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Multi-ontology sense making: a new simplicity in decision making
1Cynefin Centre for Organizational Complexity, UK. snowded@btinternet.com
Informatics in Primary Care
|June 14, 2005
Summary
Parenting young children is not like formal education. Instead of setting strict learning objectives, parents use attractors and behavioral barriers to foster self-organization and positive identities, ensuring a successful, albeit undefined, outcome.
Area of Science:
- Child Development
- Behavioral Science
- Sociology
Background:
- Traditional educational approaches emphasize predefined objectives and structured plans.
- Parenting often relies on intuitive strategies rather than formal project management.
Purpose of the Study:
- To contrast formal educational planning with naturalistic parenting strategies.
- To explore the effectiveness of self-organization and behavioral guidance in informal settings.
Main Methods:
- The study uses an analogy of a children's birthday party to illustrate key differences.
- It contrasts a hypothetical, overly structured party with a typical, intuitively managed one.
Main Results:
- Formal objectives and project plans are inappropriate for informal, emergent social events like children's parties.
- Parents effectively use 'attractors' and 'barriers' to guide behavior and encourage positive self-organization.
- Success is determined post-hoc rather than defined by pre-set empirical measures.
Conclusions:
- Effective informal guidance relies on emergent strategies, not rigid planning.
- Parenting and informal group management benefit from understanding self-organization principles.
- The study highlights the limitations of applying formal project management to complex social dynamics.