The Cynefin
Framework is a method of thinking and categorizing problems that allows us to
work in certain realms of thought. By
living in these realms we can react to problems in ways that allow us to
understand them and work towards solutions.
The Cynefin Framework has four domains talked about in the video. These are Simple, Complicated, Complex, and
Chaotic. Each of these domains have
three ways in which we respond to situations or problems that arise.
In the Simple domain
you sense, categorize and respond. In
this case we start off by seeing what is happening. If a problem arises we see what it is and
categorize it based on previous experiences and then decide what to do based on
those previous experiences. We try to
keep it simple in order to react quickly and effectively. This is best used by simple problems and have
a best practice that is easy to decide on.
An example of this framework comes directly from my toddler. Several weeks ago I realized that my 3 year
old hadn't seen many of the old Disney movies.
I decided we should sit down and watch Aladdin since it is a
classic. Three quarters of the way
through the movie he began to cry and became terrified when seeing Jafar turn
into a large scary snake, then scary wizard, followed by a terrifying
genie. I tried to calm him down and let
him know that it would all be ok in the end.
By the end of the movie he wasn't able to sleep because he was so scared
of Jafar. Based on my experiences I
hadn't thought of Aladdin being a scary movie.
Several weeks later he saw that the The Lion King was on tv and really
wanted to watch it. Remembering back to
our experiences and what had happened when watching Aladdin we decided it would
be better if he were to watch something else.
As an adult I would never think of The Lion King not being a kid
friendly movie, however, in this case my son is fairly sensitive to evil
characters and there are few more evil than Scar and the hyenas. In order to avoid a freak out moment with him
we took him outside to play in order to distract him from the movie he thought
he wanted to watch and then brought him in later to watch The Angry Birds
movie.
The next domain is
the Complicated domain. In this case
when you see a problem coming you sense, analyze and then respond. There are not always best practices, but
several good practices. By applying
expertise to this domain you can find several good solutions and pick the one
you may think is best. I often run into
this problem at work. Because of our
weekly inspections we often have discrepancies that we need to work through in
order to make ourselves better. There
are times however that we don't always have a great way to avoid making the
same mistake again in the future. One
such mistake happened just a week ago.
We had a young airmen drop a large piece of cargo off a forklift. In this situation our leadership wanted to
know what we were going to do in order to keep this from happening again. The answer truly was complicated. To start with, we were not able to promise
that it would not happen again. Due to
human error mistakes will always happen.
Several of the simple solutions we started with we to apply straps to
every piece of cargo that we move. While
this may help to keep items from falling in the future it creates other
risks. If the straps come lose and fall
they could get caught in the wheel and damage the cargo and the forklift. Doing this would also add a significant
amount of time to the cargo moving process.
In the end we chose to increase training and teach the team to watch out
for each other. We would also assign
supervisors to work more closely with the newer airmen and to train them on
irregular cargo that has a higher likelihood of falling. While this will not ensure that cargo will
not fall in the future it applies the team concept and help the more
experienced people to watch out for the newer and less experienced airmen. From several options, this is a good
option.
The next domain is
the Complex domain. In this domain you
probe, sense and then respond. When you
have a complicated problem you need to pull together your experts and begin to
experiment with ways in which you can solve a problem. Through trial and error you will begin find a
good solution that works for everyone.
One way in which we have experienced this at work is our entire
inspection program. We have seen it
change shape several times over a period of months. Over time it has become a program in which we
have inspections every week. If we have
any discrepancies we gather the team and discuss solutions that can be
applied. We take those solution to the
commander every other week for approval.
If he approves we continue with the applied solution and if he
disapproves we discuss other ways of fixing the recorded discrepancy until he
is satisfied with the solution. Through
discussions and suggestions that meeting has changed significantly into what it
is today. As the program continues to
adjust from a higher headquarters level we will continue to adjust our meeting
along with it.
The final domain is
the Chaotic domain. In a chaotic domain
you Act, sense and respond. I saw this
happen on occasion during my deployment.
There came a point when the Iraqi military was looking to invade the
city of Mosul before they were ready.
They had just had several successful campaigns where they were able to
take back several other Iraqi cities from the Islamic State terrorist
group. They wanted to move quickly to
take back Mosul before ISIS had a chance to regroup. At this point our commander believed they were
going to move in too early and lose the final battle. He wanted a number of experts to get from
Kuwait to Baghdad in a two day period to be part of the planning process and
convince them to slow down their invasion in order to plan better. We were able to convince them to slow down
and take more time to plan the invasion.
In this situation our commander reacted to a chaotic situation that was
possibly going to get a lot of people killed and may cause the Iraqi military
to be set back a great deal in their fight against the terrorists. By sending our experts to Baghdad in order to
be part of the planning process we were able to lend our expertise and put out
some of the chaos that was beginning to ensue.
One of the most
difficult things we do is understanding how to live in different domains. We all have preferences that can lead us to
want to work in certain ways. If we live
in the simple domain and a problem arises that is complicated it can put us
into the chaotic domain if we don't know how to respond to it. By understanding the different domains of the
Cynefin process we can analyze each situation as it arises and respond
appropriately.
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