Making sense of the mess
Cynefin, wicked problems and uncertainty.
Two and a half hours on diagnosing the kind of problem you face: VUCA and BANI, the Cynefin framework, tame and wicked problems, and the language of risk and uncertainty.
- Level
- Focus
- Learning time
- 2 hours 30 minutes
- Where
- VUCA, Uncertainty and Complexity
- Price
- £69
When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Read the full terms
Certificate of Completion, or Certificate of Completion and Assessment with a short assessment
Overview and Outcomes.
Who It's For
Leaders who need sharper diagnosis before acting
Overview
Before asking how to solve a problem, leaders need to ask what kind of problem it is. This programme recovers the precision in VUCA, tracing it from Bennis and Nanus and pairing it with Jamais Cascio's BANI, then works through Snowden and Boone's Cynefin framework, including Avanti's own mapping of member and officer relationships from Dr Huish's Cranfield research. It distinguishes tame, critical and wicked problems through Rittel and Webber and Keith Grint, and sets out the language of risk, uncertainty and ambiguity, from Frank Knight to Taleb's black swan, illustrated by the early weeks of Covid-19.
Aims
This programme aims to sharpen leaders' diagnostic judgement in uncertain conditions, so that they can name the kind of difficulty they face, avoid the costly error of treating complex as complicated, and match management, command or leadership to the problem in front of them rather than reaching for familiar tools.
In summary, you will be able to:
- Distinguish volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity and the Cynefin domains, and explain the different response each calls for in public service.
- Diagnose whether a problem is tame, critical or wicked, and choose whether management, command or leadership is the fitting response.
- Use the ladder from certainty to ambiguity and the familiarity and clarity grid to name gaps honestly and match your response to what is unknown.
What you'll develop
Through this Focus course, you will build the ability to:
- Distinguish volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, and identify which of the four mainly responds to more information.
- Apply the discipline of asking which letter applies to which specific decision, including where political, financial and statutory pressures compound in local government.
- Describe the five Cynefin domains and the response pattern each one calls for, from sense, categorise, respond to act, sense, respond.
- Use four locating questions to place a live situation in a domain, and distinguish a Complicated problem from a Complex one.
- Explain the defining properties of a wicked problem, including no definitive formulation, no stopping rule and the one-shot nature of each attempt.
- Distinguish risk, uncertainty and ambiguity, and explain what a risk register can and cannot cover in relation to unknown unknowns.
Built from 2 parts.
2 hours 30 minutes of learning.
- 01Naming the world we lead inCynefin framework and complexity for leadersBitesize2 modules
- 02Wicked, not just difficultWicked problems, uncertainty and riskBitesize2 modules
Keep going.
Part of the VUCA, Uncertainty and Complexity topic, also sold whole as Clear heads in a complex world.
Go deeper, and pay only the difference
- You are hereFocus, 2 hours 30 minutes, £69
- Next stepExplore, Making sense of complexity, 4 hours, £129. Already own the Focus? You pay £60.
- The whole topicImmerse, Clear heads in a complex world, 8 hours, £249. Already own the Focus? You pay £180.
When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Prices per person. Read the full terms