Cynefin - Weaving Sense-Making Into the Fabric of Our World (highlights)

Highlights first synced by [[Readwise]] [[Oct 31st, 2022]]

“We have all moved from the age of enlightenment to the age of entanglement where sense-making aided by imagination is now more critical than ever. (Location 52)
At its most basic, Cynefin allows us to distinguish between three different kinds of systems: ordered systems that are governed and constrained in such a way that cause and effect relationships are either clear or discoverable through analysis; complex systems where causal relationships are entangled and dynamic and the only way to understand the system is to interact; and chaotic systems where there are no effective constraints, turbulence prevails and immediate stabilizing action is required. Cynefin acknowledges that these different systemic contexts exist in parallel, and in that way avoids creating false dichotomies and polarization. (Location 290)
Dave divides his time between two roles: Founder Director and Chief Scientific Officer of Cognitive Edge, and the Founder and Head of the Cynefin Centre. His work is international in nature and covers government and industry looking at complex issues relating to organizational design and decision making. He has pioneered a science-based approach to organizations drawing on anthropology neuroscience and complex adaptive systems theory. (Location 546)
if a community is not physically, temporally, and spiritually rooted, then it is alienated from its environment, and will focus on survival rather than creativity and collaboration. (Location 566)
It was in the early days of knowledge management, and I was laying the foundations for what became known as Organic Knowledge Management. (Location 601)
A significant strength of Cynefin is that it was not created, and then propagated, from a single based study or process. It evolved through a fluid entanglement of sophia and phronesis to reference Aristotle. The latter is a type of practical wisdom, translated by the Romans as prudentia, which comes from providentia, meaning foresight and sagacity. Sophia is a combination of nous, which has a sense of discernment and epistēmē, which in the modern day would be science: knowledge that is teachable and built through logic. For Aristotle, both are associated with virtue, “Although the young may be experts in geometry and mathematics and similar branches of knowledge (sophoi), we do not consider that a young man can have Prudence (phronimos). The reason is that Prudence (phronesis) includes a knowledge of particular facts, derived from experience, which a young man does not possess, for experience is the fruit of years.” Nous, by the way, is one of those curious words; for Aristotle it was the ability to think rationally, but in collegial English, it often means common-sense, and both meanings are central to Cynefin. (Location 603)
How do we make sense of the world so that we can act in it? With that definition comes the concept of sufficiency, how do we know that we know enough to determine the type of action we can take? After all, that is the primary function of Cynefin; at its heart, it is a decision support framework. (Location 620)
Weick, Dervin, Klein, Russel and myself are now identified in the literature as five distinct schools of sense-making/sensemaking and I’ve had the privilege of working with both Brenda Dervin and Gary Klein and can call them friends. (6) (Location 622)
another quote from Dylan Thomas comes to mind: “When one burns one’s bridges, what a very nice fire it makes.” (Location 715)
Broader community engagement has been key to the development and use of Cynefin. The Framework is fractal in nature, it is self-similar at different levels of understanding so you can understand it simply and quickly, but as you use it more and go deeper, more and more is revealed. At its simplest, the Framework distinguishes order from complexity from chaos. (Location 736)
The primary definition of Cynefin, is at its heart, about a flow of engagement over time with things known, unknown and unknowable, loved, and unloved all, of which entangle our lives and create meaning. (Location 741)
Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi’s book, The Knowledge-Creating Company, had been published five years earlier and was now gaining traction. (Location 778)
Along with Yasmin, Alicia Juarrero, Peter Allen, Bill McKelvey and Pierpaolo Andriani, we had formed a powerful group, working on the development of complexity as a field in a different way from the then dominant work of Ralph Stacey. (Location 800)
Along with Yasmin, Alicia Juarrero, Peter Allen, Bill McKelvey and Pierpaolo Andreotti, we had formed a powerful group, working on the development of complexity as a field in a different way from the then dominant work of Ralph Stacey. (Location 801)
