The Cynefin
Framework gives us the ability to react to different problems in different
ways. By understanding the framework we
can quickly react to these situations and act accordingly. If you don't understand the differences
between the quadrants in the Cynefin Framework you may find yourself constantly
living in only one quadrant. Doing this
can force us into the Chaotic quadrant if we're not careful. Here we act first before we sense. This is meant to handle the initial problem
at hand. Much like covering an immediate
wound. This does not work for every
situation and should only be saved for truly chaotic instances where immediate
action is necessary.
On occasion we can
make decisions in multiple contexts.
This is especially the case when one situation changes and becomes
another. Sometimes a complicated
situation can become a complex or chaotic situation and we need to adjust as
needed.
When I was at my
first duty station we were tasked with improving the deployment process. The scenario would be that we needed to be
ready to deploy a minimum of three hundred people within a seventy-two hour
window. This meant that the units needed
to have all their training done and have their people ready in that time. As the Installation Deployment Officer I was
the person heading up the plan for the Wing.
When we received a new Wing Commander he expected us to be able to start
deploying the first group of people in only sixteen hours and the rest to
follow. He wanted the final F-16 off the
ground by the seventy-two hour mark.
This was a complete change in how we did things and would force every
unit on the base to change their method of preparing for deployment. In this case we went from a complicated task
to a complex task. As the beginning we
had used a best practice that had been employed for a while and worked very
well for the requirements we had been given.
However, when the shift in timeline took place we needed to quickly
gather the experts each unit on the base and put together a plan to be able to
accomplish what had been asked of us. In
the article from the Harvard Business Review it states, "Most situations
and decisions in organizations are complex because some major change—a bad
quarter, a shift in management, a merger or acquisition—introduces
unpredictability and flux" (A Leader's Framework for Decision Making,
2007). In this case the major change was
the Wing Commander taking on a new focus on the deployment process.
Once we came
together as a working group we developed several plans that would help to speed
up the process. We also had to trim down
excess things we had been doing in order to speed up the people processing
lines and the cargo processing timelines.
By doing this we would be accepting a greater amount of risk, but we
would also be able to make the seventy-two hour window required by the Wing
Commander. The article also states that,
"Another potential obstacle is “analysis paralysis,” where a group of
experts hits a stalemate, unable to agree on any answers because of each
individual’s entrained thinking—or ego" (A Leader's Framework for Decision
Making, 2007). During the first part of
the working group we experienced this a great deal regarding the personnel
deployment processing line. We need to
be able to process everyone according to what the regulations required but we
needed to do it faster than we were able.
Part way through the week a person that had been on vacation
returned. When she arrived she joined
the group with insights and expertise we had not previously thought of and we
were able to cut down the time it took to process everyone significantly.
This same type of
issue can arise from simple domains that turn quickly into chaotic
domains. One such case happened to me
while I was deployed. I was asked to
take over a weekly meeting regarding the future sustainment of the United
Stated military in Iraq. This was a
weekly meeting that would be led by a two star general where he would be
connecting with nine different bases around the middle east and would also have
a room full of people. In this meeting
there was usually no less than seven generals officers. I was unfamiliar with most of the
communication devices we used and pretty much how everything worked and was
extremely nervous about making sure everything went perfectly. Luckily I had a friend that was very
experienced and would be around for several weeks to help me get up to speed as
much as he could before he returned home.
In my mind this was a simple task that required a right way of doing
things. Regarding this the article states,
"Simple contexts, properly assessed, require straightforward management
and monitoring. Here, leaders sense,
categorize, and respond.
That is, they assess the facts of the situation, categorize them, and then base
their response on established practice" (A Leader's Framework for Decision
Making, 2007). When I was being trained
I understood there was a right way of handling the meeting. As long as I followed the steps everything
should work out well. Over the course of
several weeks, with help from my friend, the meeting went well and all the
communication devices hooked up with no problems.
The first week that
I was expected to run the meeting by myself we happened to lose all
communications about five minutes before the meeting was to start. In the military world no one wants to hear
that something can't be done. They only
want to heart what your second and third courses of action are. In this case I didn't have any. I immediately went into chaos mode. My only goal was to act and establish order
in some way. I needed to figure out a
way to connect everyone so that the meeting was able to continue although we
didn't have any way to communicate via the internet. I quickly found the commanders communications
team and tasked them with finding the phone numbers of all the people that
would have been connected through video teleconference and to find out if there
was a place that each person could go where they could connect with classified
telephone lines. I then asked the team
to connect all the members in the outlying stations as quickly as
possible. Normally we would also show
the PowerPoint slides on the television screens but part of the problem with
the network going down was that the connected network went down also. Due to this we weren't able to broadcast the
slides. Luckily I still had a copy on my
hard drive and tasked four people to print five copies each. This would cover everyone in the room so they
would each have a copy. All in all, this
took us fifteen minutes to accomplish and only put us ten minutes behind
schedule rather than having to cancel the meeting all together. Thankfully, because of this I established new
courses of action based on this situation that would us to mitigate these
problems in the future if something similar were to happen again.
As leaders we often
have certain personality traits or training that cause us to want to stay
within certain domains. We may be
straightforward thinkers that always want to live in the simple domain. We may thrive in chaos and like to simply act
before we sense or respond. We may want
to gather experts and let them do all the work for us. The Cynefin Framework provides us with tools
that enable us to be able to work in different domains depending on the problem
at hand. It enables us to decide which
framework we need to work from. By
understanding which framework to work from it can help us to quickly form the
teams needed to solve the problem at hand.
Doing this saves time, money and stress.
It can also help us get to the right solution or solutions faster and
more efficiently.
Our understanding of
these frameworks can also breed creativity.
By using games and scenarios to address different problems and
situations we can practice what it may be like to actually experience these
situations and therefore learn to work within these different frameworks and
understand which ones are best to use in different situations. Finally, the article states this regarding
the world we live in, "A deep understanding of context, the ability to
embrace complexity and paradox, and a willingness to flexibly change leadership
style will be required for leaders who want to make things happen in a time of
increasing uncertainty" (A Leader's Framework for Decision Making,
2007). In a fast paced and constantly
changing world we need to be proficient in different leadership styles and ways
of addressing different problems that arise.
By understanding and using the Cynefin Framework and knowing what
context to work from we can be better leaders that can truly affect
change.
References
A
Leader's Framework for Decision Making. (2007). Harvard
Business Review, Snowden, David J.; Boone, Mary E.
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