Skip to content

Organising a child's birthday party

See also: distribution

A story about organising a child's birthday part told by Dave Snowden. The story illustrates three different ways to manage this task based on different assumptions about the type of system involved. Three types of systems are used, including:

  1. Simple - the system is ordered and the relationship between cause and effect is obvious to all. The approach is to sense - categorise - respond and we can apply best practice.
  2. Complicated - the system is ordered, but the relationship between cause and effect requires analysis or expertise. The approach is to sense - analyse - respond and we can apply good practice.
  3. Complex - the system is unordered and the relationship between cause and effect can only be perceived in retrospect. The approach is to probe - sense - respond and we can sense emergent practice.

Implications#

Too much of what we do assumes a simple or complicated system.