Cynefin and Daoist Fluidity
The author connects Cynefin with Daoist fluidity: respond to the situation, acknowledge uncertainty, and avoid forcing a rigid plan where inquiry and adaptation are needed.
THE IDEA
The author recounts discussing Daoism, Cynefin, energy flow, and water management with Sonja Blignaut, who joked that he would become the Bruce Lee of Cynefin.
“Be water, my friend,” Lee was famous for saying. The author describes this as a “wateristic” philosophy of adapting to circumstances: “You put water into a bottle, and it becomes the bottle. Water can flow, or it can crash.”
Cynefin is offered as a framework for examining a changing context and deciding how to act. The passage includes open prompts for exploring that relationship:
Cynefin as _______________.
Cynefin and _______________.
An aporetic approach starts by acknowledging what is unresolved and examining the uncertainty or contradiction. The author links this with Wu Wei, understood here as avoiding forced action. Neither means waiting for every problem to resolve itself: use the context to decide what needs action, what can be tested, and what needs further observation.
When to use it
When leading a team through a strategic pivot in an uncertain market, use Cynefin to map the context and apply Wu Wei by allowing emergent strategies.
When faced with a paradoxical problem in product development, adopt the Aporetic method by embracing not-knowing and exploring contradictions.
When conflicting priorities cause paralysis, identify what requires immediate action and what can be clarified through a small test or further observation.
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
Business Strategy Pivot
A company facing market disruption uses the Cynefin framework to categorize the situation as complex. Instead of imposing a rigid plan, leaders adopt Wu Wei by allowing strategies to emerge through experimentation and observation, much like water adapting to its container.
Navigating Team Conflict
A manager finds that opposing views of a team problem each explain part of the situation. They examine the unresolved assumptions and ask what observations would help distinguish them. The inquiry may reveal another option, but it need not produce a single integrative answer.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
How can you apply the 'be water' mindset to a current decision-making challenge?
Reflect on a time when not-knowing led to a better outcome than forcing a plan. What would the Aporetic method have added?
When using the Cynefin framework, how do you recognize the right moment to practice Wu Wei rather than intervene?
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- Cynefin - Weaving Sense-Making into the Fabric of Our World ED02 (Dave Snowden Sonja Blignaut Zhen Goh)