Dave Snowden

ABIDE - overview of process

May 9, 2012  ·  Reflections

Picking up on yesterdays post on ABIDE.  As I suspected forcing myself to teach the idea produced some innovation and resolution of problems.  Thinking back nearly everything original I have developed (including the various Cynefin representations) have been achieved on my feet in front of an audience.   Some people are visual thinkers, some written, I think I reflect the oral tradition I come from, the interaction with an audience opens up new channels of thinking.

I said yesterday that I was stuck as a result of thinking that ABIDE (and something else now...

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Fast falls the even tide

May 7, 2012  ·  Knowledge Management, Reflections

When we put CalmAlpha together back in January I was somewhat shamed by Joseph Pelrine talking about his use of ABIDE, something that I developed as a pairing for ASHEN the best part of a decade ago, but then left it to go into decline.  Others, Viv Read for example, argued that it should be brought back into the mainstream but it wasn't until a month or so that I started to realise why I was blocked on it, and how to use it.

But I get ahead of myself, I should explain what...

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On coins and the greenback

May 6, 2012  ·  Polemic

I flew over to the US today, New York then on by train to Washington for a two day run of the new advanced course.  I lot of fun on the train from Penn Street with Michael Cheveldave (who is co-teaching with me) talking about the content.  He had pulled out some old papers with material that was a little too advanced at the time, or didn't work out exactly the way we wanted.  ABIDE for example which works like ASHEN (more on that this week); its a mnemonic for Attractors, Boundaries, Identity, Diversity...

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Paddling by the Thames

May 5, 2012  · 

The end point of the Thames Walk is the flood barrier at Greenwich, but we faced two unexpected barriers on the Hurley to Windsor section today of which more later (although the picture should give you one clue.  I’d spent the previous evening at the Barbican Centre watching Glass’s Einstein on the Beach, a five hour marathon that became six with delays.  It was a wonderful experience, a near unique form of Opera in which the visual and musical stimulation tells no specific narrative but allows unique ones to emerge.  But...

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Nowt wrong with fiction

May 4, 2012  ·  Reflections

I'm not sure why Shawn over at Anecdote reacted so badly to Jonathan Gottschall's article on Story Telling.  Ok it not the most original of articles but its hardly going to set back the field of business story telling.  Assuming said field is in a good place (which I doubt but more on that in a future post) then all the article says is that stories work better than PowerPoint, that people can be changed by story and that we need to develop our defenses against propaganda.  In fact the article is...

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Two opportunities

May 3, 2012  ·  News

We have two courses coming up this month which are new both in terms of form, but also content.  Both orientated to interventions, and how to make things work.

The new advanced course takes place in Washington next Monday/Tuesday and is jointly taught by myself and Michael.  If you miss that then the next one is in June in London.   I'm note sure we have the title right here as its more a how to make things work in a complex situation course.  So while it assumes some...

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Of Unicorns and virgins

May 2, 2012  ·  Musings

David Griffiths, aside from being a fellow welshman with a proper appreciation of the religious aspects of rugby (I am writing this wearing one of several Grand Slam 2012 T shirts I have acquired) also blogs on knowledge management.  I keep a track on what he says and also comment more frequently that I do for others, generally along the lines of OK I agree but .....   He recently published some thoughts on Chasing Unicorns in which he argues that "KM is a redundant process that should be re-evaluated and scrapped", he...

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Calan Haf

May 1, 2012  ·  Great places, Reflections

My determination to spend at least one day every weekend on a long distance walk is starting to pay dividends.  Last month on a Friday I walked 17 miles to complete stage two of the Ridgeway.  I needed a pickup so I timed it to coincide with my son being home so he could drive to Sparsholt Firs after I had walked via Waylands Smithy from Ogmore St John. I suggested he might want to do the next section on Sunday and we completed 18 miles at a much faster pace.  Youth drove the party forward, but...

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I was going to buy leather patches for the tweed jacket ...

April 3, 2012  ·  Memories

Yainnis Gabriel recent reflection on his 2008 article in Organisational Studies triggered some thoughts on my own presentation style over the years, and some good memories.  I still remember my first public presentation at the age of 10 on the 14th October 1964 on the stage in Bryn Coch Primary School.  It was a mock election and I was the Labour Candidate, and one of the few to present a political platform rather than promise free sweets and extended playtime.  I'm pleased to say I won handsomely and the next day saw the first Wilson Government elected...

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Exaptation & managed serendipity: II

April 2, 2012  ·  Innovation, Science, Reflections

In this second of three posts on exaptation I am going to continue to build on reporting discussions and ideas that came out of the Durham conference.  In the final post I'll pick up on what I presented (and what I wish I had thought of presenting at the time) on managed serendipity.

Probably the most difficult thing for people to grasp about exaptation is that it means that many things did not evolve for a purpose; survival of the fortuitous not survival of the fittest (which goes a long way to understanding the...

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