- Tags: #[[todo]]
“You must read Alicia Juarrero’s Dynamics in Action.” (Location 806)
Figure 1. Max Boisot’s I-Space Framework from his book, Knowledge Assets, 1998 (Location 812)
I was arguing against the famous Data - Information - Knowledge - Wisdom (DIKW) pyramid. My position was that knowledge is the means by which data becomes information and knowledge exists on a spectrum between tacit and explicit. (Location 816)
Since that date, and after the discussion with Peter, I advocated that Scientific Management and Complexity Thinking have more in common with each other than the popular, cybernetics-based approaches to Systems Thinking. The reason is that they both leave a role for human judgment. (Location 865)
That was about a year prior to its more cited use in the peer-reviewed “Complex Acts of Knowing,” now one of the most cited papers of all time in the KM field. (Location 905)
Now I was moving towards Simple and Complicated along with Chaos and Complexity. They were ontological (the nature of things) terms, while other labels confused ontology with epistemology (the theory of knowledge.) (Location 934)
Max was present at the workshop where I first met Peter Schwartz, pioneer of scenario planning. (Location 1001)
Interestingly, the Agile Manifesto is roughly the same age as Cynefin; though they evolved separately, by 2008 they started to come together, and the interaction has been a rich source of ideas and practice ever since. Scrum (the dominant method within the Agile movement) had in part grown up around the Stacey Matrix, which uses some of the same language, but is different in nature. Cynefin is about how things are, how we know them and how we perceive them, while Stacey focuses more on perception. I think one of the reasons Cynefin took off in the Agile community was its both/and nature. Cynefin says that there is nothing wrong with order, if you can achieve it. This is the principle of ‘bounded applicability,’ different things work or don’t work in different domains. (Location 1037)
Agile is interesting in that its growth and nature, in some ways, is very much like Knowledge Management. Most management movements start with a single guru and book, but both KM and Agile had multiple sources and were more resilient as a result. (Location 1045)
- Tags: #[[knowledge management]] #[[agile]] #[[favorite]]
Agile, if anything, is attempting to shift from software development to wider applications. My suspicion is that this will succeed, but like KM, it will possibly morph a new name, or a new way linked to its origin. (Location 1048)
One of the main functions of Cynefin is to make practical the idea that the last thing we did had value, we just may have tokenized it and tried to make it universal. Most things have value, within boundaries, and Cynefin tries to establish what they are and gain an understanding of what it takes to move between domains – something which has historically been called Cynefin dynamics. (Location 1051)
was doing a lot of reading and thinking about boundary states and understanding when to cross and when to suspend crossing them, all of which brought me to the idea of liminality. (Location 1067)
Then one day on a whiteboard I drew a green line which was open at the top, it intersected disorder but closed the boundary between Chaotic and Complex. With that simple line the liminal version of Cynefin with four new sub domains was born. (Location 1070)
Earlier this year (2020) John van Breda reminded me of the idea of Aporia, deliberate puzzlement through paradox and other techniques. (Location 1079)
Cynefin means the place of your multiple belongings, a multi-threaded and entangled path that makes you what you are, and continues to change over time. Learning to live with that and to work with it is key to maturity and impact. (Location 1100)
My definition of sense-making is, how do we make sense of the world so that we can act in it. Cynefin is a key part of that body of work. It makes no absolute claim, but it helps us make sense and act accordingly. (Location 1127)
So what is Cynefin? Cynefin is a key framework in what is known as Naturalizing sense-making. The term naturalizing relates to the use of natural science, and sense-making (with a hyphen) is defined as, “How do we make sense of the world so that we can act in it?” (Location 1192)
Order is constrained and future outcomes are predictable as long as the constraints can be sustained. The Complex domain has enabling constraints, and many levels of entanglement that make it dispositional in nature, with no linear material causality. Chaos is the absence of effective constraints. (Location 1203)
The early historical use of Unorder, as a collective name for Complex and Chaotic, has been dropped because Complexity and Chaos are as different from each other as they are from Order. (Location 1208)
