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Welcome to Cynefin.io

The 159 page, Naturalising Sense-Making wiki that almost anyone can edit.
Also home to Cynefin® Centre Programmes

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EU Field Guide

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Assemblages Reading and events Cases Complex facilitation Concepts

Framework articles Glossary incl. translations Methods Principles, metaphors & checklists

Support material & references Reading list Training SenseMaker® User guides Forums for SenseMaker®

Welcome!

Welcome to The wonderful world of the wiki: a project started in the Spring of 2021, in conjunction with the launch of the EU Science Hub and Cynefin® Centre co-authored Field guide to managing complexity (and chaos) in times of crisis with a view to scaling Naturalising sense-making as one of five schools of sense-making.

A Quick Guide to Navigating this Wiki

Methods can be major or minor, the former requiring some form of training and experiences. The latter tend to be swept up in the broad category of complex facilitation. Some methods require a knowledge of supporting theory (described in the concept pieces). These incorporate principles, commonly in the form of a heuristic to provide an easily memorable reminder of how to do things. Principles can be supported by metaphors and checklists.

Frameworks such as Cynefin® can be a method, or require method for their operation. Assemblages are, as the name suggests, an assemblage of methods, Frameworks and concepts, which require mentoring in the approach as a whole as well as training in the various components. Software solutions such as SenseMaker® get referred to as tools and are generally supported by methods and concepts. All of the above are supported by cases.

Specialist language used is outlined in the Glossary, which includes Translations. See also the listings of Books, events etc., the Support material & references and the Reading list. Additional pages can be found for SenseMaker®, including User guides and associated Community Forums. Other sections of the Wiki are given over to Cynefin® Centre activities, including Programmes, Signifier libraries and eBook outlines.

All material in the wiki is supported by Facilitation packs which also extend to other branded and open source methods.

Requests for technical support and the addition of templates and the like should be made here

News / Announcements

If you're keen to contribute to the Wiki, please visit our Welcome for Contributors. For the latest changes behind the scenes see the List of current issues.

Field guide to managing complexity (and chaos) in times of crisis

The new EU Science Hub and Cynefin® Centre co-authored field guide draws on more than two decades of work in naturalising sense-making and draws on the Cynefin® framework to provide decision-makers with a novel, yet simple to follow four-step process to help decision-makers working on how they can best make sense of the world during crises and how they can respond effectively. This Wiki is built around supporting theory and praxis. Start here.

Cynefin® Centre

The Cynefin® Centre is a membership-based action research and development hub, focused on working within the not-for-profit, government and academic sectors and focused on the application of complexity science to social good. Read an introduction here or explore one of the programmes:

• Citizen engagement
• Climate change
• Democratic innovation
• Discrimination, power and conflict
• Healthcare and patient journeys
• Numinous programme

The Cynefin® Framework

Cynefin®, pronounced kuh-nev-in, is a Welsh word with no direct equivalent in English, but the framework bearing the name has been used to support decision making for contexts ranging from agile software development to policing (e.g. with the Occupy Movement protests which swept across the United States in late 2011). This wiki introduces the framework, and ways of using it. Start here.

Sensemaker

SenseMaker® is an online crowd-sourcing research tool for collecting and self-interpreted micro-narratives and for discovering actionable insights beyond surveys and focus groups. It offers a science-based approach to guide collective impact and leverage the strengths of being human in uncertain times.