Know Thy Team: Shape Your Approach within Five Contexts

Back in 2015, I'd been searching for a mental model for decision-making and governance for a long time, toying with the dated Vroom & Yetton model and others… Then I stumbled upon the Cynefin framework--Dave Snowden et al's Framework for Decision-Making. This way of seeing groups and providing the right frameworks for decision-making has been invaluable ever since.

It roughly translates to the five different ways I've seen groups operate. Let's look at these through the lens of the Cynefin framework.

A Group in Confusion

In a confused group, you'll see one or two folks insist on best practice or step-by-step approaches, while another suggests a literature review or SWOT analysis. Still another throws out some approaches that no one's tried, just to see what happens. And another plays "devil's advocate" with everything, leading the group into occasional flare-ups of chaos. When a group is information starved, has competing perspectives--or alternatively, when it doesn't prioritize a common understanding of shared language--it clouds their approach to decision-making and action. This group's deliverables, if they happen at all, are often achieved by one or two strong-willed people who bypass people and procedures to keep things moving. These efforts seldom address the right problem, and structured, iterative conversations are key to helping the group recognize their shared context.

A Group in the Clear Domain

When a group knows its context, what they want done, and it's been done before, they're in the clear domain. You'll see a veteran worker dictating tight constraints to a group who's ready to follow their step-by-step instructions. The deliverable is simple, and a group will wonder why they were asked for their opinion when all they needed was instruction. Emails, Slack or Teams channels, handbooks, and pair-work are great replacements for meetings in the realm of the obvious.

A Group in the Complicated Domain

A group is in the complicated domain when it's successfully governed by a few experts who have different perspectives of which approaches to take. No one tries to claim there's one best approach; instead, they respectfully discuss options and agree on governing constraints for essential strategies. Good practices here result from compromise and consensus over what's "good enough," and things generally go to plan if enough expertise and productive discussion were at play from the beginning.

A Group in The Complex Domain

These are the groups who've tried everything and know that only "bespoke" things work in their context. They're starting to distrust experts, as those in their midst and from the outside have failed them. Their knowledge base has shifted so quickly that no one knows what will work, and obsolescence plagues every long-range plan they've tried to front-load. Most everyone knows they need to try something new, but there's no playbook, and case studies don't really fit their particular context. "Deliverables" and "solutions" become words that no longer fit. Here, groups are in the realm of experimentation and continuous assessment through iterative processes.

A Group in The Chaotic Domain

I've never seen a group who's truly fallen into chaos, and I'm glad. I have seen shallow dives into it: temper tantrums, walk-outs, arguments without a point, lost agendas, and forgotten rationales. Most leaders are afraid that complexity-friendly approaches cause chaos; on the contrary, chaos usually happens when groups mistakenly treat a complicated or complex problem as if it were clear. When chaos has set in, the group will crave order of any kind and will often follow the first person--usually a strong, charismatic type--with a clearly communicated plan. I often run across organizations who thrive in chaos to the point they cultivate it... Though high leadership and staff turnover often results from the stressful churn.

More on the Cynefin Framework

Don't rest with my (undoubtedly incomplete) breakdown here. If Cynefin has you intrigued, go learn more right now: Dave Snowden lectures are everywhere on the web these days, but here's a juicy article and an elegant video from Jennifer Garvey Berger to begin your journey. I'd be remiss if I didn't share Snowden's clever birthday party illustration, too.