Strategy 1999

Cynefin Framework

Sorts a situation into Clear, Complicated, Complex, Chaotic, or Confused, so the response actually matches the problem.

What it is

Five domains around a central Disorder: Obvious/Clear calls for sense-categorize-respond using established best practice; Complicated needs expert analysis (sense-analyze-respond); Complex can only be understood in hindsight, so it takes safe-to-fail probes (probe-sense-respond); Chaotic has no discernible cause-and-effect and needs stabilizing action first (act-sense-respond); the central Confused/Disorder domain is for situations nobody has sorted yet. Items move between domains — especially out of Complex into Complicated — as more is learned.

Reach for it when

• A team keeps applying expert best-practice analysis to a problem that's genuinely unpredictable, not just hard.
• A crisis needs someone to act and stabilize first, not analyze and plan first.
• Leadership disagrees about whether a decision calls for a known process or actual experimentation.

Running it

1. Introduce the five domains and the distinct action approach each one calls for.
2. List current problems or decisions the group is facing, one per sticky note.
3. Place each note into the domain the group believes it belongs to, and debate the disagreements openly.
4. Agree on the domain-appropriate next action for each placed item, and revisit placement as more is learned.