Cynefin Domain Training Exercises
The author introduces group exercises for exploring Cynefin’s Clear, Complicated, and Complex domains. The supplied passage gives facilitation and debrief directions, but not the exercises themselves.
THE IDEA
Training Designs
The exercises were informed by Dave Snowden’s heuristic, “data precedes the framework.” After several iterations, I created three challenges that illustrate the Clear, Complicated, and Complex domains. None require any equipment, just a big enough space for a group to stand comfortably in a circle.
When offering these challenges I follow these directions:
- State the challenge clearly and repeat it once
- Let the group work itself out
- Debrief quickly using questions such as those below.
Debrief questions:
- What happened?
- Who was in charge?
- How did decisions get made?
- How did you evaluate compliance?
- How could you teach others to do this?
The actual challenges are not supplied in this passage. The examples below are illustrative activities, not a reconstruction of those challenges.
When to use it
Team building workshops to illustrate different decision-making contexts
Leadership development programs exploring situational management styles
Organizational change initiatives to help teams understand complexity
Facilitation training for running experiential learning exercises
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
Clear Domain Task - Silent Sorting
As an illustrative activity, a group whose members know one another’s names silently arranges itself alphabetically. The facilitator can use the explicit ordering rule to discuss a Clear-domain task, then debrief how the group coordinated.
Complex Domain Task - Group Story
As an illustrative activity, participants create a story one word at a time without planning the ending. The debrief explores how patterns emerged through interaction. This is an example for discussion, not one of the source’s supplied challenges.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
What happened during the exercise? Did the group's behavior match the expected domain characteristics?
Who was in charge? How did leadership emerge or shift?
How were decisions made? Was there consensus, authority, or trial-and-error?
How could you teach others to replicate this exercise? What made it easy or difficult to explain?
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- Cynefin - Weaving Sense-Making into the Fabric of Our World ED02 (Dave Snowden Sonja Blignaut Zhen Goh)