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Can Cynefin Curb Overwhelm?

Writer's picture: Sherry P. JohnsonSherry P. Johnson
Decorative image of a fractal
Decorative image of a fractal

I hear it everywhere: People have too many meetings, with too little planning... The old refrain, "Why couldn't this have been an email?" just makes the problem worse by clogging up our inboxes and fragmenting our work habits.



"The ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare at exactly the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable in our economy. As a consequence, the few who cultivate this skill, and then make it the core of their working life, will thrive."


--Cal Newport


The book itself has lots of proposals for changing how we work--especially how we access and filter social media, messaging, and email--so we can reclaim our time for immersive work.


He's arguing about email the way I argue about meetings. Groups need time to work deeply, just as we do as individuals. All those unstructured meetings with long lists of ephemera... Do we really need them? Or are they robbing us of time to collaborate deeply while building social capital in less formal settings with our teams?


I've been playing around with several frameworks to guide groups in defining when formal meetings are really necessary. During a recent trip to my virtual sandbox, I wondered if Dave Snowden's Cynefin Framework might offer some clues...


Cynefin Framework visualized into quadrants. Starting from the top left quadrant working clockwise: Complex, Complicated, Chaotic, Simple. A smaller square in the center of the quadrants for Disorder.
Cynefin Framework visualized into quadrants

Disorder--Realm of Unfocused or Purposeless Action

  • Leaders must intervene and break down tasks into other four domains


Obvious--Realm of Best Practice

  • Basic job tasks, bounded by...

  • Face-to-face interventions and clarifications

  • Memos

  • Phone check-ins

  • Texts

  • Skills trainings

  • Deference to research in best practice


Complicated--Realm of Good Practice

  • Thoughtful, topical conversations, governed by...

  • Single-topic email threads with carefully selected recipients with relevant expertise

  • Small-group focused conversations that gather available expertise to analyze for appropriate actions to take within the system

  • Specialized trainings that promote a variety of current expertise in the field Deference to well-established expertise


Complex--Realm of Emergent Practice

  • Meetings structured to maximize participation, power equity, and productive dissent, enabled by...

  • Experimentation in response to real-time feedback from the system

  • Establishment of limits within which experiments must creatively conform

  • Diverse representation from multiple perspectives

  • Continuous feedback and readjustment to conditions as they shift

  • Celebrations for learning--both from failures and successes

  • Deference to creative thinking and dissent


Chaotic--Realm of Novel Practice

  • Situation-driven, high-level meetings, characterized by...

  • Pragmatic narrowly focused immediate action

  • Close and sustained proximity, virtual or real

  • Shortening the loop between action and fact-finding

  • High stakes clarified in the face of inaction

  • Disbanding as soon as the situation returns to a complex or complicated realm

  • Deference to hierarchy, chain-of-command


Could something like this work for your teams? Where have you seen more developed frameworks for communication and decision-making? I'd love your feedback.

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