Confused domain, formerly known as Disorder. This is the state of not knowing which domain you are in. It is frequently, but wrongly (sic) confused with Chaos. The Confused domain is appreciated as A/C (Aporia/… (Location 1209)
Order – To accommodate the disconnect between reality (ontology: how things are), perception (phenomenology: how we perceive things), and knowledge (epistemology: how we know things) in human systems, Order in Cynefin divides into two domains: 1) Clear (constraints are rigid or fixed and the relationship between cause and effect is self-evident and clear to any reasonable person)… (Location 1211)
Order – To accommodate the disconnect between reality (ontology: how things are), perception (epistemology: how we perceive things), and knowledge (phenomenology: how we know things) in human systems, Order in Cynefin divides into two domains: 1) Clear (constraints are rigid or fixed and the relationship between cause and effect is self-evident and clear to any reasonable person)… (Location 1212)
Liminal Line – Cynefin is a dynamic framework; things transition between domains. The liminal zones in Cynefin are demarcated by the intersections between the liminal lines. These liminal zones provide a space to accommodate significant transitions between domains. The liminal line is open at the top (Figure 2), closed at the bottom, and intersects all domains except Clear. Liminality in the Clear domain is not visible, making the boundary between Clear and Chaotic a cliff or catastrophic fold.… (Location 1217)
The liminal line creates liminal states in Complex (still uncertain but transiting to Complicated), Chaos (the deliberate removal of effective constraints for decision support and/or innovation), Complicated (where the analysis method or type of expertise is in question) and Confusion where the liminal area… (Location 1224)
To be unknowingly in the Confused domain is not advisable, and it is adjacent to the catastrophic fold for a reason. Aporia is also something that can be intentionally created to stimulate… (Location 1226)
Practice – There are different types of practice in each of the Cynefin domains including the liminal areas. In the Complex domain practice is ‘exaptive,’ or focused on radical re-purposing of existing capability. In the Complicated domain we apply ‘good practice,’… (Location 1230)
In the liminal area between Complex and Complicated, practice is iterative in nature. Transitions into Clear should be done only when the practice has… (Location 1234)
In Chaos, practice is generally novel, either by accident or, in the liminal area, by design. In the liminal area of Confused, practice is aporetic – the deliberate creation of paradox… (Location 1237)
Cynefin is at its heart a decision support framework, not a… (Location 1240)
The Framework is a way of determining what methods or approaches you should adopt, and when… (Location 1242)
The most stable pattern of movement is a constant iteration between Complex and Complicated, with things being consigned to Clear when there is sufficient stability to warrant and the risk of getting it… (Location 1243)
The original set of organizing principles or heuristics, dating back to 2003, consisted of 13 heuristics roughly grouped into four broad themes. Our thinking has evolved a lot since 2003, so Dave and I revisited these principles and brought them up to date. The new set has three main organizing principles, each with a few precepts below it. (Location 1284)
Cynefin is all about boundaries. In that way, it reflects human systems such that knowing where the boundaries are between specific contexts are critical to our meaning-making, identity structures, and ability to relate to each other. (Location 1315)
Cynefin’s boundaries help us to know what kind of systemic context we find ourselves in, and when we are transitioning from one to another. Being able to locate ourselves also helps us determine the appropriate actions to take, and the methods and tools that are fit for that particular systemic context. (Location 1317)
Methods, tools, and frameworks, however, are not universally applicable; there are no silver bullets. We articulate this in Cynefin with the term ‘bounded applicability’ i.e., we believe that most things are useful within certain boundaries. (Location 1320)
So this principle of messy coherence enables us to accommodate much diversity of approaches, methods, and tools within Cynefin. Coherence comes from understanding the boundaries of their applicability. (Location 1326)
