Term Paper on "Knowledge Management: Cynefin to Understand the Comparatively"

Term Paper 10 pages (3848 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Knowledge Management: Cynefin

To understand the comparatively new concept, we must first understand what this means. 'Cynefin' is a word originally Welsh, and when translated into English it means habitat or place. Yet this does not provide the full connotations and should be understood to be the place where all our identities live. What this means is that we all have different identities through the culture that we belong to, religious beliefs, geographic location and tribal origin, etc. The implications of all these belongings are often not fully understood, yet they are a great influence on our development and growth. The word 'Cynefin' tells us that all our interactions are based on our previous experiences and these experiences come from two origins - some are directly experienced by the individual while others are experiences that the individual hears about and believes. (Welcome: The Cynefin Centre)

Analysis:

The center of all the action in this matter is now at the Cynefin Centre. This is an international network to focus on the application of this complex science for management and organizational practice. The Centre was earlier a part of IBM but separated in July 2004. The center is housed within a network of academic institutions. Established in 2002, Cynefin was the first such management research centre in Europe. Then there was an agreement between Cardiff University and IBM to enable the world-class Cynefin Centre for Organizational Complexity to be based at Cardiff Business School. This was not a permanent arrangement and the centre was to move to the University later in the year, and Mr. Snowden was to continue as director. The centre offered an opportunity to address many of the major business and social issues that directly affected the future of Wales. (Cardiff Business School and IBM establish world-class management centre at Cardiff University)

The concentration of the Cynefin Centre is making a distinction between ordered and unordered systems, and from that "the consequent recognition that systems with fundamentally different qualities require the application of contextually differentiated methods for both diagnosis and intervention." (CompleXimple Bits&Pieces: Cynefin Centre) The organizational structure and methods used by the Cynefin Centre are based on the concepts of social complexity. There are three interlinked focus areas of SOCIAL COMPLEXITY which is in helping the establishment of this new discipline, and application of this complexity science to human systems; OPEN SOURCE which is starting an open source movement for consultancy practice and for theories focused on social complexity; and DISTRIBUTED RESEARCH or the development of trans-disciplinary research focused on participation, emergence and co-evolution. (CompleXimple Bits&Pieces: Cynefin Centre)

However, for the Cynefin mission to be achieved there has to be a concentration on a three stage life cycle which are focused on three application areas of SENSE MAKING which necessitates the distinguishing between various kinds of system and thus permits the use of appropriate application of methods and tools; NETWORKS which involve understanding issues related to human identity and interaction with them in their natural state and the starting of new networks and NARRATIVE or gathering, interpreting, representing and creating narrative types of human interaction. Dave Snowden is the founder and Director of the Centre. Christian Hauck is also a member of the Centre, and that gives it a link with Novartis. (CompleXimple Bits&Pieces: Cynefin Centre) This is the present position of the Cynefin concept in the world.

Uses of Cynefin:

Once a person gets some insights into the methods of using narrative techniques to break through or improve our natural pattern matching, it can help the individual operate as a better manager. Cynefin is a method so as to categorize domains as order, and understand complex situations and chaos within an organization. This helps in identifying methods to create a phase shift from one to another. Every individual gets into situations in organizations where they have to understand values and power structures quickly, and then Cynefin is a possible usage method. (Agile Experience: Cynefin) Even before the separation during the summer of 2003 Cynefin, were working in partnership with Asken Ltd. And received a commission from Gwynedd Council to evaluate the implications of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. They were to be the advisors on the benefits and costs of different approaches to implementation of the Act.

Each of the five parts of the Act - "access to open countryside, public rights of way and road traffic, nature conservation and wildlife protection, areas of outstanding natural beauty and miscellaneous and supplementary" - was evaluated in terms of their likely impact on the Council's resources. Another evaluation done by Cynefin is concerning a practical education initiative in the counties of Gwynedd and Anglesey. The initiative was in response to recent actions of the National Assembly for Wales for extending education so that sustainable development is achieved. The scheme is called 'The Green Schools Scheme' and targets to provide education and awareness concerning sustainable development, as well as helping school children to target the reasons rather then the effects of environmental damage. (Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 - Obligations and Opportunities)

Gwynedd countryside access network is a sustainable tourism initiative and Cynefin produced a report making clear the opportunities that exist for stimulating economic growth through the further development, promotion and sustainable management of public rights of way in Gwynedd. The report showed in monetary terms the benefits that would be received to the area in terms of increased visitor expenditure, job creation and job retention in that particular market segment. The organization also worked with Sustrans to develop a strategic cycle route network in the part of Northern Snowdonia. The study made it clear that a cycle network could be fully integrated along with public transport, could be related to popular destinations and vie it with existing facilities.

The economic benefit of the network was also evaluated and reported. The report provided detailed maps and specifications which were prepared after carrying out an extensive survey of the study area. The study is to be used as a basis for promoting further cycle access. Cynefin has been made responsible for the ecological surveying and environmental monitoring along the length of the Welsh Highland Railway, which is now being restored between Caernarfon and Porthmadog. On the sides of the railway are particular habitats for wildlife, various statutorily protected species and working farms. The planners, landscape designers and environmental scientists of the organization work together with the railway engineers and landowners, as well as the planning and other statutory bodies, to ensure the work being carried out fits well into the scenic natural environment on the sides of the route. (Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 - Obligations and Opportunities) Thus one can reasonably say that the organization is now functioning as a provider for maintenance of environment in Wales, which was where the concept first started.

The basic beliefs in Cynefin:

The attempt of this method comes from the belief that whatever we perceive is organized into patterns and these patterns are often what seem to us to be the deciders of our destiny. Thus the concepts among us are something for which the perceivers, we are largely responsible. Since we are the perceivers we select from all the stimuli that fall on our senses only those which interest us. Selection patterns are based on our interests and these are governed by a pattern- making tendency, which is also called a schema. Today there is a chaos of shifting impressions and each and every one of us constructs a stable world in which all objects have recognizable shapes, are located in depth and have permanence. This is required by us and as time goes on and experience builds up, we make more and more development of our systems of labels. Thus a conservative bias is built in and this is what gives us confidence to face the world. (Complex Knowledge: The emergence of Contingent Complexity)

This is clearly a certain philosophy of looking at the world around us and probably this philosophy makes the human beings more responsible. In other cases often all matters are left to the desires of God, and the human beliefs are viewed to be the real objects. In this concept there are clear differences between objects and their concepts in the human mind. In simple cases, the objectives of business is felt to be the maximization of profit without consideration of the costs to society as the costs to society do not come out of the businessman's pocket. This is clearly an example of an individual look at the world.

The development of Cynefin:

The developers of Cynefin started working in the areas of knowledge management, cultural change and community dynamics, then extended into product development, market creation and branding, and later had started working more and more in the field of national and organizational strategy. There were different sources of funds for this work. Some had been directly funded by the U.S. government via DARPA -- Defense Advanced… READ MORE

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