How the Cynefin Framework benefits my decision-making
As I continue to learn about the Cynefin Framework, I see its
application across many decisions I’ve made. As Snowden (2010) describes it, we
should manage our business lives within the complex and complicated domains,
rather than the simple and chaotic. This is due to the boundary between the simple
and chaotic domains, which is easy to fall into because of previous success and
complacency. Understanding this, as well as the fact that the simple domain is relatively
predictable and chaotic domains require people to think differently allows me
to feel and react to possibly slipping into the wrong domain.
Two examples
The two examples that I can use to depict decisions I’ve made that are
in the complex and complicated domains are:
1) Complex – I worked as a Robotics Maintenance
Manager at a brand-new Amazon Fulfillment Center (FC) and had to train 30 technicians
on numerous areas of the operation. There were many issues to overcome when
opening a new FC and it was extremely difficult to pull together 30 people that
had also never worked in an FC like this. At this point in my career, I had
managed large groups of people and was successful in doing so. However, because
we were all learning the processes set forth by Amazon for their robotic
operation, it was hard to understand or predict what would happen next. In the
world of Amazon, things happen at breakneck speeds and there isn’t a lot of forgiveness
when things go wrong. That is why, instead of attempting to impose a course of
action, leaders must patiently allow the path forward to reveal itself (Snowden
& Boone, 2007). I prefer to be able to have a certain amount of control with
my teams and over the situation. In this case, we were all at the mercy of Amazon.
Rather than train my team on the entire playbook for robotic operations, I
focused on those items that were constantly being discussed and reviewed by the
Amazon leadership. Of the 25 training tasks we needed to complete, I
prioritized them in order of importance to Amazon, instead of just starting a
number one and working through it sequentially. This resulted in my team’s
effectiveness being maximized and my employees gaining some much-needed
confidence that we were finally on the right track. I didn’t really choose this
path, but the path showed itself to me through consistent communication and
active listening to the Amazon brass.
2) Complicated – Working as a Maintenance Manager at
a distribution facility for a grocery chain, I had to juggle the unpredictability
of a conveyor system that hadn’t been upgraded in 20 years. The PLCs were out
of date and the maintenance team didn’t understand how to evaluate their work.
When I first arrived, I was underwater with the number of breakdowns and
outages the system was experiencing. I had also never worked with conveyor
systems before and didn’t really understand the first thing about how to
address the situation. Working in unfamiliar environments can help leaders and
experts approaches decision making more creatively (Snowden & Boone, 2007).
Luckily for me, I engaged the experts – our contractors – to assist with
diagnosing the issues with the system. I also realized that I needed a better
understanding of how to measure the system. Not having the expertise certainly
put me at a disadvantage, but I overcame this by working hard and studying the practices
invented by Toyota almost 70 years ago called Total Productive Maintenance (TPM).
Within this TPM, I found several measuring points, such as overall equipment
effectiveness (OEE) and eventually taught my teams how to use it, along with 5 Why
and other Lean methodologies. Even though this was a highly complicated issue
that I had no real experience with, I was successful because I used good
practice techniques, asked for help from the experts and educated myself on
TPM.
Assessing the
Cynefin Framework
I believe the Cynefin Framework is quite helpful for people to understand
how the many aspects of life can influence and affect our decision-making. The
framework sorts the issues facing leaders into five contexts defined by the
nature of the relationship between cause and effect (Snowden & Boone, 2007).
In many ways, the Cynefin Framework reminds us that both humans and the
situations we face can be predictable and unpredictable. It allows us to use
our experiences in different ways to supply us with the knowledge to be
successful in our outcomes depending on the circumstances. Life is a complicated
process that involves a lot of learning and having a system in place to better
understand how we can navigate through it is a way to be ahead of the curve.
I can give you five ways the Cynefin Framework can help provide an improved
context for decision-making.
1)
It can give us clarity. Even with just a basic
understanding of the framework, people can use it to learn how to operate in
the proper domain and see things through those specific domains.
2)
It can help make decisions faster. When we
understand the situation, we’re in, we can more quickly use the framework to
identify the domain and then react to situations accordingly.
3)
It acts as a reminder. The Cynefin Framework
consists of many important leadership theories. Depending on the situation, it
reminds us not to micromanage, not to be complacent, to be patient and to be
creative.
4)
It can encourage us. Whether it adds risk,
creativity or understanding, the Cynefin Framework give us the encouragement to
use different approaches and adds tools to our toolbox. It provides us with the
knowledge to be prepared for opportunities that we may completely miss if we
didn’t understand each domain.
5)
It can make us more effective leaders. If we truly
use the framework as a guide through our experiences, we can improve our
communication with others, exercise better judgement and gain the acceptance of
others through positive outcomes. Good leadership requires openness to change
on an individual level (Snowden & Boone, 2007).
Three ways
the quadrants can facilitate decision-making
Each of the quadrants from the Cynefin Framework that were discussed in the
video Snowden (2011) presented has its own way of facilitating decision-making.
