My thanks to Iwan Jenkins for drawing my attention to this article by economist John Kay which acts as a taster for his book Obliguity which I have now ordered. He discussed Franklin's rule as a decision making model.... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

We are coming up to the Fall KM Conference Season again and I am once again Keynoting at both KM Asia and KM World. To be invited back each year is an compliment and its a unique position. Mind you... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

Having spent the last week working with the recently formed European Institute for Gender Equality I was more than usually sensitised to two adjacent reports in the online Guardian over the weekend. One a special report on genital mutilation, the... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

Today's Dilbert cartoon (see below for the full version) brought back memories of corporate life. Innovation in general seemed to trigger a white blood cell reaction in many a corporate environment. In Data Sciences days I was regularly wheeled... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

I've made numerous attempts over the years to watch The Hunt for Red October through without dozing off. The reason for my problem here is that I always seem to try and watch it at the end of a... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

Updating the language is unlikely to improve the literary merit; and the thought of some of the worst social attitudes of the 1940s getting any credence is deeply depressing. I found the quote from Tony Summerfield ironic, he is... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

An interesting ethical debate about to arise on Wikipedia (or it will do when I wake up). Is a system which kills people by indifference as bad as a system which kills people deliberately? So choose: your economic system privileges... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

Tom Fishburne's cartoons are a frequent tonic when they pop up in my RSS feed, but I really have to take issue with this post. He argues that we need angel advocates rather than devils advocates. Now I am happy... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

Now on the final leg of a five week round the world tour my last stop is Vilnius in Lithuania for preliminary work on gender equality in Europe. The flight from Singapore was improved by an upgrade to first... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

Savage Minds in an interesting weekend post argues that the debate between rabid evolutionist-cum atheists and rabid evangelical christians-cum creationists is in reality a conflict between to different permutations of protestant culture. Its a delightful little piece with some wonderful... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

I was on YouTube earlier today checking out on our new video on the Cynefin framework which is doing well in terms of hits although its not anywhere near the Childrens' Party story yet! I hadn't realised that there is... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

In my post of yesterday I suggested that: far too much management "theory" is shoring up executives by making them feel good without changing their real actions. I wrote that as a response to Rosabeth Moss Kanters Ten essentials... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

I only met Rosabeth Moss Kanter once when we both spoke at a conference in Boston many years ago, along with Larry Prusak. Well Larry and I spoke, she performed a rap and to this day I don't know if... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

Two similar quotes from contrasting sources which capture (in very different ways) the essence of dealing with uncertinaty: "The key is being scrappy. It's the guys that they see an idea and they don't know how they're going do it... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

One of the things about narrative work using SenseMaker® is that you are often dealing with material, especially the results which cannot be shared. I'm pleased to say that the Welsh Audit Office are an exception to this and have... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

It's time to bring this series of seven posts on the origins of Cynefin to a close. I started it a few months ago when I needed to update an old version of the model to cover off a... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

We've now reached the penultimate episode in this series (and don't worry Dumbledore won't die, this is not The Hero's Journey). It will complete the key developments on the framework during the IBM period. Tomorrow I will talk about... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

The Cynefin framework is frequently (and legitimately) used as a categorisation model around the four domains of simple, complicated, complex and chaotic. Working at this level it allows people to understand the difference between the four domains, the decision models... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

We ended episode 3 of this series with the Cynefin framework in a recognisable form after well over a decade of evolution. In this penultimate episode (and its not he hero's journey so the mentor will not die) I want... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com

I have resolved to complete this history over the next couple of days. In part 1 I took the history from its origins in my reflection on Boisot's I-Space, to a quadrant model contrasting abstraction with learning/culture. In part 2... Dave Snowden http://www.cognitive-edge.com