What Concepts Are Being Used To Interpret Your Problem Domain?
Our narrative analysis of stakeholders' concerns can reveal what underlying concepts these people are using to make sense of events occuring within any problem domain. Do analysts see the situation as innovative or conservative, do participants see it as quality, challenging and/or friendly? Are the concepts being used known, strategic and co-ordinated?
That humans use language to think about the world as it presents itself to us is now well supported by organisational, philosophical and psychological research [Vygotsky, Rorty, Wittgenstein, Kahneman, Morgan, Weick, Churchman]. Our research over the last 12 years has developed and applied three systems qualitative methods that extract the meta concepts in use in any narrative. This provides an 'underlying assumptions' or 'issues' analysis of any problem situation discussed in language.