Dave Snowden  Thinking
Dave Snowden
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 […]
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Zhen Goh
In the past 2 weeks, I have been called into a few urgent conference calls with partners and clients. As a response to the Corona virus, and it’s spread, many of them (and ourselves) included have had their projects impacted.  In-person meetings, workshops and executive interviews have had to be cancelled, postponed and rethought. The […]
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Dave Snowden
Many years ago now I worked with anthropologist Beth Meriam to design an approach to cultural mapping using SenseMaker®.  The underlying paper can be read here.  It has been the basis of many a project since then with several variations.  In effect it has become the underlying Cynefin theory of culture in organisations and society. […]
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The location of the Cynefin Retreat about Narrative in Organisations (Ireland, 18-21 March 2019) is specially chosen for its unique landscape and naturally rugged beauty. This is so as to facilitate learning, sense-making, the blending of art and science, and also to loosen constraints on the imagination with a view to releasing artistic creativity and ‘joining […]
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Dave Snowden
Narrative has been an ever-present aspect my work over many decades now. I was lucky in that I initially entered the field in the pursuit of knowledge. Firstly when young through reading, listening and speaking; but then in the early days of IBM when I was trying to find ways to map knowledge in organisations. […]
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Dave Snowden
I left the question of the role of the leader in story telling open in yesterday’s post. My contention remains that in anything involving change, actions generally speak louder than words. But there is a time and a place for story telling. However I want to make a distinction here before anecdotal enhancement and story […]
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Dave Snowden
One quote from my contribution to the ‘StoryTheFuture’ event was picked up in social media. I’m not sure it really qualifies as going viral but it did have some impact. I said: Stop telling leaders to tell stories and (instead) get them to take actions that will generate stories. A theme I have been running […]
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Dave Snowden
I’ve been delayed in getting this second post in the series of the role and nature of narrative published. Many things going on in Cognitive Edge at the moment and I’ve had to make a couple of big decisions and I’m dealing with the aftermath of one and the promise of another. But one of […]
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Dave Snowden
Back in 2014 I wrote the entry on organisational story telling for the Sage Handbook on Action Research. I wasn’t wild about the title at the time as I felt that was only one aspect of the field. However I got away with writing something more general in a limited word count and blogged some […]
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