I write and talk a lot about complexity and working and leading in complex environments. And in doing so, I invariably refer to Dave Snowden’s Cynefin framework.
Cynefin (pronounced Ku-nev-in) is a Welsh word meaning something like ‘habitat’, but which also implies multiple unknowable factors in our environment and our experience.
Snowden first introduced Cynefin as a decision making framework to a wider audience in a classic Harvard Business review article in 2007.
Since then Snowden has continued to refine his thinking on Cynefin as a sense-making tool. A forthcoming book on Cynefin is planned, but a lot of the latest ideas are on Snowden’s blog.
The framework is a fantastic aid for distinguishing between the predictable and the unpredictable and between the complicated and complex spaces. The ability to readily make these distinctions is critical to leadership, understanding, decision making and action planning in organisation settings – and in life generally.
But the framework is more than a simple diagrammatic, Cynefin recognises the shifting and evolving circumstances in which we operate.
In this post, rather than try to fully explain Cynefin myself, I’ve gone to the source and included Snowden’s latest visual representation of Cynefin below, as well as Dave Snowden’s own video about Cynefin, which is now a few years old.
I’ve also included Jennifer Garvey Berger’s video on Cynefin, which is an excellent introduction to the framework.
