What would make something ‘anti-fragile’? And how could we support that in our enterprise-architectures? Over the past few months I’d noticed various references to Nassim Taleb‘s recent work on ‘antifragility‘, but had largely dismissed as just a made-up term for …

Antifragility and bullying Read more »

Just how restricting – 0r even dangerous – is our seeming ‘need’ for certainty? Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been exploring links between the SCAN sensemaking / decision-making framework and Cynthia Kurtz’s more socially-oriented Confluence sensemaking-framework. I still …

Control, complexity and chaos Read more »

What’s the trend? What’s going to be the New Normal, in business and elsewhere? Perhaps it’s just that time of year when people indulge in pointless ‘predictions’, but I’ve been seeing lots of articles recently that something-or-other either is or …

Not the New Normal Read more »

You can’t go wrong if you follow the rules, right? But what happens when you come across something where the ‘rules’ don’t make sense – and yet you still try to hold on to the certainty of ‘the rules’? Or, …

The cyclist-shopper’s tale Read more »

What is chaos? What does that word mean, in practice? And how – if at all – can we use chaos in enterprise-architecture? I’ve been having a great email back-and-forth on this with Cynthia Kurtz, co-originator of Cynefin, and – probably more relevant here – originator of the Confluence …

On chaos in enterprise-architecture Read more »

How do we use sensemaking-models in enterprise-architecture? What’s different about this discipline that can so often cause such use to become problematic? I know I need to move on to more of that current series on power and politics in enterprise-architecture, …

On sensemaking-models and framework-wars Read more »

This is the ‘review’ follow-on to the previous post ‘Cynefin and the Chaotic domain – an update‘. Back in that post I pointed to a report by Dave Snowden that he’s posted an update on ‘Cynefin subdomains in the Chaotic’, …

Cynefin and the Chaotic domain – a (non)-review Read more »

The first part of this is just a ‘public-service announcement’ service for Cynefin aficionados: Dave Snowden has announced that his current process of updating Cynefin has now extended to include a rethink of the Chaotic domain: RT @snowded: 2 months …

Cynefin and the Chaotic domain – an update Read more »

What’s the one phrase that enterprise-architects use time after time, and that drives almost everyone else crazy? Well, it depends… “It depends.” Yeah, we know it prob’ly depends, but just gimme the answer, willya? Frustration indeed… Going back to a …

“It depends…” Read more »

How can we collaborate in chaos? Or, to put it the other way round, how can we use apparent chaos to drive decisions that guide towards some desired yet emergent aim? As you’ll see, this post itself is a kind of …

Co-inspiring in the Chaotic domain Read more »