Cynefin - empowering to work with uncertainty
Refining our responses and practices depending on the specific system we engage with. Cynefin is a Welsh meaning “Place of Your Multiple Belongings” and refers as a noun to “habitat”, and as an adjective to “acquainted” or “familiar”. Created by Dave Snowden, this framework can be used for collective narrative analysis, decision-making and sense-making. It's a navigational map to more accurately orient in different types of situations and systems.
The Framework guides us to make sense of the world so that we can skillfully act in it. It’s a supportive tool for all kinds of leaders and their teams to navigate complexity, create resilience, and thrive on the long haul.
Cynefin names four different kinds of systems or situations: the Obvious, the Complicated, the Complex and the Chaotic. Each one has a set of character traits, requires a specific order of responding, and supports the creation of specific kinds of skills and practices.
This is important especially when we work with systemic relevant change and transformational process as this is a rather delicate work. This map allows us to take a moment to reflect on what kind of system or situation we find ourselves in before responding with congruency. It's an invitation to clarify and orient in order to avoid mindless action, actionless mind, or analysis paralysis.
The framework emphasizes the importance of fine-tuning our ways of interaction with a system according to what system or situation we find ourselves in, and stop pretending every situation can be addressed with the same practices and actions. We lead with the question “What is this system or situation requiring at this very moment from me/us and how can I/we best support it?”.
With a system, we refer to “a regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming a unified whole” (Merriam Webster Dictionary).
An overview of the four corners:
At the bottom right corner we find the one called obvious or linear. Related to it are adjectives such as simple, known, rules-based, linear, best practice and predictable. The decision-making here is “sense-categorise-respond”. Here we find procedures that stay the same over a longer period of time and the creation of best practice helps to keep things simple and efficient.
The upper right corner is called complicated and is what we could call the expert space. A complicated situation gets analysed, all the details need to be understood and we may need to create manuals so other experts can follow the necessary steps - for example building or flying an airplane - in order to ensure safe and sound outcomes. The decision-making here is “sense-analyse-respond”.
The upper left is dedicated to the complex one. This is a relatively new state, and mostly not taught in our Western education systems other than in physics and maths departments. Here we cross the chaordic line and enter the non-ordered systems. From here on there is no more linear or predictable control available to us like in the previous two.
Whereas ordered systems have an underlying relationship between the variables f.e. “Right or wrong” and “on or off” with variables limited normally to 2, unordered systems have a relationship of many, meaning that for any action there are x numbers of possible reactions. A complex system has a large, sometimes unknown number of variables, and the relationships between these variables are equally unknown, unpredictable, and constantly shifting and changing. We can experience a complex system for example by studying the murmuration of birds or how incredibly fine-tuned our body is operating as a complex and interdependent organism. Navigation is a key skill in complex conditions. The decision-making in complexity is “probe- sense - respond” to be distinguished from other types of decision-making processes.
The bottom left corner is dedicated to the chaotic one. Chaos has no story, neither before nor after the event. No pattern can be seen, no causation story told, and no predictions can be made. Here the decision-making process is “act - sense - respond” in the hope that this action provokes some kind of novel pattern for dealing with the emergence as well as sometimes emergency. Accidences or catastrophes are often named here as an illustration. Even though there are of course some standardized procedures in place for a car accident or a fire, when it happens we do need to act immediately especially if lives are in danger and can not take time to first read the suggested procedure. Another example is art and sculpting as Thurin-Jon nicely states, “Stones dream of shapes they might become. The sculptor has but to listen” or Andy Goldsworthy, “Fear always accompanies the making of art, generated by the shock of seeing an idea taking its form. A sculpture in the mind is safe and secure--the actual work rarely behaves as intended.”
Our Western view of chaos is that it is rather dangerous and unpleasant and to be avoided, but the Chinese word embodies both danger and opportunity. Chaos is where a lot of artists live, it is the most creative of all the domains. In the Greek creation myths, Chaos refers to the void state preceding the creation of the universe or cosmos, or to the initial "gap" created by the original separation of heaven and earth.
In the middle of the four corners is the space called disorder. We will end up here if we are not taking time to first reflect and orient ourselves in what kind of system we are currently in, or when we apply the responding mechanism of one corner to another corner. For example, if we pretend a complex situation can be handled with the responding mechanism of an obvious situation.
Cynefin is a basic map that has an underlying flow of knowledge creation emerging from chaos (novel practice) to complexity (emergent practice), to be analysed and controlled by the experts (good practice), and last but not least taught to the rest of us (best practice).
Using this framework is especially relevant when working in the field of systemic change such as the Catalysts and their long-term intention are focusing on. A core question that it addresses is “How do we make sense of the world so that we can act in it wisely?”
It recognises that our actions need to match the reality we find ourselves in through a process of sense-making. This helps us to cultivate an awareness of what is really complex and what is not, and respond accordingly so that no energy is wasted in overthinking the routine, yet also not try to make the complex fit into standard solutions.
(1) A chaordic organization refers to a system of organization that blends characteristics of chaos and order. The term was coined by Dee Hock, the founder and former CEO of the Visa credit card association. The mix of chaos and order is often described as a harmonious coexistence displaying characteristics of both, with neither chaotic nor ordered behavior dominating. The chaordic principles have also been used as guidelines for creating human organizations -- business, nonprofit, government and hybrids—that would be neither centralized nor anarchical networks.
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Luea Ritter is part of the design and hosting team for collaboratio helvetica’s Catalyst Lab. This learning and design process has been created to support individuals and their teams with the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Switzerland. Luea is also part of the Practitioner Circle and supports different long-term mandates. Luea thrives within complexity, and through a diverse medley of fields she has developed a high sensitivity for context-based social dynamics. She weaves societal and systemic change practices, trauma and healing work, leadership, collaboration and earth-based wisdom traditions to cultivate capacities in individuals and collectives. Besides her work for collaboratio helvetica she works internationally across sectors to guide multi-stakeholder design and transition processes that embrace the challenge and potential of our times and support social innovation. She co-founded Collective Transitions, an action-research organization dedicated to making the implicit valued, and building shared capacities for transformational shifts.