In this week's blog reflection, I’m going to talk about two experiences of decision-making in multiple contexts. The first is within the simple context, which happens while I’m supervising for a local charity shop, Oxfam. The job is fairly simple and straightforward, make sure the till is manned and make sure someone is in the back sorting donations. My job as a leader is to “sense, categorize, respond,” which is fairly easy in this context. (Snowden & Boone, 2007) In fact, most of the time people are self-managing so I rarely have to do anything.
The second example is within a chaotic context, which actually doesn’t have to do with a choice I made, but a choice another leader had made. This particular example has to do with when I was deployed and a missile was dropped a few meters away from me with the head shattering. The expediter didn’t even think, he started to evacuate the area and get the scene under control. His job as a leader in that situation was to act first, then to sense and respond. (Snowden & Boone, 2007) In the event of a delayed explosion, he could have saved a lot of lives that day.
It is said “the trick is to understand the nature of the underlying issue being faced and then deal with it in an appropriate way. Much time is wasted by addressing ‘The Simple’, for example, by using emergent approach best suited to ‘The Complex’. Similarly, much time is wasted trying to solve ‘The Complex’ by employing things best used for ‘The Simple’ (such as use of processes).” (Obolensky, 2010) In other words, to be effective as a leader we need to be able to recognize the situation that we’re in, to properly respond the way we’re supposed to.
In essence, each of the four categories of the Cynefin model can be addressed by:
The Simple: Categorize and deal, which means to organize the situation in such a way that allows for simple/straightforward answers.
The Complicated: Analyze and decide, which means to look at the situation with a deeper analysis and make an informed decision.
The Complex: Prove and discover, which means to experiment a little and to see what the results are. Then adjust accordingly.
The Chaotic: Act and move on, which means to act now, figure the rest out later. In other words "ask for forgiveness, not permission" couldn’t be any more relevant.
References
Obolensky, N. (2010). Complex Adaptive Leadership. London, UK: Gower/Ashgate.
Snowden, D., & Boone, M. (2007). A Leader's Framework for Decision Making. Harvard Business Review , 66-76.
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