“We have all moved from the age of enlightenment to the age of entanglement where sense-making aided by imagination is now more critical than ever. (Location 52)

At its most basic, Cynefin allows us to distinguish between three different kinds of systems: ordered systems that are governed and constrained in such a way that cause and effect relationships are either clear or discoverable through analysis; complex systems where causal relationships are entangled and dynamic and the only way to understand the system is to interact; and chaotic systems where there are no effective constraints, turbulence prevails and immediate stabilizing action is required. Cynefin acknowledges that these different systemic contexts exist in parallel, and in that way avoids creating false dichotomies and polarization. (Location 290)

Dave divides his time between two roles: Founder Director and Chief Scientific Officer of Cognitive Edge, and the Founder and Head of the Cynefin Centre. His work is international in nature and covers government and industry looking at complex issues relating to organizational design and decision making. He has pioneered a science-based approach to organizations drawing on anthropology neuroscience and complex adaptive systems theory. (Location 547)

if a community is not physically, temporally, and spiritually rooted, then it is alienated from its environment, and will focus on survival rather than creativity and collaboration. (Location 566)

It was in the early days of knowledge management, and I was laying the foundations for what became known as Organic Knowledge Management. (Location 601)

A significant strength of Cynefin is that it was not created, and then propagated, from a single based study or process. It evolved through a fluid entanglement of sophia and phronesis to reference Aristotle. The latter is a type of practical wisdom, translated by the Romans as prudentia, which comes from providentia, meaning foresight and sagacity. Sophia is a combination of nous, which has a sense of discernment and epistēmē, which in the modern day would be science: knowledge that is teachable and built through logic. For Aristotle, both are associated with virtue, “Although the young may be experts in geometry and mathematics and similar branches of knowledge (sophoi), we do not consider that a young man can have Prudence (phronimos). The reason is that Prudence (phronesis) includes a knowledge of particular facts, derived from experience, which a young man does not possess, for experience is the fruit of years.” Nous, by the way, is one of those curious words; for Aristotle it was the ability to think rationally, but in collegial English, it often means common-sense, and both meanings are central to Cynefin. (Location 603)

How do we make sense of the world so that we can act in it? With that definition comes the concept of sufficiency, how do we know that we know enough to determine the type of action we can take? After all, that is the primary function of Cynefin; at its heart, it is a decision support framework. (Location 620)

Weick, Dervin, Klein, Russel and myself are now identified in the literature as five distinct schools of sense-making/sensemaking and I’ve had the privilege of working with both Brenda Dervin and Gary Klein and can call them friends. (6) (Location 623)

another quote from Dylan Thomas comes to mind: “When one burns one’s bridges, what a very nice fire it makes.” (Location 715)

Broader community engagement has been key to the development and use of Cynefin. The Framework is fractal in nature, it is self-similar at different levels of understanding so you can understand it simply and quickly, but as you use it more and go deeper, more and more is revealed. At its simplest, the Framework distinguishes order from complexity from chaos. (Location 736)