Using my own experiences, here are three examples from each quadrant that can
facilitate decision-making.
Simple
1)
My simple children – With two young children in
my household, their behavior is still very predictable. In the mornings, they
wake up and immediately want breakfast, which I make for them. As they age, my
decision to make them breakfast or teach them how to make breakfast becomes an easier
decision. I’ve now decided that they must make their own breakfasts so that I
can focus on my routine more now.
2)
My simple wife – My wife likes to take the mornings
very easy and slow, whereas I’m up and ready to take on the world. I’ve learned
to temper my behavior and emotions in the morning based on the almost negative
feedback from her that I’m just ‘too much’ in the mornings. The decision to
change my behavior to allow my wife to slowly wake up has resulted in less
fighting throughout the day.
3)
My simple job – I’ve seen how my team reacts to
pressure at work. I like to challenge my team more by giving them more work.
However, I’ve sensed pushback from one coworker when he gets too much work on his
plate. In this simple example, the cause of me giving him too much work results
in the effect of pushback from him. I’ve learned to predict how much work is
too much work and change my assignments based on that learning.
Complicated
1)
My complicated children – Although my kids are
young, my daughter is growing faster and faster before my eyes. She has started
asking questions about her body, which I generally let her mother answer.
However, there are times in which I answer some of these questions, because I
feel confident in answering based on my expertise and the situation. I wouldn’t
want to give her bad feedback, because it could have negative consequences. I’ve
learned to answer what I know, delegate what I should and always be honest.
2)
My complicated wife – As I’ve come to know my
wife over the years, she can always surprise me with things I wasn’t prepared
for. I’ve had to learn when to approach her with questions or feelings and it
isn’t always straightforward with her. I’ve tried to understand how to read her
body language and facial expressions, but that isn’t always the answer. Women
are complicated beings and my wife certainly fits that mold.
3)
My complicated job – I was recently given a new
role and with it came new responsibilities. I only have a basic understanding
of the real estate world, but now I’m in charge of it. I’ve had to lean on our
resident experts at my job, so that I don’t make mistakes. However, there are
times when I need to decide if I’m going to take a swing at answering the question
or engage my experts. This isn’t always an easy decision, as there are many
levels of knowledge in real estate.
Complex
1)
My complex children – As much as my children are
predictable, they have been surprising me more as they get older and have
become more unpredictable. The behaviors they used to exhibit are now scattered
throughout their ever-growing behaviors.
2)
My complex wife – If you believe in astrological
signs, then you’d know my wife is fire and I’m water. We don’t always see
eye-to-eye and it shows with our arguments. Over our almost 11 years together,
we learn new things about each other constantly. There are many predictable
things in our relationship but knowing there is more to learn provides me with
an understanding that I won’t always get it right. I must remember to reflect
on an argument after the fact, so I don’t make the same mistake again.
3)
My complex job – As I previously mentioned, I recently
took on a new role in Real Estate and I’ve been drinking from a fire hose since
April 1. I’ve quickly learned that I must do a better job with reflecting not
only with my wife, but at work, as well. When I power through a new issue and make
a mistake, the same situation applies where I must put in place parameters to
prevent issues from occurring again. I’ve learned to roll with the
unpredictability in my work, learn from those mistakes and be complete in my prevention
of the same thing happening again.
Chaotic
1)
My chaotic children – There is no better example
of chaotic domain than with my kids. Developing minds need a lot of support and
as much as we know about this, there remains much still to learn. I’m no child
psychologist, but I can emphatically say that my kids both have needs outside
my abilities. Parenting is the most difficult job on the planet. I’m aware that
I can’t apply the same measures from one of my kids to the other, as they both
have separate needs. All I can do is continue to practice being the best parent
I can be.
2)
My chaotic wife – Men are from one planet and
women are from another. We know this to be true. As I’ve stated, my wife and I
aren’t always on the same page and we struggle to understand one another. Like
the chaotic situation with my kids, I must be patient and practice being the
best husband I can be. I must use excellent judgement and specialized
communication skills with my wife to do this.
3)
My chaotic job – When COVID-19 nearly shutdown
the entire commercial aviation industry, it was a very chaotic scene and one
that reminded me of the events on September 11, 2001. But rather than it being
an event on one day, it lasted several weeks. As the industry grinded to a halt
and in the middle of my taking on a new role, things were extremely hard for me
to keep up. I knew I couldn’t use the same managerial skills I once did in this
situation. I needed to take command of the situation and calm my team using
leadership techniques I learned from my classes at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
University. By taking command and showing confidence in uncertain times, I was
able to navigate my team through these changes. Additionally, our airport began
the layoff process with at-will employees, which caused even further stress to
my team and the organization.
References:
Snowden, D. J., & Boone, M. E.
(2007). A Leader’s Framework for Decision Making. Harvard Business
Review.
Snowden, D.
J. (2010, July 11). Cynefin Framework.
[Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=N7oz366X0-8&feature=emb_logo
Comments
Post a Comment