I’ve never liked the whole-body metaphors that are used by Senge and others in Systems Dynamics, especially as they are framed in Cartesian terms with the brain providing direction. It allows people to be placed in the category of muscles and god help us, the heart. I notice the kidney and spleen are less attractive […]
I’ve always talked a lot about maps and the importance of managing the evolutionary potential of the present. I’ve also emphasised the importance of starting journeys with a sense of direction rather than having goals, and by the way, talking about how things should be is a form of goal. Our own adaption, possibly exaption […]
There are two major forms of stupidity on the various debates that sprint on social media from time to time. The first is the assertion that because complex systems have no linear material causality that all forms of root cause analysis should be abandoned. the second is to assert that root cause analysis (RCA) is […]
Yesterday’s opening post in this series provided a background to the initial sources and contacts I used as I started to take complex adaptive systems as the major focus, in effect pushing knowledge management into the background and using narrative as a tool to understand the nature of complexity in human systems. Cynefin shifted into […]
A lot of the early work on narrative, which I summarised yesterday was largely based on instinct and common sense. There was background theory – I focused on aesthetics and ethics when I studied Philosophy and I was formally trained in rhetoric at school and carried that forward into competitive debating at University and beyond. […]
Problems of diversity, inclusion and associated conflict pervade modern society. To be honest they always did but we are more aware of them. Also, those excluded from power, subjected to epistemic injustice, prejudice, and often violence are standing up, challenging orthodoxies, and asking difficult questions. At the same time previous dominant groups can no longer […]
Dave Snowden and Simon Wardley joined in a seminal two-day exploration of the synergies and potential collaboration between these two approaches in December 2018. The recording of this event is now available as a series of 25 videos available for online viewing.
Today’s offering from Gaping Void is wonderfully enigmatic and could be a source for a lengthy trans-disciplinary colloquium if anyone was interested in setting one up. It allows me to return to two recent posts, one on empathy and the other on meaning. Both relate to major international programmes we plan to launch soon from […]
I’m still working on the new use of coupling and boundary constraints for Cynefin so readers will have to wait a few days for that. So I thought I would continue by theme of yesterday, namely the organisational use of narrative. I’m also saving myself a double task as I need to write some of […]
The Cynefin Company (formerly known as Cognitive Edge) was founded in 2005 by Dave Snowden. We believe in praxis and focus on building methods, tools and capability that apply the wisdom from Complex Adaptive Systems theory and other scientific disciplines in social systems. We are the world leader in developing management approaches (in society, government and industry) that empower organisations to absorb uncertainty, detect weak signals to enable sense-making in complex systems, act on the rich data, create resilience and, ultimately, thrive in a complex world.
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