medium=jetpack_social

Future health sciences students, visit us at the Explore Health Sciences: Grad & Professional Programs Fair at U of T on Thurs., Nov. 13! Register here: https://ow.ly/lxGS50XizzB.

We design strategy, impact assessment, and implementation plans into every strategic plan we create. You can do more than just fit your work into a logic model. We can help -- let's talk if you want our help bit.ly/talkcense #strategicdesign

Fall Into Strategy: The Practice of Making Strategy Real Strategy is the means of connecting our aspirations and resources to our actions and outcomes. Strategy is something we design with our organization's goals, values, assets, people, and customers/clients/patients/partners in mind. Strategic…

Agreed. Few people have shaped the way we view the science of animals living in their natural habitats and the role of conservation more than Dr. Goodall.

Discover the Power of #Journalism in #PublicHealth Join us for the Dalla Lana Fellowship Online Open House in Oct 2025! Learn how journalism can be a catalyst for public health change. 👉 Reserve your spot now: www.eventbrite.ca/o/dalla-lana...

What does it mean to iterate, and what does it mean to innovate? @guykawasaki.bsky.social has a great primer for both: guykawasaki.substack.com/p/the-differ... #innovation #iteration #strategicdesign

You can read the full un-paywalled article here:

Should RCTs be the gold standard of impact measurement? SSIR’s Aaron Bady speaks w/ Nicole P. Marwell and Jennifer E. Mosley about their new article, “The Nonprofit Sector Has an RCT Problem.” Join us tomorrow at 10 a.m. PT! ssir.org/live-rct-conversation

What does complexity look like in our human systems? This article from @cdnorman.bsky.social explores how complexity manifests itself in our human service work #complexity #strategicdesign

Research design and evidence issues brought to the fore in the latest issues of @ssir.org

OCADU Graduate Programs: Evening session with #DanielHoyer + #NealHalverson on What Can System Thinkers Learn from Quantifying History, moderated by #ZaidKhan. Continues work of #PeterTurchin on cliodynamics, with #SoDy as historical policy lab. Mix of cyclical historical framing methods from MRP.

"The scale and urgency of the current threat should settle a long-simmering debate about the strategic value of targeting oil and gas production directly." @earthjustice.org president @abbiedillen.bsky.social writes in SSIR on the next chapter of the climate fight:

It's great to see 'design' discussed again. Design is the discipline of innovation, and that means doing something different to benefit people. Design poorly and we end up with many of the lousy programs and policies that we see in our communities. #strategicdesign

Good policy isn't just about good ideas - it's about designing and delivering solutions that truly work in practice. At Nesta, we’re increasingly using design and policy skills in tandem to grow the impact of our work with key principles to guide our approach ⤵️

Consultants can be great partners in creating positive change -- which isn't the case much of the time. Reductionist approaches to complex problems that separate strategy, learning, evaluation, and people are a big part of the reason why censemaking.com/2025/08/27/s... #strategicdesign

Designing care into your organization is not about being nice, it's about setting yourself up to be high-performing, innovative, and complexity-ready. #strategicdesign #care #design https://censemaking.com/2025/08/07/caring-by-design/

Profiles in burnout isn't an overly optimistic focus of an article, but doing this draws attention to something that is a critical factor in designing human-responsive organizations. #burnout www.strategy-business.com/article/Prof...?

In the last post of the summer series on strategic design and complexity we put it all together and set the table for what we hope will be a wonderful meal. Happy Summer! #strategicdesign #complexity #systemsthinking https://censemaking.com/2025/08/01/setting-the-table-the-making-of-strategy/

Developmental Evaluation is a way of approaching learning, innovation, and accountability that is suited to innovation, complexity, and uncertainty. The best way to use it is to prepare yourself first, not just try it "out of the box" (it's never out of the box). www.cense.ca/developmenta...

Design-driven evaluation is a way to embed learning into your organization, prime yourself for innovation, and build in a compass for navigating complexity. #strategicdesign #evaluation #innovation https://censemaking.com/2025/07/24/design-driven-evaluation-and-strategic-design/

Foresight is one of the features of strategic design that sets it apart from traditional plans, by helping you envision futures and the systems needed to get you there. #strategicdesign #foresight #systemsthinking https://censemaking.com/2025/07/18/strategic-foresight-and-design/

Circle on "What Can SystemThinkers Learn from Public Transit Planning" with #AndrewMiller + #SergioDeLara, moderated #ZaidKhan . Public accounting discourages government hiring experts, private sector contractors assuming risk. Plans for urban transport need political will. #SystemsThinking (OCADU)

