Take ANY Data & Make Sense of it in 4 Village Raising Steps!

Is your group spinning data circles?


Chasing your research tail?


Getting no-where statistically fast?


Time to change that up! We’ve been there and we’ve found ways to move beyond.



Maybe you have a slew of information resulting from an interactive group dialogue session (like a world cafe) or the latest socio-economic statistics or EDI results for your community or a focus group report. Take ANY of these sources (or even better take all of these) and put your data into informed meaningful action.


Follow these 4 Village Raising Steps:


Step One: Gathering
This is the process of “becoming” aware. Consider your data’s origin. What information will help give you a well rounded (or multi dimensional) view of the issue at hand? Consider more than one source of information and many perspectives. This step will increase individual and collective awareness and might include things like focus groups, interviews, stories, and statistics. This is an optimum time to learn together and increase awareness.



Step Two: Sorting and Making Meaning
This is the time to chunk up complex data and simplify what you have gathered in Step One. Here you discover and seek clarity that leads to priorities and a shared understanding.


Step 3: Generating Ideas

You have gathered information and made meaning form it.  Now is the time to switch thinking to generative and innovative possibilities.

Step 4: Making Decisions
This is the process of moving forward with action. Here your group sets goals and visions and commits to them. Make collective decisions that are rich and full and informed. The discovery of group strengths feeds the sustainability of the action.

That’s it. Really. Truly. These 4 steps can provide you with the outline needed for your meaning making journey. Now, of course, you are likely wondering about the HOW behind these steps. Just you wait...we are almost there. Our “GO-TO Action Guides” are shaping up and will cover these very steps in detail. Soon Village Raisers, soon. In the meantime, stop spinning data circles and look at your data using the 4 steps above. Let us know what emerges.