For example, in large organizations there is often a drive to align the entire workforce behind a particular goal and create a singular culture. This singular alignment, one could argue, is an extreme form of coherence. It strips away the diversity of a system to a point where its resilience is compromised. On the other hand, too many subcultures and conflicting goals in an organization will become incoherent and lead to fragmentation. Applying the principle of coherent heterogeneity, we can accept and value the diversity of localized sub-cultures, as long as they are coherent with the identity of the whole. The key here is that the difference is bounded or contained in such a way that it does not become incoherent or fragmented. (Location 1331)
- Tags: #[[diversity]] #[[sub-culture]] #[[organisations]]
Cynefin uses this inherent tension as generative, creating a space for the novelty to emerge. Most of our methods work to generate this space by embracing and sometimes intentionally creating ambiguity, paradox, and aporia. (Location 1338)
When we find ourselves in the in-between spaces, the liminal space, our task is to be mindful of suspending judgment, keeping our options open and enabling action that allows novelty to emerge and patterns to stabilize. (Location 1351)
- Tags: #[[liminal space]]
“Designing rules assumes an ordered universe in which we can predict the outcome of a defined action and in which we can know the range of possible circumstances. Heuristics, on the other hand, provide more general guidance; they have a level of ambiguity which makes them more adaptable. Heuristics are not the same thing as value or principle statements that are vague enough to be selectively interpreted, or rationalized, to justify different and contradictory actions. Heuristics within the bounds of common sense are not that ambiguous; i.e., we can objectively determine whether or not they were followed. Heuristics are often associated with delegation of authority, while rules are about control. Both are right, and both are wrong – it depends on the context.” – Dave Snowden (Location 1361)
Military contexts, perhaps because they have long struggled with the need for distributed authority and responsiveness, abound with examples of heuristics. Napoleon, for example, told his armies to ‘march to the sound of the guns’ instead of waiting for orders. Another example: when the battle plan falls apart – capture the high ground, stay in touch, keep moving. In both these examples, the heuristic is ambiguous enough to apply in different contexts, yet specific enough to know if someone followed them or not. (Location 1369)
Cynefin is about proactive meaning-making and sense-making. (Location 1379)
We are making sense in order to act, not to gain reflective insight only. (Location 1380)
There is a broad range of Cynefin methods that facilitate this ‘holding of the mirror.’ For example, we create two contrasting sets of emergent archetypes from the same narrative material, to show how two different groups, say customers view themselves and product developers see them. The contrast between the two perspectives makes things (often unpalatable things, or ‘elephants in the room’) visible in a way that cannot be ignored. Because they were part of the creation of the data, without anyone guiding or advising them, they cannot reject the unpalatable conclusion in the way that they can deny conclusions intermediated by an expert or analyst’s interpretation of the data. This disintermediation between decision-makers and data or insight is a key aspect of most of our methods and tools, and foundational to our SenseMaker software tool. (Location 1391)
consider a time in your own life when you discovered something, about yourself for yourself, compared to when someone gave you advice: What do you remember best, and which changed your mind the most? Which of those effects will be most useful and sustainable for the other person? (Location 1401)
Alicia Juarerro, during a talk in Washington DC in November 2019, reminded me that we often under-estimate the importance of time and timing in human complex systems. We also forget that there are different ways to perceive time. There is Chronos (chronological or sequential) and Kairos (opportune) time. Chronological time is agnostic of context as it inexorably moves along. Kairos time, defined as right, critical, or opportune moments, is inherently linked to context. For each unique context, there will be unique Kairos moments. (Location 1459)
We are used to being in Chronos time. Cynefin seeks to engage with Kairos time, time entangled with context. When we understand the dispositional state of a system, we can also recognize Kairos moments, opportune times when the system is poised for change. (Location 1464)
Cynefin is a flow concept. It recognizes a continuous dynamic flow of many entangled patterns through time. Meaning is something that emerges from tangled connections over time. Our meaning-making is active and “in the moment.” The narrative becomes important here as it is a primary human meaning-making mechanism. It is how we make sense of our experience over time. (Location 1472)
