Dave Snowden

Dave Snowden (Twitter, LinkedIn) is Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of The Cynefin Co. 

The Cynefin Co is "the world leader in developing management approaches (in society, government and industry) that empower organisations to absorb uncertainty, detect weak signals to enable sense-making in complex systems, act on the rich data, create resilience and, ultimately, thrive in a complex world". The Cynefin Framework is a decision support framework, a way of determining what method to adopt in this particular situation.

Dave is a thorough-to-brusque practitioner and thinker using Complex Adaptive Systems (a dynamic network of interactions where the behaviour of the ensemble is not predictable from the components, and which is able to adapt to changing circumstances).

Two key points I take from our conversation:

-Don't focus on changing people (for which there is little evidence of success). Instead, focus on changing the connections people have with other people opens up more possibility for the whole assembly. 

-From a complexity view, the world is constantly changing and the information you have is partial. Better to be responsive to what's happening around you, rather than having aplan which will be immediately out of date.

Links

Probably the most recent full explanation of the Cynefin Framework and how to us it is here. "Managing complexity (and chaos) in times of crisis. A field guide for decision makers inspired by the Cynefin framework" published by the EU. 

SenseMaker® is a distributed ethnographic approach to understanding a situation. By allowing respondents to give meaning to their own experience, it avoids the epistemic injustice of third-party of algorithmic interpretations. 

"SenseMaker® allows the powerful combination of vast amounts of data, with the rich context of narrative, based on the anecdotes of real people going about their real lives. Very importantly, SenseMaker® places the voices and interpretations of people at the centre, instead of privileging those in power."

Camino de Santiago

Timings

0:50 - Q1 What are you doing now? And how did you get there?

6:03 - Q2. What is the future you are trying to create, and why?

11:52 - Q3. What are your priorities for the next few years, and why?

20:58 - Q4. If someone was inspired to follow those priorities, what should they do next?

22:46 - Q5. If your younger self was starting their career now, what advice would you give them?

25:52 - Q6. Who would you nominate to answer these questions, because you admire their approach?

26:58 - Q7. Is there anything else important you feel you have to say?

Twitter: Powerful_Times

Website hub: here.

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Thank you for listening! -- David