What are the design skills for the present moment? This short list outlines what we think designers need to be successful. These are the technical skills, but the thinking and strategic ones where #strategicdesign fits www.cense.ca/design-skill... #designer

How do we connect systems thinking with our intentions? Strategic design is the means to connect where we're sailing to, our journey and where we dock and this is where we connect it together. #strategicdesign… https://censemaking.com/2025/07/11/systems-thinking-strategic-design-and-transformation/

What does strategic design look like? It's about connecting intention, imagination, production and learning using systems thinking to achieve sustained change. In this article, we look at what… https://censemaking.com/2025/07/03/strategic-design-bridging-complexity-planning-evaluation-for-impact/

Strategic design will always require leadership to translate ideas, inspiration and strategy into action. In complex conditions, this means setting a leadership course that involves humility, agility, and… https://censemaking.com/2025/06/26/leadership-for-complexity-humility-inquiry-and-agility/

Strategy making is the intentional way of charting your ship across the seas of complexity and arriving safe and sound. In this latest in the Censemaking summer series, I take a closer look at the strategy… https://censemaking.com/2025/06/14/strategy-for-leadership-by-design-a-brief-introduction/

The metaphor of sailing is a way to articulate what strategy is (and what it isn't). Complexity requires us to explore strategy and navigate it differently than with mechanical systems. In this post, we look at what… https://censemaking.com/2025/06/10/from-complexity-to-action-the-role-of-strategy/

What are some practical ways to address complexity? In this second post in our Summer Series, we look at the metaphor of navigation and how it applies to complexity and taking strategic action, by design. https://censemaking.com/2025/06/05/navigating-complexity-using-strategic-design/

Dealing with complexity first means knowing what it is. In this first post in the 2025 Summer Series dealing with all we're dealing with, I begin with a look at complexity. https://censemaking.com/2025/06/03/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-complexity/

What happens when AI, systems thinking, and supply chains meet up? Here: www.forbes.com/councils/for... #systemsthinking #AI

Is it time to retire the term systems change? It might be worth considering. Just look at a butterfly and we might see a new idea take flight. https://censemaking.com/2025/05/14/from-systems-change-to-transformation/

Design, Systems and The Settings That Influence Us Space shapes systems, so systems change requires we understand space. In this post, I’m going to use two contexts to illustrate why and how settings affect so much of our lives and why any systems change must account for them if we are to be…

Developmental evaluation and strategic planning can work very well together if you design the conditions for both to come together. We explore this in our latest post: www.cense.ca/developmenta... #evaluation #design #strategicdesign #DE

Rhinoceros In The Wild: System Models and Reality Most of us have not seen a rhinoceros in the wild. We might have seen a rhino at the zoo and maybe on television. Only a few of us who live outside Africa have been fortunate enought to see one of these beautiful creatures in its natural habitat.…

What is strategic design and why might you need it? Our post reflects on this concept of creating the future and organization that you want (using design, systems thinking and behavioural science) www.cense.ca/what-is-stra... #strategicdesign #systemsthinking #design

If you're looking to transform your career and learn the art and science of how to design for health, the MDes program at @ocaduniversity.bsky.social in Design for Health is still accepting applications for next year's term gradadmissions.ocadu.ca/program/DHEA #designforhealth

On this Earth Day, consider how we can create a healthier planet through leadership within healthcare. We are perfectly positioned to lead for health and for enviornmental innovation and impact by considering how we can integrate the mission of our work in planet-healthy ways.

Developmental Evaluation and Strategy When undertaking strategic planning for organizations operating in the complex space of health and human services, how do you account for creating meaningful ways to learn and adapt?… https://censemaking.com/2025/04/15/developmental-evaluation-and-strategy/

The outline for how to develop performance monitoring and evaluation systems as part of a learning and innovation plan. Part one of a series www.cense.ca/monitoring-f... #learning #motivation #healthsystems #strategicdesign

Monitoring as Motivator: Harnessing the Progress Principle If you're stuck in the daily grind of human services delivery, leveraging evaluation data can help you see and chart your progress. Among the most difficult things healthcare and human services professionals deal with is progress. Whether…

"As indispensable as providing more of philanthropy's core product will be, how that money is spent represents, perhaps, an even larger opportunity."

Strategic design is all about connecting where you are, where you want to go, and creating the conditions to connect the two. This means focusing on 1) strategy, 2) feedback and learning (evaluation, evidence), and 3) designing for what you want. www.cense.ca