Sonja speaking: I was first introduced to Dave and the then Cynefin set of methods around 4 years ago when the first practitioner training took place. Back then I was still working for IBM, and it was an uphill battle to find any projects to work on. Since then, we’ve had the opportunity to do some really interesting work, specifically in the financial sector. Last year I struck out on my own, and I’ve never looked back. Prophets of doom in IBM said that the application of complexity and narrative in business would never be a sustainable business model, but I’m happy to report they were proven wrong! I recently started a new company together with 2 other practitioners, one of which, Aiden Choles will be blogging with me (Sonja) this week. We are the official Cognitive Edge accreditation partners in South Africa, and therefore have a good understanding of Cognitive Edge related activities. In this first entry, we’d like to reflect on the journey of building a Cognitive Edge network and capability in South Africa.
We started out with a single client, Absa bank. We successfully completed several interesting and innovative projects for them including a narrative enquiry to understand customer experience, a narrative culture survey and a comprehensive knowledge strategy. The very first project was pre-hypothesis research to determine the best way for them to enter the unbanked mass market, they subsequently went on to become market leaders in this space, partly based on insights gained from the outputs of this project. Since then, we’ve engaged with several other clients including a parastatal scientific research group, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, a large Mobile Telecomms company and several other banks. We also have a network of approximately 70 accredited practitioners, many of which have gone on to run successful projects within their organisations.
Recently we’ve noticed a distinct shift in the market with regards to perceptions around the value of these ‘weird and fluffy’ (not my words) approaches. In the past it was extremely difficult to sell Cognitive Edge based projects. Since the middle of 2006, there has been a positive shift in the way that executives react when they are introduced to these approaches. This is especially true in the mining industry. At first glance one wouldn’t think that such a ‘hard’ industry would be interested in such a ‘soft’ approach, but now that we’ve engaged with these companies we’ve come to realize that they face tremendously complex issues.
Our most recent project was with a large Gold Mining concern. We conducted a narrative based culture audit in the supply chain, and I must say, this has been one of the more interesting projects I’ve done to date. For example, we had to adapt the methods to accommodate different levels of literacy as well as multiple languages. This project is nearing conclusion now, and over the next week Aiden and I will be reflecting on the process, as well as the learnings we’ve gleaned through this process. We hope that these will be of value to other practitioners in the network as well.
Comments (1)
I can go even further back on this. Four of us were trained in Australia by Dave and his team. We came back to SA and arranged two training sessions that Dave and team undertook. Of the original four only I am left, having retired and working on part time basis, still in the field telling students at the University of Pretoria about Complexity theory and all Dave's great creative work. (The one other person trained in Australia Melanie Botha is still with IBM but is not working in complexity/narative field. The other two are no longer in SA)
Sonja is a real star - she was a true believer in narative and what could be achieved. She had the guts and drive to get out and make the difference and needs to get a lot of credit for where practice it is going in SA. I see the team working with her is also expanding - good going)
Another person who I have done a lot of work with is Deonie Botha. I assisted her in first lectures in KM and info management at post graduate level at Pretoria University on basis of complexity theory. She has moved on and I am still taking on the course with Dave's assistance - He also lectured to the students for 4 days. (Students loved the lectures, but O the questions now that exams are near)
I am of the opinion that the market in SA is relatively open for new ideas as the tools of the scientific ara of management are not working in the emergent context and to quote Tom Peters we are revelling in the mess. I have one new paper that will be published in Management Today this month - My focus is to on an academic level (Research based)is to generate an insight into use of narative, have three more papers submitted and under consideration - aspects of complexity theory included in two of them relating to emergent strategy.
Sonja keep-up the good work
Regards
Richard
Posted by Richard Weeks | September 18, 2007 6:55 PM
Posted on September 18, 2007 18:55