Sense, orient and decide
Start orienting yourself quickly in the crisis by observing, speaking to different audiences and mapping out possible trajectories.
What: A period of sensing and observing to orientate yourself and your team, followed by scenario planning to map out and prioritise opportunities for mindset change.
When: The early phase of the crisis.
Why: Orienting yourself as soon as possible will help you identify the opportunities and obstacles to creating mindset change during a crisis. It will also give you an advantage over those with opposing agendas also vying for the new mindset space.
Learn more: Read about disorientation in The Disrupted Mind Part 1: Scientific Insights.
How to
Sense and observe
Map out possible scenarios & decide
Assess regularly
Tools
John Boyle’s OODA Loop
John Boyle's OODA Loop (Observe- Orient- Decide- Act) is a useful guide for sensemaking. The more efficiently this process can be repeated, the faster your organisation can improve its impact.
Learn more →MTD Lab’s ‘Lean Research’ tools & resources
Guides, case studies, and publications from on the Lean Research approach.
Learn more →Examples
Scenario planning during COVID-19

In May 2020 The Long Crisis Network and Local Trust released The Long Crisis Scenarios, exploring the implications of Covid-19 on decision making and the potential opportunities to drive change. They put forward four near-future scenarios focussed on two specific drivers of change: collective action versus polarisation and centralised responses versus distributed ones. This allowed them to imagine what could happen and map opportunities for changemakers to influence these potential futures.
Learn more ->Participate
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