Crisis is a situation that requires a variety of decisions and responses. One cannot expect a level of predictability and order that organizational leaders are accustomed to during normal business operations. Take the case of January 1993 when a gunman killed seven people in a suburb of Chicago and how the administrative executive and spokesperson for the police, Deputy chief Walter Gasior, played many roles simultaneously. He had to deal with grieving families and a frightened community, help direct operations of the police department, and take questions from the media. In this example, Gasior was ultimately successful, but common leadership principles failed when they should have prevailed.

When the circumstances are fluid, the Cynefin framework (pronounced “ku-nev-in”) proposed by David Snowden and Mary Boone as early as 1999, provides a framework that allows executives to see things from new viewpoints, assimilate complex concepts and address real-world problems and opportunities. This enhances communications and helps build an understanding of the context in which the leaders operate.

Organization consultant Jos Postma elaborates on this framework by drawing experiences and knowledge from Lean, Agile, Scrum and other methodologies, in his recent book, titled “The Cynefin framework in 60 minutes” and published by BeWiseMedia in 2023. He calls it a “meta-framework” that facilitates decision-making within each strategy and improve outcomes. It can be used to assess a problem’s complexity and to improve responses. It determines the domain for a problem and offers practical insights for strategic planning, risk management, and decision making. It plays a role even in product development and guides crisis and change management. When making decisions or facilitating team discussions, it serves as a tool by itself and complements other frameworks. When the nature of the problems is understood, solutions fall in place.

This framework categorizes problems in five domains: 1. Clear/simple/obvious where the cause and effect are known, 2. Complicated where there are indirect or less obvious relationships that require a “Sense-Analyze-Respond” approach, 3. Complex situations where the cause-effect relationships are neither direct nor indirect and can only be revealed in hindsight but can be influenced by “Probe-Sense-Respond’ technique, 4. Chaotic – where the relationships will not become clear immediately or even later but can be remedied by “Act-Sense-Respond” approach, and finally, 5. Apex/Disorder situations where a situation does not fall into any of the earlier four and a leader must use creativity to categorize the domain.

Fundamental to this framework is a recognition that different situations require different approaches and the categories are not static but dynamic. Studying the problem helps determine its domain. For example, a sales decline might be due to familiar seasonal changes or new from disruptive competitors. The approach to a studied situation usually involves 1. Domain identification in Cynefin framework, 2. Selecting actions, and 3. Adaptation. In this way, it acknowledges and embraces complexity. It must be noted that this is a journey not a state.

In the context of product development, this framework complements existing methodologies by understanding the nature of the challenges and requirements. For example, Agile methodology aligns well with Cynefin in the Complex domain and like Lean, it delivers maximal value with minimal waste. The decisions are shaped from early stages of conception to managing risk during launch.

Crisis situations often begin in the Chaotic Domain but can be shifted into the Complex domain. Leaders are best served to take an approach of guided emergence, allowing new order to emerge from interactions within the system rather than imposing from above. The global response to COVID-19 pandemic provides a worthwhile example in this regard.

This classification system successfully applies to a large set of diverse problems and provides a technique to hone the right contextual approach. If the challenges grow volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous or VUCA for short, then this framework emphasizes exploration to discern emerging patterns. Perseverance, an open-mindset and practice will bring mastery of this valuable tool.

Leaders who recognize that the world is often irrational and unpredictable will find the Cynefin framework particularly useful.

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