Cameron Norman

Mastering Strategic Design: Navigating Complexity with Ease Explore the essence of strategic design and its adaptability to complexity, ensuring effective decision-making and enhanced innovation.

Connecting systems thinking, behavioural psychology, and strategy-making through design is something I've done most of my career and just haven't fully articulated what it looks like until now. It's made me think I ought to do this with other things. #strategicdesign
censemaking.com/2025/08/01/s...

I kept hearing about that show and never managed to watch it. I should see if there's a way to go back and do that.

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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/

Oh, so true! Film-based therapists have set so many people up for strange expectations about process and outcomes in actual therapy

Developmental Evaluation Preparedness Pilots have a pre-flight check before they fly a plane. A developmental evaluation journey requires the same kind of preparedness. Developmental Evaluation (DE) is an approach to strategic learning…

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...

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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/

Beyond Traditional Evaluation: How Design-Driven Developmental Evaluation Transforms Innovation Cense’s approach combines design-driven evaluation with strategic innovation, recognizing that innovation in complex systems requires adaptive learning. By embedding evaluation throughout the…

Going beyond traditional evaluation to one that is fit-for-purpose for complex, changing times, by design. How @censemaking.bsky.social approaches building, delivering, and thinking about evaluation #evaluation #strategicdesign

www.cense.ca/beyond-tradi...

“I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back.” – Maya Angelou via @momentumdash.bsky.social

How is this for a great morning mantra to propel a person through their day? Thanks @momentumdash.bsky.social

The High Diving Board Problem (Why Change is Hard) Change involves navigating our expectations and perceptions then taking action. It might also involve getting pushed from those behind you.

Walking by the swimming pool and seeing the kids running around reminds me of the High Diving Board problem. The decisions make from the pool deck look a lot different from when we're on the diving board.

cdnorman.medium.com/the-high-div...

It's the "soulless" part of this title that really resonates with me. @mitchjoel.bsky.social points to how AI-driven writing lacks so much of what made our imperfect prose of before interesting. www.sixpixels.com/articles/arc...

Process over outcome.
Process over outcome.
Process over outcome.

99.999 percent of life is the process. Outcomes are fleeting, the destination a mere moment in time. Focus on the path. That's where life is lived and excellence is forged.

“There’s no such things as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.” – Scott Adams via @momentumdash.bsky.social

“It’s your road, and yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.” – Rumi via @momentumdash.bsky.social

Wild Wild City | The Local In different corners of Toronto, human and animal worlds are colliding in unexpected ways. From divisive fights over cormorants and coyotes, to the rise and fall of niche industries, to Indigenous-led...

Introducing our newest issue, Wild Wild City. Launching today, and rolling out over June and July, The Local is exploring corners of the city where the human and animal worlds collide in unexpected ways. thelocal.to/summer-2025/

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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/

Embracing Complexity Exploring the conditions for strategic design

What if you could combine an executive education, tiny experiments, the design sprint, and your email? I am seeding an experiment to see what that might look like as my summer series continues. The first edition focuses on complexity censemaking.substack.com/p/embracing-...

Health leaders work with living systems (people!) all the time. Why not treat your organization with the same care? It's amazing how we neglect the way in which our health systems are human (living) systems and don't design for that in mind. #strategicdesign #healthinnovation #complexity

Dangerous Assumptions In The AI Debate - Six Pixels of Separation We keep asking the wrong question: Will AI take our jobs? The better question is…What are we doing before it

@mitchjoel.bsky.social is asking better questions beyond whether "AI will take our jobs". He rightly argues that we've made assumptions that we can already prove false because it's not about planning for AI, it's about dealing with it now that it's already here.

www.sixpixels.com/articles/arc...

Understanding Complexity: Navigating Unpredictable Systems Explore the concept of complexity and learn how to navigate unpredictable challenges in life and organizations with confidence.

What are we talking about when we talk about complexity? In these aptly named complex times, I thought it worth discussing this for those who might be dealing with how to deal with it censemaking.com/2025/06/03/w... #complexity

“The world moves so fast now that the person who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.” – Harry Emerson Fosdick via @momentumdash.bsky.social

Animated gif showing 3 moving portraits of the author filtered in different ways: made of blue and yellow lines, made of 3d cubes, and made of colorful dots.

I used Cursor AI to vibe-code a fun, interactive, webcam art experiment: www.kirkclyne.art/mm/

I wrote about the experience in depth, if you're curious to learn more: medium.com/@kirkaclyne/...

#vibecoding #AI #creativecoding

Fellow Canadians, access to primary care in Canada is not consistent or even present for many people in this country. If you can spare 10-15 minutes, consider making your voice heard on this national survey of primary care in Canada www.ourcare.ca/survey

The highest compliment from someone who disagrees with you is not “You were right.” It’s “You made me think.”

Good arguments help us recognize complexity where we once saw simplicity.

The ultimate purpose of debate is not to produce consensus. It’s to promote critical thinking.

How to say no Podcast Episode · ReThinking · 2025-04-29 · 36m

Saying "no" is one of the key drivers of success. This podcast episode from Adam Grant discusses the evidence and illustrates the tactics you can use to say no better -- and with kindness and care. podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/r... #psychology

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? Developmental …

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

What Is Strategic Design, And Why Might I Need It? #image_title Strategic Design is the application of design methods, principles, thinking, and approaches to an enterprise. It combines aspects of systems design, service design, and design thinking…

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

Healthcare’s Earth Day Challenge Earth Day allows us to reflect upon the opportunities and challenges healthcare faces when dealing with its environmental responsibilities. Will it rise to meet them? This is Earth Day. It's when we consider the health of the planet alongside our life on this planet. For healthcare, an environment of its own, the opportunity to bring the messages we embrace on this one day to every day present a design challenge that aligns well with the mission of our health systems. I'd argue its not a nice to have, but a leadership imperative.

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.

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

Nicely put, Steve