The design phase of the survey instrument (link to the survey tool) for this project, led by Jules Yim and Emma Jones, kicked off with a 2-day workshop at Bangor University, UK. Ellie Snowden, a researcher at Cynefin Centre, provided remote support via video conference.
Kai: “I was fascinated by their approach in designing the survey instrument. It appeared chaotic, yet was very structured. It was very interesting to witness how everything came together in the end.”
The session opened with an introduction to complexity science, narrative research and their relevance to human systems, in this particular case, aspirations. The team affirmed the objectives of the project and the themes that emerged from them. The literature review, based on previous publications and additional searches conducted prior to the workshop, was presented and then mapped to the themes and objectives.
Triads
The team properly commenced designing the survey tool. Each of the themes were redrafted as ‘modulators’, in complexity jargon, forces that modulate a complex adaptive system, within which we are in agreement that aspirations sit. Each modulator was then broken down into its individual components until a modulator landscape for the entire project was completed, and each modulator’s components reassembled into triads.
Jules: “After weeks of discussion, we were pleased to host the ICRAF and ICRISAT team at Bangor University. They proved that they were more than up to the intellectual and practical challenges that lay ahead.”
Dyads
All assumptions and hypotheses were spelt out across the team and from related literature with regards to aspirations; several were chosen to be tested in this project. Dyads are formed by making an assumption, e.g., that parents from rural households discourage their children from becoming farmers.
In the story shared, parents…
Encourage their children to become farmers <–> discourage their children from becoming farmers
Stones
Stones are normally designed for monitoring and evaluation. In their simplest form they consist of an XY axis, with ‘Stones’ labelled using items such as different stakeholder perspectives (‘How I saw it’, ‘How I think my father saw it’, etc.) or programme components (‘Water sanitation tablets’, ‘Plumbing’, ‘Sewage’, etc.) for the respondent to drag and drop onto the canvas.
In this project, a decision was made to design Stones to evaluate different perspectives in a household towards farming, and the risk-return mindset towards the various income streams a household may pursue, such as crops, livestock, employment, business opportunities, etc.
Prompting Questions
We kicked off by designing prompting questions, which can be any combination of text, photo or video. A decision was made to use text and after some deliberations we settled on – ‘Imagine your life 10 years from now; tell a story about how you got to that point from this present day.’
Analysis Categories
In the SenseMaker® environment, ‘analysis categories’ are typically configured as multiple-choice questions. Two types exist – 1) relating to the respondent, such as demographic ones around age, gender, household size, household income, geographical location, and 2) relating to the story shared by the respondent, such as emotional tone, frequency of occurrence, or to whom the respondent would tell the story. These categories allow the analysts/researchers to filter and slice the data during analysis, or create customized Boolean queries to compare and contrast patterns of distribution.
Review and Finalization
The input of this process was scribed into a document template by Ellie Snowden, and reviewed by the team within two weeks. The instrument was then configured into a SenseMaker® website. (link to site)
Attendees: Kai Mausch, Dave Harris, Jules Yim, Emma Jones, Ellie Snowden (Cynefin Centre), Mary Crossland (second day), Tim Pagella (Bangor University)
