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Table 6 Workshop outline and guiding questions

From: Using a ‘rich picture’ to facilitate systems thinking in research coproduction

Activity and guiding questions

Purpose

 1. Introductions – 15 min

Familiarise everyone with who is in the room and their role

 2. Preparatory work to grounding inquiry in curiosity

Group dialogue:

 - What brings us into the room?

  - Bring this back to the question of inquiry that has driven this activity

 - Why are we breaking from a traditional approach?

We need them to be situated in curiosity, but this has to emerge from them; asking about how we came to be in the room can recall their interest in deeper inquiry, their own curiosity and why we are taking a different tack

They will be able to speak to why they want to engage in this process

 3. Systems inquiry intro – 10 min

 - What does it mean to inquire into a system? How do we do that?

 - Why visualisations are useful?

Introduce systems thinking concepts and provide a shared framework and language for workshop

 4. Generation of the picture and nature of the data – 10 min

 - What is the nature of the data we are working with?

 - How did we work with it?

Explain how the picture was developed and acknowledge the limitations

 5. Overview of approach and purpose of the day – 10 min

Set expectations

 6. Drawing out mental models and assumptions – 20 min

 • How does PHIMS work, what does it do?

 - Participants draw a schematic diagram/concept map of the system

 • What do you know, what don’t you know?

 - Participants use a pre-prepared diagram to reflect on their knowledge

Unpack assumptions and biases participants bring with them about the PHIMS system and consider what new information might be useful

 7. Discernment vs. judgement – 10 min

 - What is the difference between discernment and judgement?

  - Discern – identify a distinction between things

  - Judge – to apply value or merit to a thing

Expectation-setting that we aim for discernment in these exercises

In systems, we want to discern patterns, relationships, dynamics; to pass judgement is to make assumptions

 8. What don’t you know – put picture on the wall – 35 min

Use different colour sticky notes to map different perspectives – done as a collective to better understand the system as a whole

In silence, review the picture and get familiar

 1) Review what is it you don’t know, state as a question – post on wall (colour 1)

 2) Everyone reads the questions

 3) Does the picture provide insights to any of the questions posted? What insight do you see on the picture that helps to answer a question posed? (colour 2)

  a) What additional insights can you offer from your own experience/perspective? (colours 3 and 4 – each team has a different colour)

This allows participants to explore the picture, but with a boundary (using what they’ve acknowledged they don’t know)

We need to differentiate the perspectives of the participants from the perspectives depicted on the picture AND we don’t want to introduce questions beyond what the picture can speak to; scale is focussed on PHIMS as a whole, not about a specific part of the picture

 9. Guided inquiry and interrogation of incongruences depicted in the picture – 60 min

Three rounds of questions (20 min/round)

 1) Form two teams

 2) Each team to receive a question

 3) For each, have individuals write their responses on sticky notes in silence, and read each other’s notes

 4) After ~ 5–10 min, groups to discuss together

 5) Answer prompt question: ‘Given what we’ve discussed, what might we …’

Prompts include what might we want to know, explore, do, ask …

Three themes:

 1) Why do you think the characters are asking these questions?

 2) What do you notice about the relationship between health promotion practice and PHIMS?

 3) What do you notice about the overall operation of the system?

Generative – gathering as much insights as possible

See the issues JUST through the eyes of the health promotion officer

Questions for Group #1

Why do you think the people near the IT information desk are asking these questions? (Theme 1)

What do you notice about scheduled follow-up visits? (Theme 2)

What do you think the health promotion officers’ experience of PHIMS is like? (Theme 3)

Questions for Group #2

Why do you think the people seated at the game tables are asking these questions? (Theme 1)

How does PHIMS support health promotion? (Theme 2)

What happens if the rules of the system are not well understood? (Theme 3)

 10. Reflect on new knowledge and new questions for inquiry – 10 min

Reflect on what you didn’t know, can you develop new questions for future inquiry?

Captures new questions and insights that have emerged for inquiry that are more refined and informed