During the final week of our Cynefin 21 celebrations in October I had the privilege of talking with two long time friends here in Canada, both of whom have extensive experience working in, and consulting to, governments in Canada. When I first met Thomas Townsend he was the Executive Director of the Policy Research Initiative, […]
This week CE hosted an open webinar on the topic of Cynefin & Theory of Constraints. This webinar featured CE practitioners and TOC experts, Steve Holt, Jabe Bloom, Greg Brougham, and Hilbert Robinson. Steve Holt was the lead host and the others served as the panel of experts, some with more Cynefin experience while others with TOC experience […]
Most large companies are prepared to invest in “incremental innovation” but very few are willing to grant decision authority to management teams at a level necessary for disruptive innovation. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing or a criticism of large companies often lack of ability to stimulate disruptive innovation. However I do […]
It’s reasonably well known that retaining more than 5 different things in your memory is difficult. This is known as Millar’s Law. We often explain this with some humour during training referring to why when given directions most people find it difficult to remember past 5 instructions. The concept here is that the number of […]
One of the aspects of sense-making we emphasize in all our training programmes is the value of contrast. Since complex systems are inherently unordered, without any underlying repeating structure, their is no absolute baseline or reference. Hence contrasting from differences in the system (I.e. perspective, context, location, etc.) provides an effective means of making sense. […]
Late in April, Gary Wong and I will be delivering our complexity and safety training course in Houston. This session focuses on how complex adaptive systems thinking, the Cynefin framework, and narrative collection can help leadership teams improve their safety cultures and reduce safety risks. Fundamental to the overall approach is deploying a more effective form of networked […]
I was prompted by an email exchange earlier this week about a company seeing customer experience as the make or break for succeeding at a brand transformation or a brand change initiative. SenseMaker® is being considered but is currently viewed as a technology driven solution which was a concern as this particular company has seen […]
his blog is being posted on behalf of Thomas Townsend. Thomas will be teaching our newest course – Cynefin & Policywith Tony Quinlan in Ottawa on Oct 2-3. Some 10 years ago now when I first became interested in how complexity science might be used in public administration there was a body of thinking but relatively […]
Creating and Leading a Resilient Safety Culture is our new training course that brings together resilience thinking with complexity and Cynefin to offer a unique and practical approach to shifting safety cultures in organizations. Cognitive Edge is hosting three sessions of this new course in June and July. June 26-27 and June 30-July 1 are […]
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.
Cognitive Edge, PlasEirias Business Centre, Abergele Road,Colwyn Bay,ConwyLL29 8BF Cognitive Edge Pte Ltd, 1 Raffles Place, #20-61 Tower 2, SINGAPORE 048616 Cognitive Edge (USA), Inc.1000 N. WEST ST STE 1200 WILMINGTON DE 19801 USA
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