My reflection blog this week is about the Cynefin Framework and how it is benefiting my decision-making. I make decision everyday in the position as a mom, spouse, student, co-worker, and a volunteer. All five of these positions can accompany the Cynefin framework. The traditional approach to making decisions are always changing, and my individual approaches is coupled with time management, which a big player in my ability to be successful.  I feel most of my decision-making falls within simple, complicated, or complex because I self create barriers to keep me from being in the element of chaotic or disorderly.

Simple

The simple contexts are considered the “domain of best practice”. I would honestly announce that anything I have done for the first time never falls into the idea that it was simple. My role as a mom and spouse were much different twenty years ago than they are today.  I was also required to have a higher-level involvement in decision-making, verses now I just get to observe the decision process from afar.  My effort now is only if I feel the need to be involved into decisions, by request. The uniqueness of being a parent is watching your children use your ideas, concepts, and approaches to making decisions in their daily life. (Snowden & Boone , 2007)

As a co-worker most decisions making falls into the simple quadrant of the Cynefin Framework. Actions and reactions are very systematic and require the same efforts each day and month. The decisions move out of the simple quadrant when there is change or issues. An example of an issue occurred this past week when we lost complete access to our online servers for two days. I am required to work like nothing happened, but there is not any work around when you cannot access your servers that house all your information. It quickly went from simple to chaotic to disorder in a matter or minutes.

As a volunteer, my decisions are simple. I have choice to participate in any event that I want and often the rules and expectations are already defined for you. The complexity arises when it’s a last minute need or the person leading the effort is not organized, creating disorder and chaos. When I am leading volunteer activities I try my best to be organized and informative. I also respect other people’s time, as I appreciate when others respect mine.

Complex or Complicated

Complex decision making is consider the “domain of emergence” or there is a right answer but there is change. Complicated decisions are those that have “more than one right answer with a relationship, but not everyone can see it.” I put these two together as most challenges I have would cross between these two contexts easily, at the same time.  In my role as a co-worker, program planner, the job itself is not complex or complicated. The complication occurs when our customer makes changes during the process. An example was this past month, we started a major modification and the customer levied a major inspection requirement of the aircraft, which would require the mod to stop in progress. The customer would take control of the aircraft for 30 days, which ultimately puts a whole into our scheduled plan. There were some tradeoffs that had to occur in order for our development program, as the contractor, to remain within the contract period of performance. The change was very complex, however the corrective action was complicated. It took several meetings and creation of “what if” schedules to define the cause and effect of the government’s decision. A resolution was definitely made, but it was very complicated to reach. (Snowden & Boone , 2007)

Cynefin framework

The greatest value of the Cynefin framework is designed to help one understand that all situations are the same; therefore decisions cannot always be the same. The value of the framework is its design of 5 different domains and can help one determine what type of decision needs to be made based on the complexity of the decision. Anyone can have great resolution, but if they applied the wrong context it could have a different expected result. This framework can be used in any decision whether its roles of parenting, working, or volunteering.  The best takeaway from the Cynefin framework is paring the right approach with the situation to achieve desired results. I did not hear of the framework until this week, and I would expect to use it in the future.

References

Snowden, D. J., & Boone , M. E. (2007, November). A Leader’s Framework for Decision Making. Retrieved from Harvard Business Review  https://hbr.org/2007/11/a-leaders-framework-for-decision-making/