Dave Snowden

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Dave Snowden has been one of the leading figures in the movement towards integration of humanistic approaches to knowledge management with appropriate technology and process design. Well known for his work on the role of narrativeand sensemaking, he is an entertaining speaker and a formidable realist, and one of the few thought leaders who can bring together the academic and practitioner perspectives into a single, comprehensible purview.

Snowden's original degree is in Philosophy from the University of Lancaster and he also has an MBA from Middlesex University. He is the Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Cognitive Edge, which focuses on the development of the theory and practice of sensemaking. Cognitive Edge exists to integrate academic thinking with practice in organisations throughout the world and operates on a network model working with Academics, Government, Commercial Organisations, NGOs and Independent Consultants.

The Centre spun off from IBM in July 2005 to allow it greater freedom to explore new trans-disciplinary and participatory approaches to research and the creation of an open source approach to management consultancy. The Cynefin framework, which lies at the heart of the approach, has been recognized by several commentators as one of the first practical application of complexity theory to management science.

A native of Wales, Snowden was formerly a Director in the IBM Institute for Knowledge Management and founder of the Cynefin Centre for organisational complexity. He pioneered the use of narrative as a means of knowledge disclosure and cross-cultural understanding. He is a leading keynote speaker at major conferences around the world and is known for his iconoclastic style, pragmatic cynicism and extensive use of stories to communicate what would otherwise be difficult concepts.

[edit] Appointments:

Director for EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council UK) funding allocation on subject of Emergence
Editor in Chief (with Peter Allen, Cranfield and Jeffrey Goldstein, ISCE & Aldephi) for Emergence, Complexity and Organisation
Editorial Board of several academic and practitioner journals in the field of knowledge management including The Journal of Knowledge Management & The Journal of Information and Knowledge Management
Adjunct Professor of Knowledge Management, University of Canberra, Australia
Fellow of the Information Systems Research Unit at Warwick University, England* Adjunct Professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Faculty Member and MiNE Fellow, The Master of Management in the Network Economy(MiNE) Program of the Universita' Cattolicaat Piacenza, Italy
Visiting fellow at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies at Nanyang Technological University Singapore 2006

[edit] Other roles:

Lead authority European Commission report on the knowledge society
Special award at Academy of Management in Washington 2000 for original contributions to Knowledge Management, in particular the use of narrative and complexity theory
Founder member of the BIS Committee for Standards in Knowledge Management
Editor of two CBI (Confederation of British Industry) short guides to Knowledge Management
Annual Management Lectures at the Universities of Cardiff and Manchester
Substantial body of conference speaking at major events throughout the world, keynoting with figures such as Charles Handy, Peter Drucker and Tom Peters.
Special Advisor on sense making, Singapore Ministry of Defense.
Selected by IBM as one of six “on-demand” thinkers for a world wide advertising campaign

[edit] Partial list of publications:

Willmott, H., and Snowden, D. (1997). ”Knowledge Management: Promises and Pitfalls.” Mastering Management--The Reader 8, [Financial Times], 17-22
Snowden, D. (1999). “Story Telling: An Old Skill in a New Context.” Business Information Review, 16(1), 30-37. March
Snowden, D. (1999). “The Paradox of Story: Simplicity and Complexity in Strategy.” Scenario and Strategy Planning, 1(5), 16-20. November
Snowden, D.J. (1999) Spies Like Us in Leading Edge Vol 1 pp21-26
Snowden, D.J. (2000) “The Art and Science of Story” two part article in Business Information Review Issue 17 (3) & (4)
Snowden, D. (2002) “Complex Acts of Knowing: Paradox and Descriptive Self Awareness” in the Journal of Knowledge Management – Vol. 6, No. 2, (May) pp. 100-111
Snowden, D. (2003) “Managing for Serendipity: or why we should lay off ‘best practice’ in Knowledge Management” in Journal of Knowledge Management ARK May 2003
Kurtz, C & Snowden, D (2003) “The New Dynamics of Strategy: sense making in a complex complicated world” in IBM Systems Journal” Volume 42 Number 3 pp 462-483
Mark, A & Snowden, D (2004) “Researching practice or practising research - innovating methods in healthcare the contribution of Cynefin” Presented paper at the Organisational
Behaviour in Health Care Con-ference held by the Centre for Health and Policy Studies(CHAPS) University of Calgary at the Banff Centre Alberta Canada
Snowden, D & Stanbridge, P (2004) “The landscape of management: creating the context for understanding social complexity” in Emergence: Complexity and Organisation Volume 6 Numbers 1&2 Fall 2004 pp 140 – 148
Snowden, D (2005) “Multi-ontology sense making – a new simplicity in decision making” in Informatics in Primary Health Care 2005:13:00-00
Snowden, D (2005) “From Atomism to Networks in Social Systems” in The Learning Organization Vol. 12, No. 6 (2005).
Snowden, D. (1997) “A Framework for Creating a Sustainable Programme” in Knowledge Management Ed. Rock, S. London: Caspian Publishing (Republished in Knowledge Management Year Book 1999 Butter-worth April 1999)
Snowden, D. (1999) “Liberating Knowledge” Introductory chapter to Liberating Knowledge CBI Business Guide, Caspian Publishing October pp 9-19 (also editor of guide)
Snowden, D. (2000) “Cynefin: a sense of time and space, the social ecology of knowledge management”. In Knowledge Horizons : The Present and the Promise of Knowledge Management ed. C Despres & D Chauvel Butterworth Heinemann October 2000.
Snowden, D.J. (2000) “Story Telling and other Organic Tools for Chief Learning Officers and Chief Knowl-edge Officers” In Action: Leading Knowledge Management and Learning ed. Bonner, D ASTD (www.astd.org)
Snowden, D (2003) “Narrative Patterns: the perils and possibilities of using story in organisations” in Eric and Laurence Prusak eds. Creating Value With Knowledge Oxford University Press Sept/October
Snowden, D. (2003) “Knowing what we know: language and tools for knowledge mapping” invited chapter in forthcoming book on Knowledge Management in HR from Butterworth
Snowden, D (2004) “Strategy in the context of Uncertainty” in Patricia Coate (ed) The Handbook of Busi-ness Strategy Emerald Group Publishing
Oliver, G.R./Snowden, D.J. (2005): Patterns of narrative in organizational knowledge sharing: Refolding the envelope of art-Luddism and techno-fabulism. In: Schreyögg, G./Koch, J. (Eds.): Narratives and knowledge management. Exploring the links between organizational storytelling and knowledge management. Berlin: Erich Schmidt Verlag, 15-72.
Lazaroff, M & Snowden, D “Anticipatory modes for Counter Terrorism” in Popp, R & Yen, J, Anticipatory Models for Counter Terrorism Wiley-IEEE Press 2006
Kurtz, C & Snowden D “Brambles in a Thicket” in Gibbert, Michel, Durand & Thomas, Strategic Networks: Learning to Compete Blackwell 2007 (forthcoming)