Cynefin

A diagram of the various domains of the Cynefin model.

The Cynefin (pronounced /ˈkʌnɨvɪn/) framework is a model used to describe problems, situations and systems. The model provides a typology of contexts that guides what sort of explanations and/or solutions may apply. Cynefin is a Welsh word, which is commonly translated into English as 'habitat' or 'place', although this fails to convey its full meaning. A more complete translation of the word would be that it conveys the sense that we all have multiple pasts of which we can only be partly aware: cultural, religious, geographic, tribal etc. The term was chosen by the Welsh scholar Dave Snowden to illustrate the evolutionary nature of complex systems, including their inherent uncertainty. The name is a reminder that all human interactions are strongly influenced and frequently determined by our experiences, both through the direct influence of personal experience, and through collective experience, such as stories or music.

The Cynefin framework draws on research into complex adaptive systems theory, cognitive science, anthropology and narrative patterns, as well as evolutionary psychology. It "explores the relationship between man, experience and context"^[1] and proposes new approaches to communication, decision-making, policy-making and knowledge management in complex social environments.

Origins

The Cynefin framework was originally developed in 1999 in the context of knowledge management and organisational strategy by Dave Snowden^[2] It was originally a modification of Max Boisot's I-Space^[3] combined with the study of actual, as opposed to stated management practice in IBM. By 2002 It had developed to include complex adaptive systems theory and had started to become a general strategy model.^[4] It was the further developed and elaborated with Cynthia Kurtz as a part of their work with the IBM Institute of Knowledge Management (IKM).^[5] Kurtz had worked with Snowden as a part of an IBM special interest group on narrative from 1999 before joining the IKM in 2001)^[6] Kurtz and others continued this work in Cognitive Edge formed by Snowden when he left IBM in 2005. This period included work to extend the model to Leadership with Mary E Boone which culminated in the HBR article referenced below.

Description of the framework

The Cynefin framework has five domains.^[7] The first four domains are:

• Simple, in which the relationship between cause and effect is obvious to all, the approach is to Sense - Categorise - Respond and we can apply best practice.
• Complicated, in which the relationship between cause and effect requires analysis or some other form of investigation and/or the application of expert knowledge, the approach is to Sense - Analyze - Respond and we can apply good practice.
• Complex, in which the relationship between cause and effect can only be perceived in retrospect, but not in advance, the approach is to Probe - Sense - Respond and we can sense emergent practice.
• Chaotic, in which there is no relationship between cause and effect at systems level, the approach is to Act - Sense - Respond and we can discover novel practice.

The fifth domain is Disorder, which is the state of not knowing what type of causality exists, in which state people will revert to their own comfort zone in making a decision. In full use, the Cynefin framework has sub-domains, and the boundary between simple and chaotic is seen as a catastrophic one: complacency leads to failure.

Applications

The work of Snowden and his team was initially in the areas of knowledge management, cultural change and community dynamics.^[5] It subsequently became also concerned with some critical business issues, such as product development, market creation and branding. More recently, their work also involved issues of organizational strategy and national security.

Others have used the Cynefin framework for such purpose as analysing policymaking within the George W. Bush administration and the impact of religion in that process,^[8] the nature of response to bioterrorism, as well as aspects of measurement in the British National Health Service. It has also been used for the retrospective study of emergency situations,^[9] the management of food chain risks,^[10] to study the interaction between Civilians and Military during disaster control.^[11] as well as recognition of question patterns from citizens requests by (social) service organizations.^[12]

Its use in the context of leadership was the cover feature in the Harvard Business Review in November 2007.^[13] The article in question was designated as the 2007 Best Practitioner-Oriented Paper in Organizational Behavior by the Organizational Behavior Division of the Academy of Management with the following citation This paper introduces an important new perspective that has enormous future value, and does so in a clear way that shows it can be used. (The article) makes several significant contributions. First, and most importantly, it introduces complexity science to guide managers' thoughts and actions. Second, it applies this perspective to advance a typology of contexts to help leaders to sort out the wide variety of situations in which they must lead decisions. Third, it advises leaders concerning what actions they should take in response.^[14]

In 2011 the same paper was a Citations of Excellence winner as one of the 50 best papers published in 2007, based on research impact.

