Second post in the definition(s) of anthro-complexity three-part series. This one deals with objections, pathways forward and two alternative metaphor-based definitions, along with a little discourse inspired by the epitaphs from Greek Plays. thecynefin.co/anthro-compl...

The first of three posts, which will lead to a definition of anthro-complexity. In many ways the culmination of a lot of new thinking I have been doing over the last four months. thecynefin.co/anthro-compl...

Completed a 12-post series on Information around Bateson's The Difference That Makes a Difference. For fun, got an LLM to provide a CST criticism &what it thought my response would be. The series is exploratory, probably provocative, and I will follow up thecynefin.co/differences-...

Stories, attractors and the ecology of the mind, using Le Guin as a narrative spine and rejecting the whole nonsense of memes.  A new blog post. Apologies for the actual banner picture being replaced by company branding. I'm trying to find out what happened  thecynefin.co/the-pattern-...

A blog post for International Women's Day, picking up on the Augustine/Pelagius theme using as a spine three women, my paternal Grandmother, my mother and my Grandaughter coupled with a theme of Manda Scott's Boudica and Roman novel series. thecynefin.co/the-book-on-...

The Intent is Pelagian. The Architecture is Augustinian. A criticism of dialogical work, stage theory, participative action research, deliberative democracy, neo-colonialism, Theory-U, cultural appropriation and a few other things besides thecynefin.co/the-containe...

Another philosophical post - but an important one. It examines issues of the individual and the collective, the links between gestalt and anthro-complexity and more. thecynefin.co/from-gestalt...

From the twelvetide series on wayshaping, perdurability & narrative through the metaphor of the Estuary, ’The Navigator’s Return’, using Homer’s Odyssey as the epigram. Contains the Estuarine Manifesto; seven key propositions for understanding wayshaping thecynefin.co/twelvetide-2...

Still on my Spinoza theme. Contrasting our fable form story with the Hero's Journey as a means of effective communication thecynefin.co/finding-thin...

Reflections on walking & wayshaping in the context of completing my second full Wainwright round yesterday. thecynefin.co/second-round...

Picking up on yesterday's theme of Spinoza and systems thinking, but this time with a criticism of what I thought was an injustice to Weick on social media thecynefin.co/the-gap-that...

“… curled up with Spinoza’s latest”, an exploration of Spinoza, systems thinking and complexity science inspired by Dr Mike C Jackson OBE. thecynefin.co/curled-up-wi...

’The Delta’: “Emergence in narrative is the appearance of meaning that no single story contains. A phenomenon that is easy to illustrate but surprisingly difficult to design for, and the difficulty is precisely what makes Wayshaping a practice rather than a method” thecynefin.co/twelvetide-2...

Annual St David's Day update on where we are with various methods, tools, frameworks etc. thecynefin.co/st-davids-20...

'Twelvetide the Ritual Calendar’ using Dickens’s A Christmas Carol as the epigram. “The Wayshaper who attends to an organisation’s ritual calendar is attending to one of the most important and most neglected instruments of perdurability.” thecynefin.co/twelvetide-2...

The metaphor of the Estuary, the post titled ’Skin in the Game’, uses Melville’s Moby Dick as the epigram. “The Wayshaper’s goal is not to provide the organisation with a better story but to increase the organisation’s own capacity for narrative sense-making” thecynefin.co/twelvetide-2...

“Organisations that rush through the brackish zone consistently arrive at new stable states that are less rich, less adaptive and less genuine than they could have been, precisely because they have not done the work that only the brackish zone makes possible.” thecynefin.co/twelvetide-2...

’Storm Channels’, using Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy as the epigram. “In narrative terms, anti-fragility appears most clearly in two forms: the heresy that renews doctrine, and the story of failure that becomes the founding lore of future success” thecynefin.co/twelvetide-2...

An update post on the concept of wayshaping in organisations, its links to perdurability, and the Welsh word Llwybr, which means much more than 'path'. Links to an earlier post for those who want to sign up for the development of the WRASSE, which we can now get started on. thecynefin.co/llwybr/

'The River Goddess & the River Pilot’, 'Wind in the Willows’ as epigram. “The pilot’s orientation is to the passage within a defined time. The goddess’s is toward the system: the long-term health of the waterway itself, the conditions that make all passages possible” thecynefin.co/twelvetide-2...

Another post in the series of frameworks to understand the correct balance between humans and AI, this time looking at acumen both as a unique human concept and as a useful acronym. As with yesterday's post, this was informed by my visit to Ukraine just over a week ago. thecynefin.co/acumen-revis...

Twelvetide series: 'Dredging’, using Dickens’s ‘Great Expectations’ as the epigram. “A zombie story is not a false story. That is what makes it difficult to address. It was true once, or at least it was a reasonable interpretation of conditions that once obtained” thecynefin.co/twelvetide-2...

The 3S triad (sentience, sapience & salience) was introduced as part of my continued work on the role of AI/Human balance. This post also positions the importance in the context of my experiences in Ukraine (a week of teaching in Lviv) just over a week ago. thecynefin.co/twilights-la...

