Using SenseMaker® - emotional intensity

A short one, and one aimed specifically at SenseMaker® users. If that isn’t you, skip this one - nothing to see here…

When I’m building SenseMaker® frameworks, there’s one multiple choice question that I almost always include - and when it’s not finally included, it’s because despite deploying my best persuasive powers the client doesn’t see the need.

The question is:

(The image is taken from the SenseMaker® Collector app on my iPhone)

When at the start of a SenseMaker® project, it looks like an unnecessary complication - but when analysing, it becomes really important. For instance:

From a cultural project we ran in North Africa last year, we can see roughly equal numbers of micro-narratives that feature each of the three dominant forms of justice - Reconciliation, Revenge and Deterrence.  It's difficult to come to any conclusion from this.

With emotional intensity added, however, we get:

Now we can see that while all three may be equally common, Reconciliation is mostly positive - a good sign.  Revenge is largely negative - again a good sign.  More worryingly, Deterrence is also largely negative - not a good sign, as it implies that preventing people from doing bad or stupid things is not regarded as a good thing to do.

Similar elements crop up with customers' attitudes to different elements of a product or service - it's not enough to know which elements dominate, but essential to see whether they are positive or negative.

 

For SenseMaker® Explorer users, I use my emotional intensity question and drop it into the Legend box - then right-click on each answer to change the colour so that I have an emotional spectrum from dark green (very positive) to dark red (very negative).  (Be aware that if you have a largely male audience, you may need to change from green to blue for positive, as red-green colour blindness will negate your careful presentation!)

Some colleagues prefer instead to a question with a list of feelings - angry, proud, sad, hopeful, etc - but my experience is that

1. it's less easy to create a spectrum 
2. if people can choose multiple feelings, then any micro-narrative that has two answers is automatically grey
3. it is entirely possible to have a positive story that makes one angry - the assumption that angry stories are always negative is a poor one

Comments

[Tonyjoyce]

I'm not sure what this means, as emotional intensify is only a part of a reaction. Begs a question like .... what is your level of interest (in the story)?
From weak to strong and don't care.
Don't have any data to back this up.

[tquinlan]

Thanks for that Tony.

You're right - it's only part of the reaction and hence it's only one question about the story - the whole signification framework is how we look in more detail.

Your suggestion of level of interest is another - typically I'll get into that element obliquely via questions like "How long will you remember this story" or "Who should hear this story?".