This guest blog has been a great example of self-organizing process for me. At least at my intrapersonal scale, it has set all three of the (necessary and sufficient) conditions for self-organizing in human systems. The space and time established a container that held my attention and focus. My various experiences and parsing of sense-making […]
I’m curious these days about dominance, its role in human systems, and its function in complex adaptation. In an intervention today, I was working with a male supervisor of an all-female team. As I watched them interact in a formal, conflict resolution conversation, I became painfully aware of his unconscious—and incredibly powerful—dominant behaviors. I watched […]
Recently many of my conversations have focused on accountability. Sometimes the context is management of a complex project in an unpredictable landscape. Sometimes it is demonstration of outcomes and impacts for international programs to shift massively complex patterns such as nutrition and livelihood. Sometimes, it is simply a prickly relationship between a supervisor and a […]
The Virtual Open House was great fun! We had holiday tunes, pictures and quotes, greeting cards, audience chat, multiple voices, a video, a poll, presents for all, and a list of fascinating questions sent in by guests. The only things missing were the mistletoe and the eggnog, and I’m not completely sure about that. Thanks, […]
On December 9 from 2 to 4:30 CST, HSD Institute is hosting a Virtual Open House. The theme is CELEBRATING UNCERTAINTY. Please join us. It is free, but registration is required. To register, visit: http://www.uliveandlearn.com/dsp_breezelivedetail.cfm?ProgramID=07e46373-245a-454b-8ca9-2c26b33ee43b We will be exploring six questions that squeeze juicy information out of any situation—no matter how surprising. 1. What are […]
I’m preparing for the next webinar in the series Strategy to Action: The Power of Human Systems Dynamics (http://www.uliveandlearn.com/). This session, on December 10, is about communications in a complex system. Of course, if human systems are self-organizing, agent-based, pattern generating entities, communication takes on an essential theoretical role. When you live and work within […]
Of all the chaos and complexity metaphors, one that is increasingly relevant to my work in communities is the scale-free network. We can speculate about why: •The ubiquitous internet gives us new ways to think about human systems. •Escalating challenges and diminishing resources push us toward new models to support action. •In-coming generations have transformed […]
The “edge of chaos” doesn’t exist in my world. Yes, I know it is only a metaphor, but I don’t think it is a very helpful one. The reason became obvious in a conversation I was having yesterday. A government client is developing a massive information system to support a wide variety of functions. Old […]
Thanks, Dave, for the invitation to this shared inquiry. There is nothing like a probing question, a rousing discussion, or a disturbing story to move me to challenge old assumptions and build new insights. In fact, that is the greatest thing about my current role as founding Executive Director of the Human Systems Dynamics Institute—I […]
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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