Indian Aviation Leadership Engagement: Case Study in Leadership Development Using the Cynevin Framework

The paper presents a case study of a leadership development workshop facilitated by two American educators for a group of Indian aviation executives. The Indian aviation environment is quite complex and at times chaotic. The leadership development workshop was conducted as a sense-making exercise using Snowden’s Cynevin Framework. Pre-seminar and post-seminar survey comparisons indicated that the executives experienced significant shifts in attitude during the three-day workshop. Pre-seminar attitudes demonstrated little differentiation between sense-making and leadership action within complex and chaotic contexts. Post-seminar attitudes demonstrated a broader contextual understanding of sense-making and leadership in complex and chaotic environments. The executives left the workshop with a more nuanced understanding of contextually appropriate ways to make sense of and lead in the complex Indian aviation environment.