I’m back at work this month, I’ve found weeknoting this year difficult due to balancing clients comfort with open notes. The situation is unlikely to change in the near future. The thing I miss the most about the process is getting things that are looping around my brain down on paper and in public, this is because:

1. It gets it out of my brain before the weekend!
2. Writing helps me order swirly thoughts
3. People more intelligent than me usually chip in with ideas and answers I haven’t thought of!

So with that in mind I’m going to try ‘Unordered thoughts notes’ (nowhere near as catchy!) A list of things I’m grappling with, in more abstract terms to see if that scratches the weeknotes itch. Here’s this week’s unordered thoughts…

Cynefin and zoom levels

I’m a big fan of Cynefin as a framework to get shared understanding of the type of problem space your team is operating in. But this week I’ve found us zooming in and out of a complex problem space. I’ve noticed that when you zoom in, often the proposition is clear, but when you zoom out and see how the part interacts with other parts of a system, it quickly moves to complexity.

It’s reminded me of api’s. The aspiration is to have an api ‘do one thing well’; a clear problem in cynefin speak; but zoom out and look at any modern system map, you quickly find a complex ecosystem of api’s that can be difficult to navigate and understand. The line of when something goes from simple, to complicated, to complex feels like a thing I’m not sure what yet.

Of course the problem with complexity in cynefin speak is that a complex problem is by its nature impossible to map, you can only learn about its behaviour through observation, I feel like we’re plotting our ways of working for this but need to be mindful of expectations of clarity. Of course it also raises the question (Self doubt) are we in a complex space or just an incredibly complicated one (Cause and effect are knowable with expertise). Anyway looking forward to Randy Silvers talk on using cynefin to map AI initiatives next week, it might unblock my brain.

EDIT I shared an early draft of this post with a few people I blog with regularly. Neil Vass pointed me at What I learned from complexity

Team contribution to a problem versus too many lines of communication.

The age old balance of what’s the right level of engagement to rapidly define a problem space, versus getting a richness of views of opinions. This is a constant balancing act and I’m never sure if I’m getting it right.

Anyway thats whats been on my mind this week, I’m off to Wales to ride a motorbike up a mountain, if I survive I’ll keep this up!

EDIT I did survive dear reader and I would highly recommend riding up a mountain on a motorbike with Mick Extance if you’re that way inclined!