Processing conversations together

You might be wondering what happens to conversations once they are collected? Well, I am happy to say that back in November 2023 we reached a significant milestone. With the support of Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC), we were able to put a process in place that transformed community conversations into factors, as well as allowed us to see the relationship between factors. We began to view the factors collectively, as a type of map.

What is a factor? Factors are parts of the conversation that are deemed important, they impact social isolation and/or belonging, and can go up or down. Examples: 'cost of living' and 'impact of grief'.

How we got here

Matt and Juliette were initially working on processing the conversations, by pulling out 'factors'. They recognised the risk of doing this work in silo, for example, there is more of a risk of unconscious bias. As such, we have been working to develop a more collaborative process, inviting people from all different backgrounds to join in. Working together helps us sense check each other’s thinking, helps to reduce unconscious bias, brings in a wider perspective, and is simply more fun!

With support from the Health Determinant Research Collaboration (HDRC), we identified the first set of factors in an emergent sensemaking process. This was quite slow-going to begin with, but after several sessions, the process is becoming refined, and with a lot of the major factors already identified, we are starting to pick up the pace!

The flow of a conversation processing session

Each person receives their allocated conversations ahead of the session to break them up into fragments. During the session, we work in pairs to look at a conversation, we choose a fragment from that conversation, and we have a discussion to agree on the factor(s) within that fragment. Each pair then presents their fragment, and the factors they chose, to the wider group. Group discussion on whether there is agreement or if there are other factors, or a new factor suggested. There is also discussion on the connections between different factors. Factors that have been agreed upon are then added to the map along with their connections. (All of the current factors can be viewed via the website.)