Cognitive Edge Pte Ltd
Founded in 2005, Cognitive Edge is focused on developing new methods and tools to assist organisations with truly complex problems and opportunities.
Members of the Cognitive Edge team
The key people are
| Steve Bealing | Chief Executive Officer |
| Dave Snowden | Founder & Chief Scientific Officer |
Cognitive Edge has three main focus areas
1. The creation of an open source approach to the development of consultancy methods. All methods created by Cognitive Edge can be downloaded for free, subject to agreement to a creative commons license. An international Cognitive Edge Network of accredited practitioners is being created through training and practice in collaboration with a variety of organisations.
2. The development of an approach to research based on participation and discovery rather than normative methods. Programs are created in which issues and problems in the real world of organisations are brought together in accelerated co-evolutionary processes with academic concepts to create new knowledge and understanding. This includes a conscious effort to bring insight and understand from the natural sciences into social systems.
3. The invention of software products (branded as the SenseMaker Suite) that leverage themes of narrative, complexity and networks for impact. The software provides a broad range of tools that enable the ideas to be made operation to practical effect in organisations. They also provide support to the open source Cognitive Edge Network and provide a funding mechanism for the overall objectives of Cognitive Edge.
Within the following Operating Principles
OverviewThe network seeks to apply insight from science and the humanities to organisations. The theoretical basis lies in naturalistic sense making, the organisational model is based on the development of an open source approach to consultancy methods and the provision of monetary value to the network through development of software.
Sense-making
Sense-making is defined as how we make sense of the world so that we can act in it. Our approach draws primarily on insights from the cognitive sciences and the science of complex adaptive systems along with anthropology and philosophy; not as an academic theory but as a co-evolution of sound theory with practice.
Abundance not scarcity
The network applies the principles of the open source movement to the development and access to methods. No one in the network can seek to take or develop these methods to create proprietary advantage, although network members are encouraged to augment and develop them for common use. The network is open to independent consultants, academics, members of in house and large consultancy organisations. In all cases they participate as individuals who are expected to respect this principle of abundance in all their interactions.
A naturalistic approach
Naturalistic approaches focus on a sufficient and shared description of the current state to allow the creation of interventions the impact of which can be monitored to allow the emergence of an beneficial future state. Naturalism is contrasted with normative or idealistic approaches which start with a desired future state, perform a gap analysis and then seek to close that gap.
Descriptive self awareness
Our research and consultancy methods aim to minimise the need for expert interpretation and recipe style approaches to
intervention design. Instead we focus on facilitating the emergence of meaning through and by the members of the organsiation or the subjects of the research.
Bounded & complementary applicability
No method or approach has universal applicability, normative methods such as process re-engineering and systems dynamics are all useful, but within boundaries. We develop naturalistic methods for use by the network in conjunction with more traditional approaches.
Accreditation
Members of the network are required to attend a basic accreditation programme and to maintain a record of their projects on the Cognitive Edge web site which is available for peer and client review. This record includes auditable statements concerning benefits for clients and mentor involvement in projects. A members status is thus dependent on their practice, not patronage and on proof not certification. All members must make their clients aware of the Cognitive
Edge web site, with its directories of practitioners and methods. Network members may make no claims to special
status or authority within the network.
Use of our name
The network depends on maintaining the reputation of the Cognitive Edge name. Accordingly it can only be used for methods as published on the web site in their original form.
Within Cognitive Edge while methods are open sourced, revenue is generated to support the network through the development of software and the sale of software licenses and services.
Registered Company Address
Old School
11D Mount Sophia #02-22
Singapore 228468