Community Animator's Note: In 2014, Tamarack invited a small group of individuals to participate in a new Thought Leader Initiative. The purpose was to establish a council of advisors to support the development and growth of Tamarack's three learning communities: Tamarack CCI, Vibrant Communities Canada and Seeking Community. Learn about Cameron and the ideas he is exploring below and share your own questions and reflections with Cameron by posting a comment.

Firefighters are a funny group: they run into the fire when everyone else runs away. 

Firefighters have learned not to fear fire because of experience, good training, having the right tools (and knowing how to use them), and knowing there is a team of people who have their back working with them. None of what these brave men and women do alters fire’s power, but it does change the way we relate to it. 

I have the same kind of relationship with complexity; I run to it when others run away from it. I understand what it is, what it’s effects are and have a set of tools and strategies to deal with it so it doesn’t seem so scary. My hope is that I can help others find it less scary, too. That’s something I want to bring to the Tamarack community of learners.

My name is Cameron Norman and I work with health and human services organizations (and their networks) to learn about what they do and design and re-design their offerings to better support social innovation. I do this in my role as the Principal of CENSE Research + Design, a social innovation design studio based in Toronto, Canada., which supports social innovators in evaluating their programs and designing and re-designing them for impact and sustainability. I consult and deliver workshops to train and support innovators in navigating complexity effectively. My specialty is weaving them together into something I call developmental design (think: discovery + developmental evaluation + design thinking).

My aim is to help Tamarack’s community think differently about complexity, how to evaluate their work in the face of it, and creatively design ways to work it, not against it in making a difference.

I am an enthusiastic learner, bookworm, cook, coffee roaster movie lover and travel fan and seek ways to bring all of those things together at the same time.

As an ongoing teacher and learner I am constantly delving deep into subjects. I have an MA in psychology, a PhD in public health, and a Master of Design in Strategic Foresight and Innovation. I'm a Credentialed Evaluator with the Canadian Evaluation Society, an accredited practitioner with Cognitive Edge systems, and am certified in the NCI Design Charrette Process from Harvard University. I still teach and support students as an adjunct professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.

Thought Leadership Topics / Research: 

          1. How to inspire thinking about — and action on — complexity

          2. Bridging developmental evaluation and program design for social                               innovation

          3. Building sustainable, adaptive models for innovation in our                                         practice communities

Website: www.cense.ca

Blog: www.censemaking.com

email: [email protected]

Twitter: @cdnorman