See also

• Knowledge Management
• Narrative inquiry
• Sensemaking
• value network

References

1. ^ Louisa-Jayne O’Neill. 2004. [O’Neill, Louisa-Jayne. 2004. Faith and decision-making in the Bush presidency: The God elephant in the middle of America’s livingroom. Emergence: Complexity and Organisation. Vol. 6, No. 1/2, pp. 149.
2. ^ Snowden, D. (2000) “Cynefin, A Sense of Time and Place: an Ecological Approach to Sense Making and Learning in Formal and Informal Communities” conference proceedings of KMAC at the University of Aston, July 2000 and Snowden, D. (2000) “Cynefin: a sense of time and space, the social ecology of knowledge management”. In Knowledge Horizons : The Present and the Promise of Knowledge Management ed. C Despres & D Chauvel Butterworth Heinemann October 2000
3. ^ Boisot Knowledge Assets 1998
4. ^ Snowden, D. (2002) “Complex Acts of Knowing: Paradox and Descriptive Self Awareness” in the Journal of Knowledge Management – Vol. 6, No. 2, (May) pp. 100-111
5. ^ ^{a b} C. F. Kurtz and D. J. Snowden, 2003, "The new dynamics of strategy: Sense-making in a complex and complicated world", IBM Systems Journal, Volume 42, Number 3, 462.
6. ^ Blog post: http://www.storycoloredglasses.com/2011/02/whose-truths-are-these.html
7. ^ Snowden, D (2005) “Multi-ontology sense making – a new simplicity in decision making” in Informatics in Primary Health Care 2005:13:00
8. ^ Louisa-Jayne O’Neill. 2004. [O’Neill, Louisa-Jayne. 2004. Faith and decision-making in the Bush presidency: The God elephant in the middle of America’s livingroom. Emergence: Complexity and Organisation. Vol. 6, No. 1/2, pp. 149-156.
9. ^ French, Simon. Niculae, Carmen. 2005."Believe in the Model: Mishandle the Emergency", Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, volume 2, issue 1, (2005).
10. ^ Shepherd, Richard. Barker, Gary. French, Simon. Hart, Andy. Maule, John. Cassidy, Angela. 2006. Managing Food Chain Risks: Integrating Technical and Stakeholder Perspectives on Uncertainty. Journal of Agricultural Economics. Volume 57, Issue 2, pp. 313-327.
11. ^ Otten, Jan. 2006. Civiel-militaire samenwerking bij crisisbeheersing, Carré, 29 (11-12), pp. 32-34.
12. ^ Beyond the standard question - narrative research into question-patterns. Martha van Biene, Hogeschool Arnhem-Nijmegen, 2008. ISBN-nr: 978-90813751-1-5.
13. ^ Snowden, D.J. Boone, M. "A Leader's Framework for Decision Making". Harvard Business Review, November 2007, pp. 69-76.
14. ^ Organizational Behavior Division of the Academy of Management. 2008. Outstanding Practitioner Oriented Publication in OB

Bibliography

• Bellavita, Christopher. 2006. "Shape Patterns, Not Programs, Homeland Security Affairs, vol. II, no. 3, pp. 1–21.
• Joachim P. Sturmberg. Carmel M. Martin. 2008. Knowing – in Medicine, Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, Volume 14 Issue 5, Pages 767 - 770
• Firestone, J. M. and McElroy, M. W. 2003. Key Issues in the New Knowledge Management, Burlington, MA: KMCI Press/Butterworth Heinemann, pp. 104–133.
• French, S. "Cynefin: repeatability, science and value". European Working Group “Multiple Criteria Decision Aiding”. Series 3, nº 17, Spring 2008, pp. 1–5.
• French, Simon. Niculae, Carmen. 2005. "Believe in the Model: Mishandle the Emergency", Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, volume 2, issue 1, (2005).
• Koskela, Lauri. Kagioglou, Mike. 2006. "On the Metaphysics of Production". Proceedings of the 13th Annual Conference on Lean Construction. pp. 37–45.
• Kurtz, C. & Snowden, D. 2003, The New Dynamics of Strategy: Sense-making in a Complex-Complicated World, IBM Systems Journal, vol. 42, no. 3, pp. 462-83.
• Lambe, P Organising Knowledge: Taxonomies, Knowledge and Organisational Effectiveness Oxford: Chandos, 2007.
• Lazaroff, M. and Snowden, D. (2006), Anticipatory modes for counter terrorism. In Popp, R. and Yen, J. (Eds), Emergent Information Technologies and Enabling Policies for Counter-Terrorism (IEEE Press, Wiley).
• Mark, A. Snowden, D (2004) “Researching practice or practising research - innovating methods in healthcare the contribution of Cynefin” Presented paper at the Organisational Behaviour in Health Care Conference on the theme of Innovation held by the Centre for Health and Policy Studies (CHAPS) University of Calgary at the Banff Centre Alberta Canada.
• O’Neill, Louisa-Jayne. 2004. Faith and decision-making in the Bush presidency: The God elephant in the middle of America’s livingroom. Emergence: Complexity and Organisation. Vol. 6, No. 1/2, pp. 149–156.
• Otten, Jan (2006). Civiel-militaire samenwerking bij crisisbeheersing, Carré, 29 (11-12), pp. 32–34.
• Shepherd, Richard. Barker, Gary. French, Simon. Hart, Andy. Maule, John. Cassidy, Angela. 2006. Managing Food Chain Risks: Integrating Technical and Stakeholder Perspectives on Uncertainty. Journal of Agricultural Economics. Volume 57, Issue 2, pp. 313–327.
• Snowden, D (2000). "Cynefin: a sense of time and space, the social ecology of knowledge management", in Despres, C and Chauvel, D (Eds), Knowledge Horizons: The Present and the Promise of Knowledge Management, Butterworth-Heinemann: Oxford
• Snowden, D (2005). “Multi-ontology sense making – a new simplicity in decision making” in Informatics in Primary Health Care.
• Snowden, D (2006). Perspectives Around Emergent Connectivity, Sense-Making and Asymmetric Threat Management. Public Money & Management, Volume 26 Issue 5, pp. 275–277.
• Snowden, D.J. Boone, M. 2007. "A Leader's Framework for Decision Making". Harvard Business Review, November 2007, pp. 69–76.
• Verdon, J. 2005. Tranformation in the CF, Concept towards a theory of Human Network-Enabled. Ottawa: National Defence, Directory of Strategic Human Resources, Research Note, July 2005, 52 pages.
• Woodhill, A.J. 2008. Shaping behaviour - How institutions evolve. The Broker, Issue 10, October 2008, pp. 4–8.