5 Ways Groups Operate: A Lego Dalek Illustration of Cynefin

I'd been searching for a mental model for decision-making and governance for a long time, toying with the dated Vroom & Yetton model and others… Recently, I stumbled upon the Cynefin framework--Dave Snowden et al's Framework for Decision-Making. This way of seeing groups and providing the right frameworks for decision-making has been invaluable.

The other day I noticed the lineup of Lego Daleks on my spouse's office windowsill and thought about the process my son used to build different versions of them. It occurred to me that these Daleks illustrated the five different ways I've seen groups operate, through the lens of the Cynefin framework.

No Dalek--A Group in Disorder

In a disordered group, you'll see one or two folks insist on best practice or step-by-step approaches, while another suggests a literature review or SWOT analysis. Still another throws out some approaches that no one's tried, just to see what happens. And another plays "devil's advocate" with everything, leading the group into occasional flare-ups of chaos. When a group has a few competing constraints that cloud an approach to decision-making and action, you'll know it's in disorder.

In the context of our home Lego journey, that looks like Mom getting out the instruction book to build a Dalek, while Dad insists on experimentation with the available pieces. Meanwhile, my son brings various construction sets of his own into the room and ignores the instruction book. We bicker over approaches and rules, and no Dalek gets built.

The Licensed Dalek--A Group in the Realm of the Obvious

When a group knows its context, what they want done, and it's been done before, they're in the obvious domain. You'll see an expert dictating tight constraints to a group who's ready to follow their step-by-step instructions.

My family's Obvious Dalek is one that Lego and the BBC would be proud of. It's a licensed character my son built with the materials provided, using the official Lego instruction book. There were no arguments. Building these Daleks works every time, and they look pretty cool.

It's Essentially a Dalek--A Group Facing the Complicated

A group is in the complicated domain when it's governed by a few experts who have different views of what approach to take. After some discussion, they can agree on governing constraints about essential features of a good decision within the group's context, but nobody can claim there's one best approach.

Our Complicated Daleks were pretty fun to build. We didn't have all the right pieces to build the ones in the instruction book, so we set it aside and negotiated governing constraints about what it takes to build a recognizable Dalek: a conical shape, an eye stalk, and two spindly arms with different appendages, if possible. We also decided our Daleks needed to fit the scale of the Lego Tardis set.

Emergent Daleks--A Group in Complexity

These are the groups who've tried everything before and know it doesn't work. They're starting to distrust experts, as those in their midst and from the outside have failed them. Their knowledge base has shifted so quickly that no one knows what will work, and obsolescence plagues every long-range plan they've tried to front-load. Most everyone knows they need to try something new.

The Johnson house was ready for emergence after everything that looked like an eye stalk was used up, and my son still wanted to build a Dalek army. He gave himself some enabling constraints, getting out all the pieces that might work within the Lego Tardis scale. We set a boundary that the Dalek army needed to fit on the windowsill. He knew he liked Cybermen, so he wondered what it would look like if the Cybermen and Daleks worked together. We were pretty impressed with some of these, but others went unfinished or got their parts reclaimed for new trials.

The Parents Have a Fit--A Group in Chaos

I've never seen a group who's truly fallen into chaos, and I'm glad. However, I have seen glimpses of it: temper tantrums, walk-outs, arguments without a point, lost agendas, and forgotten rationales. Usually, when chaos begins to set in, the most authoritative person in the room steps in to impose order of some kind, and a group near chaos usually follows the first person with a clearly communicated plan--for good or ill.

In our case, we knew chaos was setting in when my spouse's office started filling up with tiny Lego bits everywhere, with no surface left to work. My son no longer followed even the enabling constraints of using Legos and keeping things within scale. He began making unreasonable requests for materials, space, and time to work. Arguments broke out over use of the office and pieces of the Tardis set going missing. At that point, we put a stop to further development of the Dalek army.

More on the Cynefin Framework

Don't rest with my (undoubtedly incomplete) analogies here. If Cynefin has you intrigued, go learn more right now: Dave Snowden lectures are everywhere on the web these days, but here's a juicy article and an elegant video to begin your journey. I'd be remiss if I didn't also share Snowden's clever birthday party illustration too…just in time for my son's 11th birthday party!