Category Archives: cynefin

How Agile Manages Out Innovation

Posted on December 11, 2020 by Liz

The Oatmeal has a fantastic comic on the Backfire Effect that was so popular, they rewrote it with, um, cleaner language. It starts simply. “You’re not going to believe what I’m about to tell you.” And it goes on to … Continue reading →

Posted in complexity, cynefin | 9 Comments

Constraints and Cynefin

Posted on December 9, 2019 by Liz

A short reminder of Cynefin and the difference between domains: Obvious situations can be categorized and have fixed constraints. Complicated situations can be analyzed and have governing constraints. Complex situations can be probed (trying something out that’s safe-to-fail) and have enabling constraints. Chaotic situations require you … Continue reading →

Posted in cynefin | 2 Comments

A Probe by Any Other Name

Posted on November 20, 2019 by Liz

In complexity (new stuff is complex) we prefer to probe; which means to try something out that’s safe-to-fail. Knowing things are failing or succeeding relies on feedback loops; but who do we get feedback from? And what do we do … Continue reading →

Posted in cynefin, feedback, real options, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Probably not

Posted on July 28, 2018 by Liz

When working in complexity, where the right thing to do emerges and we learn by actually trying things rather than by analysis, there’s a very human instinct that happens when we think of probes to try out. I see it … Continue reading →

Posted in cynefin, real options | 2 Comments

On Real Options and Speculative Investments

Posted on September 8, 2017 by Liz

If you’ve read the awesome graphic novel, “Commitment”, you’ll know the rules of Real Options already: Options have value Options expire Never commit early unless you know why. There’s an additional rule which is sometimes added to this: Options have … Continue reading →

Posted in cynefin, real options | 1 Comment

A Helping Hand

Posted on July 18, 2017 by Liz

This week, Sallyann Freudenberg and Katherine Kirk have been running a small summit on inclusive collaboration and neurodiversity – not just focused on diversity in our experiences, but in the very make-up of our brain. Sallyann suggested there was a … Continue reading →

Posted in cynefin, learning, life | 1 Comment

When Ignorance is Bliss

Posted on June 23, 2017 by Liz

I’ve written before about epiphany; that sudden sense of enlightenment that you get when you realise that you’ve discovered a new pattern in the world. It’s ironic that my favourite moment of epiphany was when I finally understood its opposite … Continue reading →

Posted in cynefin | 3 Comments

Yes, and…

Posted on March 5, 2017 by Liz

Imagine two actors standing on stage. “I like your penguin,” the first says. The other turns round, looking at the empty space where one might imagine a penguin could be following. There are two things that can happen. Perhaps the … Continue reading →

Posted in complexity, cynefin, deliberate discovery, real options | 9 Comments

Correlated in Retrospect

Posted on May 9, 2016 by Liz

A few  years back, I went to visit a company that had managed to achieve a high level of agility without high levels of coaching or training, shipping several times a day. I was curious as to how they had … Continue reading →

Posted in complexity, cynefin | 4 Comments

On Epiphany and Apophany

Posted on September 9, 2015 by Liz

We probe, then sense, then respond. If you’re familiar with Cynefin, you know that we categorize the obvious, analyze the complicated, probe the complex and act in chaos. You might also know that those approaches to the different domains come … Continue reading →

Posted in cynefin, real options, uncertainty | 9 Comments