![]() ![]() This assumption, grounded in the Newtonian science that underlies scientific management, encourages simplifications that are useful in ordered circumstances. Why do these approaches fail even when logic indicates they should prevail? The answer lies in a fundamental assumption of organizational theory and practice: that a certain level of predictability and order exists in the world. All too often, managers rely on common leadership approaches that work well in one set of circumstances but fall short in others. Though Gasior was ultimately successful in juggling multiple demands, not all leaders achieve the desired results when they face situations that require a variety of decisions and responses. “And in the midst of all this, we still had a department that had to keep running on a routine basis.” “There would literally be four people coming at me with logistics and media issues all at once,” he recalls. He had to deal with the grieving families and a frightened community, help direct the operations of an extremely busy police department, and take questions from the media, which inundated the town with reporters and film crews. In his dual roles as an administrative executive and spokesperson for the police department, Deputy Chief Walter Gasior suddenly had to cope with several different situations at once. ![]() In January 1993, a gunman murdered seven people in a fast-food restaurant in Palatine, a suburb of Chicago. Leaders can then make decisions and intervene in contextually appropriate ways. The way out is to break the situation into its constituent parts and assign each to one of the other four realms. The fifth context, disorder, applies when it is unclear which of the other four contexts is predominant. In this domain, a leader must first act to establish order, sense where stability is present, and then work to transform the situation from chaos to complexity. This is the realm of unknowables (the events of September 11, 2001, fall into this category). The relationships between cause and effect are impossible to determine because they shift constantly and no manageable patterns exist. In a chaotic context, searching for right answers is pointless. Leaders in this context need to probe first, then sense, and then respond. This is the realm of “unknown unknowns,” where much of contemporary business operates. In a complex context, right answers can’t be ferreted out at all rather, instructive patterns emerge if the leader conducts experiments that can safely fail. This is the realm of “known unknowns.” Here, leaders must sense, analyze, and respond. In this realm of “known knowns,” leaders must first assess the facts of a situation-that is, “sense” it-then categorize and respond to it.Ĭomplicated contexts may contain multiple right answers, and though there is a clear relationship between cause and effect, not everyone can see it. Simple contexts are characterized by stability and cause-and-effect relationships that are clear to everyone. The result is the Cynefin framework, which helps executives sort issues into five contexts: Snowden and Boone have formed a new perspective on leadership and decision making that’s based on complexity science. Before addressing a situation, leaders need to recognize which context governs it-and tailor their actions accordingly. Funny, interesting, and always understandable, this book is for anyone-age 5 to 105-who has ever wondered how things work, and why.Many executives are surprised when previously successful leadership approaches fail in new situations, but different contexts call for different kinds of responses. How do these things work? Where do they come from? What would life be like without them? And what would happen if we opened them up, heated them up, cooled them down, pointed them in a different direction, or pressed this button? In Thing Explainer, Munroe gives us the answers to these questions and so many more. In Thing Explainer, he uses line drawings and only the thousand (or, rather, “ten hundred”) most common words to provide simple explanations for some of the most interesting stuff there is, including:įood-heating radio boxes (microwaves) tall roads (bridges) computer buildings (datacenters) the shared space house (the International Space Station) the other worlds around the sun (the solar system) the big flat rocks we live on (tectonic plates) the pieces everything is made of (the periodic table) planes with turning wings (helicopters) boxes that make clothes smell better (washers and dryers) the bags of stuff inside you (cells) Have you ever tried to learn more about some incredible thing, only to be frustrated by incomprehensible jargon? Randall Munroe is here to help.
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