Strategy, Evaluation and Impact in Health and Networked Organizations

Innovation, Inspiration, and Impact in Networked Organizations

At Cense, we we work with networked organizations seeking to create greater health impact in the individuals and communities they serve and through higher-performing, creative teams. We do this by designing, evaluating, and shaping strategy for living systems; the kind of complex, dynamic, multi-layered, interdisciplinary contexts that networked organizations live in.

At Cense, we help you thrive in those systems. Cense is a Principal-led strategic design and innovation partner for leaders and their teams seeking to develop and deliver excellence and impact in their organizations, networks, and systems.

Our specialty is strategy, evaluation, and design tailored for system complexity and networked organizations.

We connect strategy, service design, evaluation, and leadership support for those seeking to create health impact in living systems.

Living systems are the networked, connected, dynamic spaces where our relationships with others — partners, members, collaborators — are central to our success.

We work with organizations that are networked internally and externally and require strategy, leadership support, evaluation and design approaches that recognize the complexity that these relationships bring in advancing health and wellbeing.

Whether you’re working as a public health unit, a member-based professional organization, a healthcare team, a research or practice network, our advisory, design, and evaluation services are set up with your organization in mind.

Let’s talk about your situation and how we can help you

About Cense

I’m Cameron Norman, the founder of Cense. I’ve spent over two decades working at the intersection of health, design, and systems — as a consultant-practitioner, educator, and researcher.

I trained as an organizational and community psychologist in public health, and have studied and taught systems and design thinking. I’ve spent my career as an educator, evaluator and strategist, working at the intersection of health & social impact.

As Principal, I lead our work that helps networked organizations connect, collaborate, and create in ways that achieve health and wellbeing.

I’m also the Chief Coffee Officer, too.

At Cense, we bring deep expertise in health and human services, evaluation, service design, and behavioural science to serve leaders seeking to innovate, grow, and shape their networked organization’s impact.

We do this through engaging our clients and their communities using a design-driven approach that creates better outcomes and better people in the process of making and delivering things that matter.

Design isn’t just about what we make, but who and what we become in the process of making the things that matter and make a difference to people.

Our Approach to Design for Living Systems

Health systems are living systems. They evolve, change, and are made up of many different relationship networks that influence what gets done, how, and when. Designing for a static, standard model doesn’t yield strategic plans, evaluations, and services that meet the dynamic needs of your clients or your staff.

Strategic design creates an organization that can act and adapt and enkindles the kind of creativity that supports innovation and sustainability in living systems.

Our logo tells a story about our work.

We put people at the centre of what we do, connecting them to their roots to ground their actions in their values, mission, aspirations, and talents so that they can flourish, grow, and thrive.

A healthy living system is grounded, free to grow, has strong roots, and is well-connected. We design for living systems – interconnected networks working together to help people flourish.

We’ve led member-based organizations, supported them, and conducted leading research on the science of networks for impact in organizations. We know how networked organizations work and the complexity they deal with and bring that experience and expertise to you.

Here’s how we approach strategy

Evidence You Can Act On: Our Evaluation Advantage

Networked organizations produce value differently than non-networked ones. Our approach to evaluation is designed with systems, networks, collaboration, and shared value in mind. We create evaluations that are designed for use and engaging for organizations working to create health impact through networks.

Our Design-Driven Evaluation approach is unique and grounded in the science of systems and complexity using strategic design.

We design evaluations, measurement frameworks, and learning systems that help your organization understand what’s working, why, and what to do next. We do this while engaging your members, your colleagues, and use data and evidence to demonstrate and amplify your impact.

Our Credentialed Evaluation services connect your evidence to design.

Learn how we approach evaluation and evidence

Where Strategy Becomes Service: Networks and Communities of Practice

Your leadership is dependent upon what happens inside your organization and the relationships you have beyond it. Service design for networked organizations means understanding collaboration, sharing, learning, and communication within practice networks and communities of practice.

Our strategic design approach to services is tailored to the needs of practice networks, communities of practice, member-based associations, and those organizations that rely on connections to deliver their value. We’ve worked with public health units, national coalitions, scientific research networks, and governments to connect people together using design-driven approaches to creating impact.

Design is putting form to ideas. Design in networks is about connecting ideas and people.

Learn how we approach health and service design

Explore Our Services

Explore our services to learn how we can support your work, and subscribe to our learning resources to stay inspired. Visit our blog and Censemaking for insights on strategic design for innovation and impact.

Our office is located on the ancestral, traditional, and unceded territory of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Wendat, and the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation. We pay respect to this land’s stewards and Elders, past and present, and to the future generations who continue to care for it. At Cense, we are humbly committed to supporting Truth and Reconciliation through our actions, and ongoing efforts to learn, grow, advocate, and listen.