The Cynefin Framework is a tool that any leader or decision
maker can add to their arsenal simply because it provides a guideline to what
(if they did not know already) an understanding of how to approach certain
situations and brings awareness on whether to seek assistance or not. Decision-making
in multiple contexts provides the leader a breakdown of what is expected and
the danger signals that come with each context within the Cynefin Frame work.
An example would be with the Simple context, the word “Routine” would present
itself in this case.
When I was a Platoon Leader in Afghanistan I was used to
everything being doctrine and understood the policies in place for all of us to
follow. I would sense, analyze, and respond (Snowden, 2007) and ensure all
routine decisions were made in a timely manner. We had to create manifests
daily and prepare one week out to ensure we have accurate passenger numbers,
names, etc. So in this particular situation, we received our weekly report on
where we were supposed to go, who we were going to take, and the time we will
spend at a destination. Because everything had a “known knowns” feel,
everything was routine.
There was one particular mission day where last minute
requests for additional passengers were added without my knowledge. So the
vehicles prepared simply were not enough, and the manpower scheduled for the
escort of these individuals were less that what it should’ve been. The remedy
to this was to simply notify the additional passengers they will not be going
on the mission and would have to wait the next day at the latest. (Desire to
make complex or complicated issues simple) However, there was a General Officer
within the last minute request and this presented a complex situation for
myself and my team. How do we accommodate the General and his staff? Snowden
& Boone (2007) discuss that through the Simple Framework a leader will hit
the autopilot button and because the “Known Knowns” are present there is no
need to put any logic to a decision, because of that, the multiple context may
become present. Meaning that a complex or
complicated framework will be present and a simple frame work type decision will be made, which will lead to
even more issues. So a Complex frame came to life and what I simply had done
was explain there will be a delay until we figure out a solution. I gave the
passengers (to include the General) a suspense of ten minutes to figure it out.
I notified my commander and through deliberate discussion, we were able to spin
up another team that was coming in from a previous mission to assist.
Another example would be when my staff and I recently
purchased a new Cell Brite operating system, which is a device that can extract
cell phone data. However, it had developed an issue, and no one can figure out
what's causing it. I had a number of issues, I had to help my staff figure out
this issue because its an expensive piece of equipment, our customers who rely
on us to assist in their cases with high priority are now going to have be
delayed on taking any action, and I had to provide awareness to my boss. I see this as a "complicated," I
had to use what Snowden & Boone (2007) discussed as using the Sense,
Analyze, and Respond approach. Within the analyzing process, a specific case
that labeled high precedence ended up going to court the next day. A sense of
panic arose (Chaotic) because our device would assist in presenting a
reasonable case in the evidence it could provide. This was bad for our image as
a program, my staff was in a panic. What I essentially did was provide them an
outdated device (which simply did the same thing, just outdated) and let the
issue unfold itself. There was really nothing I could do but wait until we got
our device fixed. The agency got what they needed from the cell phone and I was
able to have our device serviced that same day. Which provided me some
intellect into preparing for situations like this and being more prepared. To
our defense it was a new system device and measures could have been in place,
but we had to do with what we currently had.
Five ways that the Cynefin frame work can improve the
context of my decision making is that it will provide balance, understanding, analyze,
patience, and finally vision. It will provide me balance because it makes me
understand that rushing to a decision (action) and waiting for a decision to
present itself is what is needed to apply any domain within the framework.
Understanding, it will allow me to understand what to classify my situations
in. Understanding the situation and being able to plug it into the frame work
it applies too. Analyze, which is needed for a couple of the framework domain
such as complex and chaotic. Looking at old models of decision making,
analyzing does not seem to play a factor into decisions. There seems to be no
analytical decisions made in some of the old models and it was never to
complexity that some issues may present itself.
Patience, it provides patience in the areas of complex and chaotic for
example. We have to understand that sometimes we have to let things emerge
before we come up with a decision. Then there is vision, the framework will
allow for a vision to be in place because of the knowledge that if certain
issues present itself I will be able to understand each issue and ensure that
my vision requirements are met.
Reference:
Snowden, D. J., & Boone, M. E. (2007). A Leader's Framework for Decision
Making. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from
https://hbr.org/2007/11/a-leaders-framework-for-decision-making
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