The concert David Byrne gave last Sunday the 4th of November in Amsterdam was mind blowing. A non-stop dance and music show, just incredible fun! Together with Ocker I wento the concert and we loved the performance, the dance, the new tracks of his latest album ‘America Utopia’. I loved the nostalgia of
all these amazing Talking Head songs I used te listen when I was studying during
the eighties.
It’s not only because of the visit of the concert , but also because sense making and
sensible are words meaning something different then ‘zingeving’, begrijpen’, ‘verstandig’ of ‘gevoelig’. So I keep it to sense-making and I'll do my best to write this blurr in English.
Cybefin framework and 'the' change
The day after the concert, Monday evening November 5th, I introduced the Cynefin
framework to my colleagues. This framework shows 5 domains of knowing and decision making. Cognitive Edge is the foundation that explores the use and
benefits of the Cynefin framework and makes the framework actionable for
organisational development through sense-making. Dave Snowden is the founder
and driving force behind this exploration. Cognitive Edge had made
sense-making actionable by developing the tool Sense Maker and by developing
interesting techniques like Anecdote Circle, Safe To Fail Probes, Signification
Framework and so on.
The essence of the Cognitive Edge approach is the use of narratives from the
community to make sense and take deliberate action in situation that are complex
with unordered knowledge. For more information please see Cognitive Edge: https://cognitive-edge.com/
It was a lovely evening in which I let the participants experience complexity (team
drawer exercise) and sense-making (butterfly stamped exercise). Some of the
participants felt somehow confused about taking the narratives form responders in a
community as starting point, as they learned to model the complexity by themselves in stead of framing the complexity with (a large) group of people.
Lean Innovation and 'the'product
The next day I participated in a masterclass about Lean Innovation. In a short notice we experienced Lean Start-up (by Eric Ries) methodology; the Build-Measure- Learn
approach, the Minimal Viable Product, the pillars feasibility, vialibility and desirability.
the value proposition canvas, the benefits of hypothese driven approach. And ‘to get
out of the office’ to interview potential users. Because the scale of use of the product
proofs the product.
As I sat listening, I thought: are these people here really making a product? They are
working for a company and are not inventing a product for a large market through
out the world, they are making - at best - enabling tools which support their colleagues
on the shop floor in their continuos change. Is a product approach really a sensible
approach?
I don’t know. It is the way most people see or like to see the world right now, using
Scrum, KanBan and SAFe. So in way it makes sense to a lot of organisations to talk about products, product owners, scale up, portfolio, product teams, user groups etcetera etcetera.
Four Talking Heads about product and change One insight came up after these three days of dealing about sense-making and I would like to share with you with the following framework which is made up by two axes: 1. product oriented vs change oriented 2. individual idea as starting point - community sense making as starting point
So we have four quadrants, fourt Talking Heads, which I named after songs of The Talking Head's album Stop Making Sense.
Talking Head: Psycho Killer product oriented - individual idea as a starting point song
We see the entrepeneurs who have ‘ this great idea’, really an invention,
sometimes a small group of individuals who truly beliefs and tries to
get proof. We see start-ups and start up thinking justify the idae by interaction with potential buyers and users. In this Talkinh Head Lean Innovation and Lean Start-up can be seen as suitable.
Talking Head: Slippery People change oriented - individual idea as a starting point song Is the more familiar way of looking at
change by ‘the leader’ or the dancing guy,Just some one who sticks to the
idea and tries to persuade others to follow. Stakeholder management to map your power and allies to make your idea , your vision, real. You tweak and turn your words and acts to make your idea benificial and acceptable.
Talking Head: Burning Down
The House change oriented - community sensemaking as a starting point song
Multiple perspectives are taken into
account. You don’t know what is going to happen and trust the proces. Whatever
comes is totally new. Here we find co-creation, viral change, story catching and reframing. Nothing remains the same afterwards. The initiatiev AgileOnTheFly has a lot of characteristics of this proces.
Talking Head: Once In A Lifetime product oriented - community sensemaking as a starting point song The hacketons and cofunding initiatives
and also desing thinking initiatives can beseen as this kind of Talking Head.
Here we are dealing with not quit
knowing at start what product is needed.
With etnografic study, observing and
listening the product emerges. First as a test and scaling up slowly by modifiyng in new contexts.
This must be the place
Not one of the ways is best, I think. The situation and context might be significant. I think it always is about a product / object AND change of behaviour. It is
always about an individual with the drive to shape the world AND the community
making sens. The point is: it is alway about attraking and adaptation in these transfornative situations. We make an ACT, sometimes it resonates, sometimes it won't. You observe ACTS form others, sometimes you feel attrackted, sometimes you won't.
So we better stop making sense? We can't! We are human and sense-makers by default. We use words, we feel, we make art, we express ourselves. Sometimes you feel you are just right there, when everything is just as it always has been meant to be. That moment we have to foster and cherish, because these moments are just mindbowing, just like the concert by David Byrne. Enjoy your sense-making!
The less we say about it the better Make it up as we go along Feet on the ground, head in the sky It's okay, I know nothing's wrong, nothing
This must be the place David Byrne