Cynefin complexity
- 1. Volatility Uncertainty Complexity Ambiguity Level 3, IBM Tower 60 City Rd, Southbank VIC 3006 www.vucaconcepts.com.au The accompanying slides show the four domains of the Cynefin framework. They also borrow from the ‘Lock & Key’ metaphor introduced recently by Dr Ali Anani on the LinkedIn ‘Complexity in Organisa7ons’ group. As noted by Ali, many people find it difficult to understand the implicaLons flowing from these four problem arenas. I offer for consideraLon this extension of the metaphor.
- 2. SIMPLE CHAOTIC COMPLICATED COMPLEX THE FOUR CYNEFIN DOMAINS
- 3. Entry in the company SOP Manual This key can be found hanging on the back of the canteen door… It opens the red & black lock to the pantry… SIMPLE I suggest that the Simple and Chao,c domains, as presented below, speak for themselves. CHAOTIC “The building is on fire. All these doors are locked and we have no keys.”
- 4. COMPLICATED “I’ve lost the key for this lock. It was the only key we had, and the lock is a technically very complicated mechanism. What are we going to do?” Regarding the Complicated, my explanaLon is as follows: “While none of us present may know how to deal with the situa7on at hand, a professional locksmith will get it open. Let’s call one!”
- 5. “Can someone please open all these locks. The right keys are somewhere in these four bunches!” COMPLEX On the face of it this looks like a very messy situaLon, which it is – certainly if we mulLplied the number of locks and key bunches by an order, say, of 10. But, applying good Complexity Management prac7ce, we ask the ques7on: “Are there any paIerns discernible here”? On further probing, we discover the following: 1. There are three different lock colours. 2. Some of the locks are hanging upside down (for whatever reason). 3. On examining the four bunches of keys we discover that each individual key is numbered. 4. On further inves7ga7on we discover that all the locks with numbers beginning with the digit 1 open all the yellow locks; those beginning with 3 open all the purple ones; those beginning with 9 open the red-‐black locks; those beginning with the two digit-‐sequence 3-‐2 open all upside down locks, irrespec7ve of colour! My explanaVon: Discovering these paXerns will help us progressively tame the ‘wickedness’ of the complex problem!
- 6. Volatility Uncertainty Complexity Ambiguity Level 3, IBM Tower 60 City Rd, Southbank VIC 3006 www.vucaconcepts.com.au HOPE THESE THOUGHTS HELP YOU IN UNRAVELLING THE COMPLEXITY OF ‘COMPLEXITY’. Robert robert.flynn@vucaconcepts.com.au