What is the Cynefin framework?

Achieving desired results in challenging situations can be difficult for many leaders, especially when facing a scenario involving immediate decisions and responses. While most managers rely on typical leadership approaches, these methods often fall short under changing circumstances. Organizational theory suggests a certain level of order and predictability in the world. This assumption, grounded in Newtonian science, encourages useful simplifications in ordered circumstances. However, because circumstances can change, problems can become more complex, leading to failed simplifications. Therefore, excellent leadership isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution.

The Cynefin (pronounced ku-nev-in) decision-making framework is a business strategy that helps leaders see things from new viewpoints, fully understand complex concepts, and address problems and opportunities from different perspectives. This problem-solving tool enables you to assign situations to one of five domains based on cause-and-effect relationships. Doing so allows you to assess problems more accurately and respond appropriately. Cause and effect is the relationship when one thing makes something else happen. For example, when customers have long wait times (cause), they may become dissatisfied (effect).

Please note that none of the companies, institutions, or organizations mentioned in this article are affiliated with Indeed.

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Cynefin framework history

Cynefin is a Welsh word meaning habitat, or the place where we belong, where people and landscapes are familiar, and the sights and sounds are reassuringly recognizable. In business terms, Cynefin refers to the many environmental factors and experiences that can influence our decisions and thoughts in ways we may never understand. This approach empowers leaders to define the framework using examples from their organization’s history and possible future scenarios. The Cynefin method enhances communication and can help management better understand the rapidly changing context in which they operate.

Scholar David J. Snowden developed the Cynefin framework in 1999 based on several concepts from knowledge management to organizational strategy. Snowden and his colleague Mary Boone published the framework in November 2007 in an issue of the Harvard Business Review. The Cynefin framework has seen hundreds of applications over time, such as:

• The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency regarding counterterrorism
• Singapore’s Risk Assessment and Horizon Scanning Program
• Helping pharmaceutical companies develop new product strategies
• Assisting the Canadian government with its efforts to engage employees in policy-making decisions

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How the Cynefin framework works

The Cynefin framework sorts issues into five domains defined by cause-and-effect relationships. The domains include obvious, complicated, complex, chaotic, and disorder. The first four require leaders to determine situations and act in contextually appropriate ways. However, the last context, disorder, applies when managers need clarification about which of the other four contexts is prevalent. The Cynefin framework can help leaders understand the context they’re dealing with to make better decisions and avoid problems that may arise when their preferred management skills and methods cause them to make mistakes.

Leaders who understand the irrationality and unpredictability of the world will often find the Cynefin framework beneficial as you can use it in various situations to categorize a decision or problem and respond accordingly. For example, this method can improve product development, enhance organizational and marketing strategies, and optimize decisions in crises or emergencies. By avoiding the same decision-making process or management style for all situations, you can eliminate costly business mistakes while encouraging your team to be flexible and adaptable when solving problems.

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The five Cynefin domains

Each of the five Cynefin domains has a designated decision-making approach to help you make better sense of situations and choose the best way to move forward. Here’s a closer look at the five domains:

Obvious: The domain of best practices

The cause-and-effect relationship is evident to all parties involved in this domain, meaning the options are clear. For example, a customer service representative who resorts to clear, well-defined processes to handle customer complaints. Many companies have best practices for managing such scenarios, hence the referral to the domain of best practices. In this category, there’s typically unanimous agreement regarding the best action with an appropriate response process. If an issue does occur while handling the situation, it rarely requires escalation since the customer service rep can adequately deal with whatever arises.

The risk of this domain is that habitual processes can lead to entrained thinking (when your mind blocks you from new ways of thinking), and better alternatives may go unnoticed. Problems may also occur when your team misrepresents issues as “obvious”. For example, when management continually asks for condensed information, leadership complacency can create weak spots serious enough to tip the organization into chaos when left unchecked. When management isn’t receptive to new ideas because of past success and experiences, they may assume that their previous solutions will continue working, which can lead to significant mistakes. You can overcome this challenge by staying open to innovative ideas and being willing to pursue alternative suggestions.

Complicated: The domain of experts

The cause-and-effect relationship typically requires investigative analysis and expert knowledge in the complicated domain. Snowden’s theory behind this domain is to sense, analyze, and respond so you can apply good practice. The complicated domain may encounter concerns with several solutions. This can be challenging because you may see a clear relationship between cause and effect, but the answer isn’t visible to everyone. Because you may have multiple factors involved, you generally require expert advice to provide valuable insights and solve your problems.

Challenges you may face in the domain of experts include entrained thinking and analysis paralysis (the inability to make decisions due to overthinking about the problem). The solution is to balance expert opinions to avoid gridlock and take action.

Complex: The domain of emergence

The complex domain is when leaders understand the cause-and-effect relationship, but only in retrospect rather than in advance. In this domain, it can be very challenging to determine one solution. Many organizations face problems that fall under this domain. In these situations, rather than rushing a plan of action, it can be beneficial to look for patterns and wait for an answer to emerge. Rather than issuing immediate solutions, leaders can gather a diverse team and encourage them to discuss innovative solutions. The domain of emergenceinvolves probing, sensing, and responding. Strong communication, experimentation, and pattern recognition skills can help brainstorm creative answers without a clear relationship between cause and effect or pre-packaged solutions.

Chaotic: The domain of rapid response

There’s no relationship between cause and effect at a systems level in this domain, so the idea here is to act, sense, and respond. Emergencies and crises typically fall under this domain, so acting first can help establish order. Also termed the domain of rapid response, the chaotic domain requires decisiveness and quick action. In chaotic circumstances, events are highly disruptive and can happen suddenly; therefore, immediate action can help stabilize the situation.

Examples include an unexpected loss of funding or something more extreme like natural disasters. Although these circumstances are rare, top-down management at the first sign of trouble is generally the best action for dealing with these scenarios. Once the crisis passes, an ongoing authoritarian approach may not be the best idea, as managers may become overly confident in their decision making. The chaotic domain is your opportunity to manage chaos and innovative ideas in parallel. As soon as a crisis happens, consider appointing a crisis management team to resolve the issue, as you designate a separate group that focuses on creating innovative solutions.

Disorder

The fifth domain, disorder, involves not understanding the type of dilemma one is in. In this state, leaders typically revert to their regular decision-making ways — their comfort zone. Because they aren’t clear on which of the four domains the problem falls under, you can encourage them to gather more information to move into a known domain and take appropriate action comfortably.

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Leadership across contexts

Successful leadership requires a willingness to change on an individual level. Strong leaders typically have an easier time with the Cynefin framework best practices as they can generally identify the domain they’re working in and adapt their behaviours to match the context of the situation. They can also help colleagues and employees understand the five domains and the conditions for transitioning between them, enabling them to lead organizations to successful outcomes.