“... epistemic legitimacy: the question of whether a story reflects genuine knowledge of the terrain it purports to describe, or whether it is a construction produced at sufficient distance from that terrain to be, in the most fundamental sense, fictional.” thecynefin.co/twelvetide-2...

not the preservation of specific stories but the maintenance of the narrative infrastructure that allows new stories to be recognised as belonging to the same living culture. The question is never what happened? But always, what does this teach us about how to navigate? thecynefin.co/twelvetide-2...

Revisting an old framework which gave rise to Cynefin, but this time in a new context thecynefin.co/an-old-frien...

Wayshaping, perdurability & narrative through the metaphor of the Estuary, post 'The Salt Marsh & the Mangrove’, with Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea as the epigram. “The crisis communicator is managing the surface. The Wayshaper is attending to the substrate.” thecynefin.co/twelvetide-2...

As an FYI, I will be in Paris from the 6th to the 14th of November for a Ring Cycle at the Paris Opera, so other than the 6th, 7th, 10th and 13th (from 1600), I'm free if anyone wants to organise something. We may do a public event, but we will then be looking for a host.

Any 'chief story officer's role is: "Not to compose the approved narrative, but to tend the meaning-making substrate: to keep the estuary in the condition of productive tension that allows stories to form, be tested against experience, be sedimented if they hold" thecynefin.co/twelvetide-2...

Rivers go one way. Organisations don't. My Twelvetide series — 12 posts, 12 novels — argues for the estuary metaphor and against the Chief Storyteller. The voyage makes the hero. The tending makes the home. thecynefin.co/twelvetide-2...

Final post in the M&A opens up (I hope) some new pathways & opportunities. Very happy to talk with in-house teams & specialist consultants. We may create a field book. With very little amendment, it could become a generic approach to organisational change thecynefin.co/ma-12-12-a-n...

Penultimate post in the M&A series now up, on using Cynefin as a meta-Framework, navigating the domains of merger integration and including what may be a significant update to the nature and use of the aporetic domain. thecynefin.co/ma-11-12-cyn...

Tenth post in the M&A series, this time on mapping both where we are, and what we know thecynefin.co/ma-10-12-map...

Post nine in the M&A series, moving on from narrative to social scaffolding and a key day one intervention thecynefin.co/ma-9-12-soci...

The eighth in the M&A series on anti-stories, hypocrisy and the story virus. I'm now caught up, so the 9th will go up tomorrow! thecynefin.co/ma-8-12-stor...

And the seventh in the M&A series, this time focused on using story templates for communication, contrast and discovery. Apologies for posting twice on social media within the hour, but I am in catch-up mode after a long journey from the UK to Lviv over the weekend. thecynefin.co/ma-7-12-stor...

Sixth post in the M&A series, focused on attitude mapping, weak signal detection, and a pre-acquisition audit capability. thecynefin.co/ma-6-12-atti...

M&A post 5/12 on the use of archetypes is now up. thecynefin.co/ma-5-12-the-...

Fourth post in the M&A series, now starting to get into practical methods and tools. This time, Sacred Story Books, which are powerful artefacts - if you do nothing else, check out the links to examples. thecynefin.co/ma-3-12-sacr...

Third post up in the Merger & Acquisition series - this one on narrative and epistemic justice is the transition to the next eight, which will all be methods and tools that you can use now. thecynefin.co/ma-3-12-narr...

Third post up in the Merger & Acquisition series - this one on narrative and epistemic justice is the transition to the next eight, which will all be methods and tools that you can use now. thecynefin.co/ma-3-12-narr...

Second M&A post up, this time on principles thecynefin.co/ma-2-of-12-p...

First in a twelve-part series on an anthro-complexity approach to mergers, acquisitions, and other major change. thecynefin.co/ma-1-of-12-l...

Considering a short notice masterclass in Dallas, TX, late afternoon 22nd January to the 23rd (the evening makes it a bit more relaxed - complexity theory as the main subject. We have a location volunteered. Testing for interest.

First twelvetide post of this year's series, which will look at narrative as a way of navigating organisations and society using the metaphor of the Estuary. This first post introduces the idea of perdurable systems that include resilience, robustness and anti-fragile thecynefin.co/twelfthtide-...

Why complexity matters? youtu.be/Da0Ek_hGB0I @snowded.bsky.social and @norabateson.bsky.social in conversation HT @chriscorrigan.mstdn.ca.ap.brid.gy for the link

Looking forward to this exchange with Simon - always entertaining, and there were 20 sign-ups with minutes of it being launched, and there are limited seats The Cynefin Company www.meetup.com/complexitylo...

My first visit to Japan (other than airport transits), and I'm pleased to say I will be keynoting at this Regional Scrum Gathering and also running some masterclasses resources.scrumalliance.org/Article/top-...

New post on the necessary granularity of culture change, linking much previous material and moving towards a wider, more theoretical piece over the weekend on a new idea about combining robustness, resilience and anti-fragility. thecynefin.co/granulatory-...

An invitation to our new participatory action research programme on balancing AI and human decision-making and sense-making. thecynefin.co/invitation-t...