The use of narrative to reveal patterns, and to pattern in its turn, is central to Cynefin methods. (Location 1480)
Sometimes our meaning-making patterns become traps. They become like biased lenses through which we view the world that lock us into a particular perspective. We call this phenomenon ‘pattern entrainment.’ (Location 1482)
Cynefin methods focus on disruption through descriptive self-awareness, and creating contexts where people can see things from different or new perspectives.” – Dave Snowden (Location 1486)
You can better see now that the typical (and usually linear) problem-solving orientation that dominates many workshops and projects is not helpful in complex socio-technical systems. In ordered contexts, we are dealing with solvable problems; in complex ones, we are dealing with emergent and entangled patterns. Cynefin methods propel us to see and approach them as such. (Location 1489)
The liminal zones between domains are transformational. Here we are able to suspend judgment, keep our options open, and enable the emergence of novelty. We remain in a state of constant awareness so that we don’t miss those Kairos moments. (Location 1499)
Cynefin methods are based on finding the evolutionary potential in the present, setting a broad future direction, and moving towards ‘adjacent possibles.’ The best way to describe this is by crossing a river by feeling the stones. The intent or direction is to cross the river. We are not aiming for a particular spot (in contrast to the idealist approach of engineering a bridge to a specific point on the opposite river bank.) We start from a place on the near side where there are reachable stepping stones (adjacent possible), and every time we take a step, new options become visible that we couldn’t see from the starting position. Sometimes we need to take a chance and take a step without seeing the next stone; we sense or feel our way forward. It is a purposeful and emergent and evolutionary journey firmly rooted in the present, not an engineered approach rooted in an idealized future that may never come about. (Location 1504)
Cynefin Framework’s ecosystem, methods and tools are powerful when used in ways coherent with the ‘spirit of Cynefin’ as articulated in the heuristics above. Conversely, when we apply them with mechanical and linear mindsets, they lose their power. (Location 1511)
“Thirty spokes share the hub of a wheel; yet it is its center that makes it useful. You can mold clay into a vessel; yet, it is its emptiness that makes it useful. Cut doors and windows from the walls of a house; but the ultimate use of the house will depend on that part where nothing exists. Therefore, something is shaped into what is; but its usefulness comes from what is not.” - Dao de jing, Lao Tzu (Verse 11) (1) (Location 1553)
- Tags: #[[nothingness]] #[[favorite]]
As does my well-worn copy of the Dao De Jing (akin to the bible of the Dao), that reminds me of the wisdom of remaining in the question and allowing for emergence. (Location 1576)
Cynefin acts almost as a manifestation of the Dao. Its value primarily derives from the fact that it is a heuristic-based framework, empty of data. (Location 1584)
The development of the A/C domain took place over two years. Two St David’s Days marked iterations of Cynefin – first, in 2019, where Dave introduced the liminal domain, (4) then in 2020, when he renamed Disorder – the often overlooked domain in the center of the Framework – “Confused.” (Location 1639)
The development of the A/C domain took place over two years. Two St David’s Days marked iterations of Cynefin – first, in 2019, where Dave introduced the liminal domain, (4) then in 2020, when he renamed Disorder – the often overlooked domain in the center of the Framework – “Confused.” (Location 1642)
When we are in any of the four domains of either Clear, Complicated, Complex or Chaotic, there are appropriate actions that can be taken. The Confused domain refers to a state of not knowing where to situate ourselves in the rest of Cynefin. It is, therefore, challenging to make decisions or take appropriate action. The carving out of A/C introduces nuance to the state of confusion. In Confusion alone we might be unaware that we are confused and choose to proceed with familiar actions and solutions without much thought. We tend to be led by yesterday’s “knowns” even though the situation has evolved. This is a dangerous state of ignorant confusion that may cause us to take a not so shallow dive into Chaos. (Location 1654)
In the Aporetic domain, we are well aware that we are confused and we know that we need to adopt different ways of learning, perceiving, interpreting, and exploring to work our way out. (Location 1661)
Aporia was introduced by Aristotle to describe a state of impasse in our thinking. (Location 1662)
