Understanding SenseMaker® Polymorphic Signifiers

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Drawing from a comprehensive literature review, and supplemented by 12 years of experience running SenseMaker® projects, polymorphic signifiers were created to form a standard body of signifiers – a core library of triads and dyads – which will continue to develop through continuous research and iteration.

The signification design is deliberately abstracted to a high-level so that signifiers can be contextualised and universally applied across a body of different subjects, complex questions, and disciplines. This initiative returns signifier design back to its first principles: ensuring a deep anthropological review of concepts to distill central themes and modulators which interact with, and have influence on, social, cultural, organisational, psychological, and behavioural patterns.

It is anticipated that close to 80% of the design of all SenseMaker® projects going forward will be drawn from polymorphic iterations of these core signifiers.

Note: After 12 years of research and development, and learnings from previous efforts, Cognitive Edge and its network of practitioners has been able to trial, iterate and prove the validity of this core body of signifiers across different areas of study, sectors and domains. Drawing from this library will enable the project to enjoy the robustness of validated design components. Consulting support can be made available to guide you through the use of these, and contextualisation of language for your own research purpose.

Cognitive Edge has Standard SCANs designed around these, whilst programmes in the Cynefin Centre have been designed around the exploration of how we relate to one another and to our social-material- cultural environments, and to think more about the “complex whole”.