I just finished reading (ok skim reading) Start with why by Simon Sinek. For the impatient person – go with the Ted talks, or just read the last chapters. I did find it very a useful exercise to do.
My why
To make today better than yesterday. By inspiring people with my passion to creatively use and develop their skills so they find their own place to thrive within great teams.
I heard about cynefin at a half day agile taster a few years back. The trainer was good and I liked the sound of it. Didn’t really click or make me understand how I would use it but it sounded cool.
Fast forward to this year and becoming a trainer myself. We now need to train on cynefin. But I don’t know what to say to that slide!
So we put up David Snowdens video and after about the 5th time of watching it bits fall in to place. Ok it’s a decision framework.
I ask a few more people and read a few more articles and I finally get why they keep saying that scrum is for complex project. Scum helps in the complex domain. The complex domain is when there are lots of variables and you cant get cause and effect from them. You have to experiment and guess and try stuff out to get to a solution. Then I watch another video and they talk about parenting as being in the complex domain. You might try something it might work for a bit but then it might stop working and you will have to try something else.
I finally get it.
Simple or obvious domain. Like baking my awesome brownies. I follow the steps and it works each time
Complicated. Learning the uke. I could do it with a lot of hard work myself but I could also get advise from others and They may play the strum differently but ultimately we end up playing the same tune.
Complex. Parenting – no one has any idea and we just try what works best for us to get to our goal of happy socially aware and productive kids. (That’s my goal at least)
Chaos. Kids at a birthday party when the pinata comes down. The best you can hope for is no one gets hurt and then even out the distribution of lollies at the end.
So before you embark on a project what domain does it sit in?
What behaviours should you use to make the best of it. For example.
I have a project to move email systems. It’s something that has been done before. There are various experts involved. We know all the users and the systems so I would place it in the complicated domain and sense, analyse and respond.
Another example we are running training sessions. We don’t know the teams knowledge or openness there are lots of variables but the unknown are still known and there are experts to consult. Once again id put it in the complicated domain.
Then take our divisions agile transformation. We don’t know the right questions to ask, experimentation is required to even understand the problems we are and will be facing. We can try something and see if that’s better. The solution will emerge over time as we learn more about our culture and what will work. How people will change or not. Which practices will work and which will be might need tweaking or revising. Even the timeframe is unknown and no way to predict anything. It most definitely fits the complex domain. We need to probe, sense and respond. That’s my current take on cynefin it may change more as more pieces fall into place.
See Cognitive edge blog for more info. They designed Cynefin and have some great info.
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