CITATION AND COPYRIGHT INFORMATION:
Cite as: Dervin, B. (1999, May). 1999 ICA Sense-Making workshop: “Methodology between the cracks: Sense-Making as exemplar”—Focus and design. Paper presented at a non-divisional workshop held at the meeting of the International Communication Association, San Francisco.
© Brenda Dervin (1999).

WORKSHOP FOCUS:
Sense-Making has been described as a “methodology between the cracks” because it attempts to transcend traditional polarities—e.g., quantitative versus qualitative, critical versus administrative, structure versus agency, theory versus practice—by moving from focusing on nouns as primary entry points for theorizing to focusing on verbs. It has been used as an approach both to the study of communication processes and the design of communication practices and structures. It has been applied in different countries and settings to a wide variety of research genres and practice problematics—e.g. audience reception studies, information seeking and use, public communication campaigns, media education and literacy, health and risk communication, development communication, critical pedagogy, cross-cultural communication, participatory communication, feminist studies, interpersonal communication, mass communication, telecommunication policy.

This workshop brings together persons actively using Sense-Making as theory, methodology, method, and/or practice for reports of work completed and work in progress. The roster is supplemented with a panel of respondents whose work does not actively use Sense-Making but who between them represent a variety of perspectives. The session has three purposes: (a) to provide a working seminar in which those interested in the approach and/or the problematics to which it attends can tease out and bring diverse comment to bear on common interests and struggles; (b) to set the discussions particularly in the context of issues of the relationships between metatheory, methodology, method and substantive theory as used in research and practice; and (c) to provide an exemplar of the use of Sense-Making as a theory of the practice of building community and public spheres.

WORKSHOP PROCEDURES:
This is a slightly revised version of the essay written by Dervin on workshop procedures for the first Sense-Making workshop held in 1996.

GIVEN WE CAN ASSUME THAT . . .

• We come together in a collective undertaking—to assist each other in refining our projects and our uses of Sense-Making in these projects.
• We reflect many differences between us (experience, focus, field, purpose).
• We have a common interest in the interpretive and/or Sense-Making.
• Our purpose is to do some genuine talking with each other, not lecturing at each other.
• We get the most out of sessions if we focus on strugglings—the journey, not the destination.
• Most humans think best if appreciated (and most stop thinking if attacked).
• We have not read the same authors and are not failures because of this.
• Talking time is a precious resource and should be shared fairly.
• Listening time is a precious resource and should be shared fairly.
• Shy ones often have profound offerings and procedures should encourage their entry.

GIVEN THAT ACADEMIA HAS TAUGHT US SOME BAD HABITS . . .

• Listening only for things we disagree with, or consider wrong.
• Praising only that which is like us.
• Attempting to say all we have to say whenever we speak.
• Believing that what we say must be thoroughly “cooked” (i.e., logical, coherent, gap-less).
• Giving more talking time to those who speak loudest, longest, most aggressively.
• Reminding others of how unsuited/badly prepared they are for the work they have chosen.
• Engaging in search and destroy missions whose goal is to show how we could do it better.
• Assuming that coherency exists out “there.”
• Requiring that what person 2 says follow from what person 1 says.
• Sharing only “solutions” not “struggles.”
• Keeping the struggles hidden or assuming them transparent.
• Feeling anxious about not having a chance to talk.
• Feeling anxious about having a chance to talk.
• Searching for the perfect leader.
• Requiring/allowing the leader to control both process and content.

WE ESTABLISH THESE TENTATIVE RULES FOR LISTENING AND SPEAKING ABOUT THE WORK OF OTHERS . . .

• Listen for things to praise (practice a new strategy for listening).
• Rephrase “criticisms” into suggestions (e.g., I found this useful, you might. . .).
• When commenting on a presenter’s project try to do so on his/her terms or in terms that will be understandable across a number of discourses.
• Choose from all things you might say the 2-3 you think most useful to speaker and group.
• Practice handling a workshop structure that does not emphasize imposed coherency.
• Think of the time-space context as during and after (at lunch, in hallways, over email).
• Use the BLUE sheets to make comments to individual authors.
• Use the YELLOW sheets to make comments on discussion across author.

AND FOR SPEAKING ABOUT YOUR OWN WORK . . .

• Talk in a relaxed and conversational mode—this workshop is not designed to judge you.
• Avoid lecturing, or “delivering” a paper, or re-presenting your précis.
• Start where your précis stopped.
• Given limited time, plan ahead for the few things you really want to share.
• Focus on your struggles, the cutting edge of your work; not only your achievements.
• Raise issues in the most general way possible so as to begin to build bridges across discourses.
• Understand that we are all captives of our discourses and can and must ask for each other’s help in building bridges across.
• Pose questions to the group—where I would most like your input, most like discussion.

AND THESE SELF-DISCIPLINES . . .

• The coordinator of the moment will only coordinate no matter how much she feels moved to set folks straight on the “true” meanings of issues.
• Presenters will only present and not respond to comments no matter how misinterpreted they may feel.
• Everyone uses the YELLOW and BLUE pages in the proceedings to communicate their unsaid wisdoms.

AND FOR CONTINUING THE DIALOGUE . . .

• We are all asked to give:
  • BLUE comment sheets to individual author.
  • YELLOW comment sheets to Kate Clark.
• INDIVIDUAL AUTHORS who wish to may prepare a compilation and commentary on the comments they received answering these questions:
  • the comments I received were (listed by comment category).
  • what I appreciated and found useful was . . .
  • what I struggled with was . . .
  • what I look forward to is . . .
• Commentaries developed off of these will be placed as private files on the Sense-Making Web site and made available only to members of the Sense-Making listserve (projecti).
• Note-take coordinator Kate Clark will prepare a compilation of the yellow sheet comments also to be placed on the Web site as a private file.
• It is recommended that compilations and commentaries be developed by June 15, 1999 and sent to dervin.1@osu.edu (in a .rtf or text only attached file, please). Please be sure the essential proofing and spell checking is done.

OTHER MATERIALS BY THIS AUTHOR ON THIS WEB SITE:
See:  http://communication.sbs.ohio-state.edu/sense-making/AAauthors/authorlistdervin.html