Cynefin Framework

Question 1

what does the framework help us to do?

Answer 1

make sense of situations that are presented and makes a decision that’s appropriate for the type of situation you’re dealing with

Question 2

what does the framework outline?

Answer 2

four situational domains that are defined by cause-and-effect relationships

Question 3

what are the four realities in the framework?

Answer 3

1. complex
   2.complicated
   3.chaos
   4.simple

Question 4

what is meant by the complex reality?

Answer 4

-unknown unknowns
-cause and effect knowable only in retrospect and may not be repeatable

Question 5

what is meant by the obvious reality?

Answer 5

-those that everyone agrees on
-connection between cause and effect is apparent
-best practice can be maintained/followed e.g a recipe to bake a cake
-should be able to get things that repeat predictably time after time using best practice

Question 6

what is meant by the complicated reality?

Answer 6

-the connection between cause and effect is less clear
-need experts to figure it out
-things repeat over time but a lot of experience is required to know what approach to take
-no best practice just good practice e.g bringing a person to the moon

Question 7

what is meant by the chaotic reality?

Answer 7

-there is no connection between cause-and-effect e.g volcano’s eruption
-leaders job is to stabilise the system and see if patterns can emerge over time

Question 8

complex:

Answer 8

probe-sense-response

Question 9

complicated:

Answer 9

sense-analyse-respond

Question 10

chaotic:

Answer 10

act-sense respond

Question 11

obvious:

Answer 11

sense-categorise-respond

Question 12

what does the framework aid us in?

Answer 12

in problem-solving in situations where responses are often unconscious