Snowden and Goldratt: Nature or Nurture?
The author compares Dave Snowden and Eli Goldratt through their use of teaching stories, enjoyment of debate, and interest in helping people understand systems. The imagined meeting is a personal reflection on their similarities and differences.
THE IDEA
Snowden and Goldratt: Nature or Nurture?
The author draws a personal comparison between Dave Snowden, creator of Cynefin, and Eli Goldratt, creator of the Theory of Constraints, describing both as physicist-philosophers who ran software companies. Remarkably, both used religion-based teaching stories to emphasize points and they enjoyed argument and debate. Both were natural procrastinators and had the drive to help people make sense of what was going on around them. Goldratt passed away in 2011 and never met Dave Snowden. If they had met, I have no doubt that the conversation would have lasted for hours and alternated between bouts of total agreement and total disagreement. They would have both delighted in it, and it would have been an event worth buying tickets to.
When to use it
Applying the combined insights of Snowden and Goldratt in organizational change management to address both complexity and constraints.
Using their shared emphasis on debate to foster critical thinking and constructive disagreement in team meetings.
Leveraging their love for teaching stories to improve communication of complex ideas in training sessions.
Examining your work habits separately from your interest in a thinker’s ideas, rather than treating procrastination as evidence of insight.
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
Debate and Synthesis
Imagine a workshop where Snowden and Goldratt are both present. Snowden argues for the importance of context in decision-making using Cynefin, while Goldratt focuses on identifying constraints with his theory. Despite their different starting points, both would likely agree on the need for systemic thinking and continuous learning, illustrating how complementary their perspectives are.
Teaching Stories
A teacher can use a story to introduce an abstract problem, then ask where the analogy helps and where it breaks down. This applies the comparison’s point about teaching through narrative; the excerpt does not provide either thinker’s stories.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
How can the similarities between Snowden and Goldratt inform your approach to problem-solving in complex environments?
Which habits described in this comparison help your own thinking, and which would you need to manage?
In what ways do the Cynefin Framework and Theory of Constraints complement each other when applied to organizational change?
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- Cynefin - Weaving Sense-Making into the Fabric of Our World ED02 (Dave Snowden Sonja Blignaut Zhen Goh)