A clear, grounded approach to making sense of complexity
What to expect & FAQ
Seeing Beyond the Surface
The Fractured Lens isn’t about quick fixes—it’s about understanding the hidden forces shaping decisions, actions, and systems. We focus on making sense of complexity so you can navigate it with clarity.
Challenging Assumptions
We don’t just look at what’s happening—we ask why it’s happening. By questioning the narratives, power structures, and habits that shape systems, we uncover what’s driving patterns of behaviour.
Practical & Thought-Provoking
This isn’t just theory. The Fractured Lens helps you apply real-world sensemaking to leadership, decision-making, and problem-solving—so you can see what’s really at play, not just the surface-level symptoms
Rooted in Dialogue, Not Answers
We don’t offer pre-packaged solutions—we help you engage in deeper dialogue. The goal isn’t to have the answer, but to ask better questions and make sense of complexity in a way that leads to real action.
FAQ
The Fractured Lens is a sensemaking tool designed to help people, leaders, teams, and organisations navigate complexity. Instead of offering rigid solutions or best practices, it provides a way to see and
understand the deeper forces shaping human systems.
The Fractured Lens is made up of four forces:
- Dynamics of Power & Change
- Unknowing
- Meaning
- Belonging
These forces interact in every organisation, influencing decision-making, culture, leadership, and change.
The Fractured Lens helps people engage with these dynamics in a way that is adaptive, critical, and
context-aware.
Most organisational models are prescriptive, they assume there’s a ‘right’ way to structure leadership, culture, and change.
The Fractured Lens is descriptive and exploratory. It doesn’t tell you what to do. Instead, it helps you see the underlying forces at
play so you can navigate them more effectively.
It challenges traditional thinking by:
Rejecting best practices in favour of contextual sensemaking.
Prioritising dialogue over diagnosis, recognising that problems aren’t always problems, they’re often symptoms of deeper dynamics.
Embracing complexity, rather than simplifying human behaviour into predictable patterns.
Instead of giving ‘answers,’ it helps you ask better questions.
It’s for people, leaders, teams, consultants, and anyone trying to make sense of human systems.
Leaders who want to move beyond surface-level leadership advice and engage with the real dynamics shaping their organisation.
Teams that want to improve collaboration, challenge assumptions, and work more effectively in uncertain environments.
Organisational development professionals who want a deeper way for understanding culture, change, and power dynamics.
Anyone frustrated with traditional management models and looking for a more human, nuanced, and realistic way to navigate organisations.
If you’ve ever felt like existing frameworks don’t capture the messiness of reality, The Fractured Lens is for you.
Rather than being a step-by-step process, The Fractured Lens functions as a thinking tool that helps organisations reflect on four key forces:
D - Dynamics of Power & Change: Where does power sit? How does it move? What’s reinforcing the status quo?
U - Unknowing: What assumptions are shaping our decisions? What are we blind to? What are we pretending to know?
M - Meaning: What narratives and values are shaping our work? Are they still serving us?
B - Belonging: Who feels included? Who doesn’t? What are the unwritten rules of acceptance?
It’s not about filling out a form or running a workshop—it’s about seeing differently.
In practice, this means:
Using it to reframe problems before jumping to solutions.
Applying it to culture and leadership conversations.
Using it in strategic decision-making to ensure all four forces are considered.
Where traditional models might ask, “How do we improve engagement?”, The Fractured Lens asks, “What power dynamics, unexamined assumptions, broken narratives, or belonging issues are driving disengagement?”
The forces aren’t separate—they constantly shape each other.
Power (D) determines whose meaning (M) dominates.
Unknowing (U) allows meaning (M) to evolve.
Belonging (B) determines who has access to power (D).
Meaning (M) creates the stories that reinforce belonging (B).
For example, if an organisation is struggling with culture change, it’s rarely just a ‘culture’ issue. It’s often:
Power (D) resisting change.
A lack of unknowing (U), where leaders aren’t questioning old assumptions.
Meaning (M) breaking down because the purpose behind the change isn’t clear.
Belonging (B) eroding, leaving people feeling disconnected from the new vision.
The Fractured Lens helps organisations see these hidden connections rather than treating problems in isolation.
No—and that’s intentional.
The Fractured Lens isn’t a solution-driven model. It’s a sensemaking tool.
Why? Because in complex human systems, there are no universal solutions. What works in one organisation may fail in another.
Instead of giving fixed answers, The Fractured Lens helps you:
See the deeper dynamics at play.
Understand why things are happening the way they are.
Engage in more meaningful conversations about what needs to change.
It’s a tool for navigating complexity, not a manual for ‘fixing’ organisations.
Absolutely. While it was designed for organisations, The Fractured Lens is just as relevant to personal and professional growth.
Power & Change (D) → What power structures influence my decisions? How do I navigate change?
Unknowing (U) → What assumptions am I operating under? What do I need to question?
Meaning (M) → What stories do I tell about myself? Are they serving me?
Belonging (B) → Where do I feel included? Where do I feel like I don’t fit?
The same forces that shape organisations also shape personal identity, relationships, and career decisions.
Start by asking different questions.
When facing a challenge, instead of looking for a quick fix, pause and reflect through the Fractured Lens
D - Power & Change → What power structures are at play? What’s reinforcing the current situation?
U - Unknowing → What assumptions are we making? What perspectives are we missing?
M - Meaning → What narratives are shaping this situation? Are they still useful?
B - Belonging → Who is included? Who isn’t? What are the unspoken rules?
Over time, you’ll start to see patterns. You’ll notice how these forces interact, shaping behaviour, decisions, and culture.
The goal isn’t to ‘solve’ everything—it’s to see more clearly so that decisions are grounded in a deeper understanding of what’s really happening.
Let’s Talk Sensemaking
Whether you’re looking to apply The Fractured Lens in your organisation, team, or personal work, it starts with a conversation. No rigid formulas; just a space to explore what’s shaping your challenges and how to see them differently.
Drop us a message, and let’s see where the conversation leads.