David Snowden,Founder and chief scientific officer of Cognitive Edge, UK Messy Coherence, the Reality of effective Knowledge Management

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Copyright © 2013 Cognitive Edge. All Rights Reserved. US Pat. 8,031,201
16 Mar 2015
Messy coherence
The reality of effective knowledge management
Copyright © 2013 Cognitive Edge. All Rights Reserved. US Pat. 8,031,201
Bryan Appleyard
New Statesman 10th April 2014
Gladwellism
the hard sell of a big theme
supported by dubious,
incoherent but dramatically
presented evidence

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Copyright © 2013 Cognitive Edge. All Rights Reserved. US Pat. 8,031,201
01.04.1954
Cynefin
a sense-making
framework
There are three basic types of system:
ordered, complex and chaotic.
Complex systems have propensities and
dispositions but no linear material cause
& effect
Process management and outcome
based targets only work in the ordered
domain, they produce perverse
outcomes in the complex domain
In a complex world we focus on
direction & multiple parallel safe-to-fail
experiments; not one fail-safe design
domain) disorder.
Complicated
Governing constraints
sense-analyse-
respond
Good Practice
Obvious
Rigid constraints
sense-categorise-
respond
Best Practice
Chaotic
Absence of constraints
act-sense-respond
Novel Practice
Complex
Enabling constraints
probe-sense-respond
Emergent Practice
Copyright © 2013 Cognitive Edge. All Rights Reserved. US Pat. 8,031,201
01.04.1954
Understanding by &
through actions
General rules
safe to fail
coherent
short term
Portfolio rules
one naive
one oblique
risk/return range

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Copyright © 2013 Cognitive Edge. All Rights Reserved. US Pat. 8,031,201
01.04.1954
Don't get involved in partial problems, but
always take flight to where there is a free view
over the whole single great problem, even if
this view is still not a clear
Wittgenstein
Copyright © 2015 Cognitive Edge. All Rights Reserved. US Pat. 8,031,201
16 Mar 2015
From robustness to resilience
Probabilityofoutcome
Range of possible outcomes
Gaussian
Low Probability High
impact events
Derived from material created by Max Boisot
Academy of Management Montreal 2010
10-
²
10-
¹
10⁰
10¹
10²
10³
10⁴
10⁵
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Magnitude m=log₁₀(S)
N(M=m(earthquakes/year)
Pareto
✘
early detection,
fast recovery &
speedy exploitation

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Copyright © 2015 Cognitive Edge. All Rights Reserved. US Pat. 8,031,201
16 Mar 2015
Different approaches tounderstanding
Logofeventfrequency
Log of event size
Pareto world
Gaussian world
Possible
Plausible
Probable
Hypothesis/
inductive
Non-hypothesis/
abductive
Copyright © 2013 Cognitive Edge. All Rights Reserved. US Pat. 8,031,201
01.04.1954
New model KM
Manage to clusters in the
tail of distributions
It’s about effectiveness
more than efficiency
Focus on description not
evaluation or interpretation
Realtime fast feedback
loops from the field
Conceptual blending;
mutating fragmented
memories with the real
world

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Copyright © 2015 Cognitive Edge. All Rights Reserved. US Pat. 8,031,201
16 Mar 2015
Navigating landscapes
Present
Past Future
Peers
Management Self-imposed
Lacking and
needed
Over the top
stressful
Situation relevant to…
Pressure coming from…
Sense of urgency is…
Creating new
process
Allocating
responsibility
All about sharing
failure
Fairness is about
Copyright © 2015 Cognitive Edge. All Rights Reserved. US Pat. 8,031,201
16 Mar 2015
Allowing differentiated actions

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Copyright © 2015 Cognitive Edge. All Rights Reserved. US Pat. 8,031,201
16 Mar 2015
Exaptation & knowledge discovery
1
2
3
4
Question
investment
Question
understandi
ng
Copyright © 2015 Cognitive Edge. All Rights Reserved. US Pat. 8,031,201
16 Mar 2015
... whereas strong dynamic links
among components (characterized as
nodes) result in a “strong cluster”,
weak links between strong clusters
give rise to a community or a world.
Since any node can simultaneously
belong both to a strong cluster and to a
larger networked community, society,
or world, boundaries become diffuse,
but also dynamic and creative.
Complex dynamical systems thus
begin to look more like bramble bushes
in a thicket than like stones. And it is
outdoorsman will tell you, to
determine precisely where a particular
bramble bush ends and the rest of the
thicket begins
Juarrero, A (2002) “Complex Dynamic
Systems and the Problem of Identity”
in Emergence 4(1/2) 94-104