I’ve been struggling with Cynefin for many years. First, let me share some (perhaps partially) knowns—
I know Dave Snowden is smarter than me;
I know that his Cynefin model is the result of many years of thoughtful research and experience;
I know there is a strong connection between Cynefin and agile approaches and an agile mindset;
I know I like Dave’s stance when it comes to SAFe and other agile disruptors;
I’m slowly working my way through the recently published Cynefin book.
But…
All of that being said, I didn’t “get it” until recently. It all started and came together for me with this video by Sharon Robson.
It’s short, ~5-minutes. And in the 5-minutes Sharon does a wonderful job of explaining how agile leaders can use Cynefin as a sensing, thinking, and reacting model/tool for their tactical and strategic interactions with their teams and their businesses.
It helped me to “get it”. Not just understand the model, but understand how it can be applied in our agile leadership journey. It’s caused me to become much more patient in my leadership, sensing first, and then deciding on what path to take given the situation, context, and nature of things. It’s also amplified how interesting and valuable being able to help my teams navigate complexity and chaos can be.
I thought I’d share it with you. Now, back to reading (and digesting) the book…
Stay agile my friends,
Bob.