The Aporetic turn refers to the method of intentionally creating doubt and paradox, so we may explore the many contrasting truths present in this space. (Location 1670)
In the Clear domain, we state that we can simply know a problem, categorize it, and respond. There is clear programming. In the Complicated domain, while lay people might not have the answers, the right expert would be able to sense and analyze the problem and develop the correct response. (Location 1678)
More or less complexity reveals itself as we explore and experience different parts and layers of the system. (Location 1682)
The Aporetic grazes the Complicated, Complex, and Chaos domains. The Confused grazes Clear. (Location 1683)
A Daoist concept that I have found useful in thinking about the Aporetic is Wu Wei. Loosely translated, it means “actionless action,” “action in inaction,” or “effortless action.” (Location 1687)
It goes back again to the naturalistic approach of “following the way of the water,” rather than attempting to control its flow. Wu wei implies conscious inaction so we can allow the most natural, effortless action to emerge. (Location 1689)
In the Complex domain, which is the most energy-efficient, water is liquid and fluid. We have to exert energy to either cool it into a solid-state (Ordered) or heat it into a gaseous state (Chaos). (Location 1702)
Working with the Cynefin Framework, and its survey methodology SenseMaker, helped me to ‘see’ non-obvious linkages and early signals of change that no mainstream method had done up to that point (Location 1820)
With the SenseMaker survey methodology’s help, we could formulate nonlinear questions and invite more context-rich stories. The results allowed us to identify patterns from respondents’ stories, which led to a discovery that people consider investing in solar panels for their homes after seeing their neighbors install the panels. Such is the nature of humans. Complex, adaptive, and relational, people react to each other. Our hypothesis about discretionary income levels turned out to be of secondary importance. (Location 1831)
Yet, in the messy field of citizens and community behaviors, we know that causality is hard to attribute. (Location 1836)
The SenseMaker survey allowed us to capture close to real-time insights from communities; it addressed crucial blind spots. (Location 1838)
In SenseMaker, I have found a survey approach that makes complex problems accessible as an exciting opportunity to accommodate uncertainty, ‘see’ the system’s dynamics, and discover multiple options for engaging with it. (Location 1846)
The very nature of Cynefin encourages us to leave either/or thinking and understand that different approaches work in different contexts, and why. The Cynefin-speak for this is ‘bounded applicability.’ (Location 1902)
the Cynefin Framework helps us see that we need to consider practices that are different from those we use in the ordered domains. (Location 1921)
With Cynefin, strategy emerges from an understanding of context. (Location 1933)
As Ludwig Wittgenstein puts it “the limits of my language are the limits of my world.” (Location 1936)
For anyone unfamiliar with SenseMaker, it is the software developed by Cognitive Edge that allows you to collect and make sense of narratives, stories, and the fragmented pieces of information that reflect the reality of life. It’s an essential tool for working with Cynefin, particularly in the Complex domain. (Location 2050)
SenseMaker reveals stories that describe what is happening in an organization. It is an insight into our ‘water cooler conversations.’ Not really wanting to know would stall the project. (Location 2070)
- Tags: #[[sensemaker]]
Lampeter is the fourth oldest University in the UK (after Oxbridge and Durham). It was also home of the famous Welsh writer Dylan Thomas. It was also warm and sunny. (Location 2082)
Dave says one of his favorite events to speak at is Summer School. A Welsh audience understands exactly his cultural references – such as Cynefin, in the sense of the Welsh meaning of the word – the habitat where you come from. (Location 2094)
Gathering narratives and making sense of them was seen as a key part of making sense of complex situations. (Location 2106)
Going back to something Dave said about small countries being capable of incredible things, Wales is the first country to have a legal requirement on public services to act sustainably and consider the impact of future generations’ decisions. (Location 2149)
From a world of ‘one size fits all’ and ‘failure is not an option,’ we now talk of ‘safe-to-fail probes’ and small actions that reflect the local context. Things that come from communities themselves stand a far better chance of being sustainable for future generations. (Location 2163)
The concepts were so abstract we were going in circles. But finally, we got the right approach: Focus on how the Framework helps decision-making. (Location 2245)
