Cynefin is a sense-making framework; it offers us a perspective from which we can assess a situation and identify a strategy to deal with it.
Dave Snowden is the creator of the Cynefin framework. He started working on the model in 1999, while at IBM. He then went on to found and direct the IBM Cynefin Centre for Organizational Complexity in 2002. The word Cynefin itself is Welsh, pronounced kun-ev-in, and means haunt, habitat, acquainted, accustomed, or familiar.
The framework has four defined quadrants: OBVIOUS, COMPLICATED, COMPLEX, and CHAOTIC. Each quadrant defines a classification of a problem. In the center, there is a bubble of DISORDER; this is where issues that are yet to be classified reside. ...
