A632.8.3.RB - Reflections on the Cynefin Framework
Create a reflection blog based on critically thinking about
how the Cynefin Framework can benefit your decision-making. Consider the chart
on page 7 of the HBR article A Leader's Framework for Decision Making and
discuss decision-making in multiple contexts; include two specific examples of
decisions in multiple contexts that you have made. Detail the considerations
from the various contexts that influenced your decision. Critically assess the Cynefin Framework and
describe 5 ways it can provide an improved context for decision making.
Last year, I had the responsibility of scheduling the build
for the horizontal stabilizer (hstab) of the new 787-10. We had many meetings
where we discussed the applications of the test flight equipment and how they
would be installing in the aft section of the new jet. We had to make decisions
in multiple contexts because we had to build the hstab as well as include the
test flight team so coordinating those two aspects was important. Each team
came with its own set of priorities and complexities. The sequencing of each
operation in the build had to be strategic to both teams. I know nothing about
building an airplane, I’ve never physically built an airplane outside of the
snap together 1:200 models I have all over my cubicle (and my co-worker’s
cubicles). I had to rely on the mechanics and the test flight mechanics to tell
me what they needed and how their work could be laid out intelligently. Not
only did we have to get this done fairly quickly, but I needed to be able to
explain the schedule to leadership so I needed to understand the build. I
brought together the team leaders and the lead mechanics to open up the
discussion. One of the things I encouraged was some dissent. I think that a
good discussion has an open forum for questions and some dissent – otherwise it’s
just a lecture. I still couldn’t build an airplane but I could speak
intelligently to some of the issues we encountered and why we made the decisions
we did to resolve the issues. Dissent and formal debate are valuable
communication assets in complex contexts because they encourage the emergence
of well-forged patterns and ideas. A “ritual dissent” approach, for instance,
puts parallel teams to work on the same problem in a large group meeting
environment.
(Boone & Snowden, 2015)
The Cynefin Framework can provide an improved context for decision
making five ways: Simple and complicated contexts assume an ordered universe,
where cause-and-effect relationships are perceptible, and right answers can be
determined based on the facts. (Boone & Snowden, 2015) In an average week,
we can assume that we will have to eat, we will have to sleep, and we will
probably have to put gas in our cars. When our stomachs growl and we start
feeling “hangry” we know that we should stop and eat something, when we get
grumpy and foggy we know that we should take a nap or go to bed (Even if the Grey’s
Anatomy episode ended on a cliff-hanger.). When the little low-fuel indicator light
goes off in the car we know that we should fill the tank soon. We can make good
decisions based on facts and the cause-and-effect relationship is easily
readable.
Complex and chaotic contexts are unordered—there is no
immediately apparent relationship between cause and effect, and the way forward
is determined based on emerging patterns. The ordered world is the world of
fact-based management; the unordered world represents pattern-based management.
(Boone & Snowden, 2015) I recently started having weird pains in my arms.
It didn’t seem work related and it didn’t seem related to anything physical I
was doing either. It was a deep ache in my forearms and it would come and go
without any understandable pattern. I finally went to the doctor because it was
starting to worry me. It became all encompassing. My doctor asked me questions
about my personal life and about work and I couldn’t understand how those
things would have anything to do with my arms hurting. She finally told me that
I was experiencing the effects of stress. She said that I mentioned heart
flutters and migraines which combined with what I had told her about work and
school and my arms hurting all pointed to stress. I had an EKG run on my heart
and it was fine, blood tests came out fine too. It was just me not handling the
stresses going on around me well. In the weeks following this determination, I’ve
been able to make better decisions about taking breaks and eating better. I
stop to take deep breaths when I feel myself getting stressed out and try to
handle one thing at a time (I’m not a great multitask-er – that’s an important
thing to know about yourself!). I able to see the patterns of my pain and what
I’m doing and am able to offset it with relaxation techniques and medication.
The very nature of the fifth context—disorder—makes it
particularly difficult to recognize when one is in it. Here, multiple
perspectives jostle for prominence, factional leaders argue with one another,
and cacophony rules. The way out of this realm is to break down the situation
into constituent parts and assign each to one of the other four realms. (Boone
& Snowden, 2015) I feel like I exist in the fifth context all the time. But
understanding the disorder and how it impacts us and our decision making helps
us work through it better. The best example I can think of right this moment is
how I feel when I have hundreds of reschedules (time consuming but easy data
entry work) and six people are instant messaging me about this part being
damaged, and where is their report, and do I know when I’ll get to the grief
records, and could I come to a meeting about the root cause analysis of
something or another and my email won’t stop pinging and I just sit there
watching all of this happen while wishing I could just shut down my computer
and go hide in a dark conference room for the rest of the day. It’s chaotic and
stressful and I hate it. So, I usually start with the immediate concerns. I
respond to emails that aren’t emergent and flag them for later, answer the
instant messages the best I can, and start working one chunk of reschedules at
a time. I slowly maneuver through the tasks the best I can. (I usually get up
and “do a lap” around the cubicles to gather my thoughts. I know now that doing
that is assigning the individual parts of my chaos into each of the four
quadrants of the Cynefin Framework and working them in order of importance and
complexity.
References:
Boone, D., & J. Snowden, M. (2015, December 07). A Leaders
Framework for Decision Making. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2007/11/a-leaders-framework-for-decision-making
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