Greg Brougham has a few decades experience building and delivering complex systems. He has nearly a decade of experience using Cynefin in delivery and has published a short book that provides an introduction to do so. (Location 2306)
In 2004, the economists Paul Ormerod and Bridgett Rosewell published a paper entitled, “How much can firms know?” It was about the evolution and extinction of firms. (2) The paper drew on research that showed that there are two stylized facts about firms’ extinctions: 1) the probability of extinction is highest in a firm’s early life and 2) there is an empirical relationship between the size and extinction of a firm that exhibits a power law. (Location 2335)
The authors concluded that executives could not know much about their competitors or the market, which is inconsistent with the stylized facts of the earlier studies. That means that planning made little difference, and that is consistent with complexity theory – if the environment is complex, which is the state of most markets, then we cannot predict the behavior of competitors or the market, and no amount of analysis will help. De Geus explores this theme in his book, The Living Company. (4) The strategy community has largely ignored this research. They continue to focus on the development of strategic plans and initiatives, but if we can’t predict how the market will react, it raises the question: Is there any value in such an approach? It is also noted in Christensen and Raynor’s book, The Innovator’s Solution, that most strategy is emergent and not deliberate. (5) (Location 2344)
We need to make sense of a current situation in order to act wisely. One approach is the use of narratives. It allows us to explore the current environment and include a wide and diverse set of people and views. This supports the emergence of ideas, and avoids making premature assumptions. We stress that this is not storytelling, but the use of narrative fragments to explore the current space. (Location 2390)
The narrative fragments that came out of the engagement also gave rise to several initiatives that were easy to implement and did not require large change programs. This combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis gives rise to an understanding of what direction you want to move in, and how you can start moving in the desired direction. (Location 2411)
The use of narratives gives us an understanding of direction and any constraints that need to be observed. (Location 2417)
We mentioned constraints, but in fact there are both context-free and context-sensitive constraints as Alicia Juarrero talks about in Dynamics in Action. (Location 2422)
Context-free constraints may be realized as a set of policy statements. It is important that executives, however, acknowledge the context and if the context changes, policies may need to be reviewed. (Location 2425)
What is typically missed are the context-sensitive constraints which are enabling versus constraining constraints. (Location 2428)
The conventional way to teach Cynefin is by showing a PowerPoint presentation. Common sense tells us to engage people’s brains via analytical discourse. However, I believe in, and have experienced, a better way. When we introduce Cynefin through first mobilizing the wisdom of the body and have people reflect on their experience, their understanding of the framework is much deeper and embodied. (Location 2692)
I recognized the power of the Framework to help leaders see a variety of, and decide what approaches to use for, different problems. (Location 2697)
Framework helps people understand why complex problems defy orderly solutions. (Location 2698)
My background is a mix of diverse experiences. I played traditional Irish dance music. I was part of an improvisational theater group, studying and working with Augusto Boal’s Theater of the oppressed. I trained in the martial arts. And I learned about the body’s ability to grasp ideas, long before the mind makes sense of them. (Location 2709)
Keith is a co-author, with Jennifer Garvey-Berger of Simple Habits for Complex Times: Powerful practices for leaders (2015). (Location 2921)
“How do we create the conditions for good things to happen rather than put standards and structures into place to prevent bad things from happening?” (Location 2951)
We started using the Framework in the book that would become Simple Habits for Complex Times. (1) (Location 2960)
We have long taught that Confusion can be two different states. One is being swamped by the events and paying the consequences for a mismatch between what your habits drive you to do and what the context requires. Another state is being highly aware, like being on a viewing platform with a puzzled curiosity that allows us to see more clearly and discern our way into a new future. (Location 2990)