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Sorting a collective mess through collaboration

Topic: Wicked problems
by Chetan, 2020 Cohort

What are wicked problems?#

These are the problems which have no singular way of framing them and no clear solutions to work on due to their complex nature. There is a lot of ambiguity, inter-dependency and a diverse set of stakeholders involved. A good way to think about wicked problems is that they’re a tangled mess of threads, you wouldn’t know which one to pull first and if pulling that one thread would make it better or worse.

An example of a wicked problem is public health scheme in an East African country:

• Public opinion of the health scheme is low, while government uses the health scheme as propaganda.
• Public thinks they’re entitled to the services and are used to not paying.
• Government is increasing prices of health services while people still feel entitled.
• Foreign aid hasn’t helped while aiders believe health services are a lot better now.
• People have unstable income; they’re expected to contribute regularly and are penalised if they do not.
• Private sector has more affordable options and better public opinion but government continues business.

In this context how do we know what the problem is? How would we start looking for a solution where we do not know what the problem exactly is? The wicked problems have no singular owner we can’t say which one of the stakeholders is responsible to fix healthcare system. And we cannot say whether the solution is changing behaviours of the public; changing public policy; improving health services; or promoting private health.

How might we then approach wicked problems?#

An analogy by the philosopher Karl Popper suggests that there are clock problems and cloud problems. Clocks predictable systems that can fixed through a simple investigation since in a clock we can look at individual parts and tell what’s wrong. The clouds are indivisible, emergent, and more or less unpredictable much like complex systems. Best we can do is predict patterns and identify different types of clouds that emerge in different environments.

Approaching a wicked problem requires you to frame the problem within it’s environment. Our main aim is to reduce the uncertainty; better understand the multi-layered cause and effect relationship between stakeholders and our degree of control over them. We need to think about trade-offs, interactions, inter-dependencies and constraints in a broader systemic perspective.

Collaborative strategies have proven to be most effective to approach wicked problems. One such strategy for addressing our health problem in East Africa might look like getting people from different disciplines together to work with stakeholders. Such as development economics, policy, health finance, social work and psychology coming together to work with local councils, policymakers, health workers, and private sectors.

Such a process will help achieve a more comprehensive frame of the problem in hand and in turn leading to developing more effective solutions. This strategy helps identify the full range of inter dependencies, connections, views, and potential solutions. No one stakeholder gets overwhelmed by the complexity, the problem gets broken down, while increasing the involvement and commitment of the stakeholders.

Explore this topic further#

• Wicked Problems{.link-ext target=”_blank”} (Wikipedia)
• Brown, Valerie A., John A. Harris, Jacqueline Y Russell 2010, Tackling wicked problems through the transdisciplinary imagination, Earthscan (Chapters 1 and 2) PDF{.link-new-win target=”_blank”}
• Alford, J., & Head, B. W. (2017). Wicked and less wicked problems: a typology and a contingency framework.{.link-new-win target=”_blank”}

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Disclaimer#

This content has been contributed by a student as part of a learning activity.
If there are inaccuracies, or opportunities for significant improvement on this topic, feedback is welcome on how to improve the resource.
You can improve articles on this topic as a student in "Unravelling Complexity", or by including the amendments in an email to: Chris.Browne@anu.edu.au

What are wicked problems?#

These are the problems which have no singular way of framing them and no clear solutions to work on due to their complex nature. There is a lot of ambiguity, inter-dependency and a diverse set of stakeholders involved. A good way to think about wicked problems is that they’re a tangled mess of threads, you wouldn’t know which one to pull first and if pulling that one thread would make it better or worse.

An example of a wicked problem is public health scheme in an East African country:

• Public opinion of the health scheme is low, while government uses the health scheme as propaganda.
• Public thinks they’re entitled to the services and are used to not paying.
• Government is increasing prices of health services while people still feel entitled.
• Foreign aid hasn’t helped while aiders believe health services are a lot better now.
• People have unstable income; they’re expected to contribute regularly and are penalised if they do not.
• Private sector has more affordable options and better public opinion but government continues business.

In this context how do we know what the problem is? How would we start looking for a solution where we do not know what the problem exactly is? The wicked problems have no singular owner we can’t say which one of the stakeholders is responsible to fix healthcare system. And we cannot say whether the solution is changing behaviours of the public; changing public policy; improving health services; or promoting private health.

How might we then approach wicked problems?#

An analogy by the philosopher Karl Popper suggests that there are clock problems and cloud problems. Clocks predictable systems that can fixed through a simple investigation since in a clock we can look at individual parts and tell what’s wrong. The clouds are indivisible, emergent, and more or less unpredictable much like complex systems. Best we can do is predict patterns and identify different types of clouds that emerge in different environments.

Approaching a wicked problem requires you to frame the problem within it’s environment. Our main aim is to reduce the uncertainty; better understand the multi-layered cause and effect relationship between stakeholders and our degree of control over them. We need to think about trade-offs, interactions, inter-dependencies and constraints in a broader systemic perspective.

Collaborative strategies have proven to be most effective to approach wicked problems. One such strategy for addressing our health problem in East Africa might look like getting people from different disciplines together to work with stakeholders. Such as development economics, policy, health finance, social work and psychology coming together to work with local councils, policymakers, health workers, and private sectors.

Such a process will help achieve a more comprehensive frame of the problem in hand and in turn leading to developing more effective solutions. This strategy helps identify the full range of inter dependencies, connections, views, and potential solutions. No one stakeholder gets overwhelmed by the complexity, the problem gets broken down, while increasing the involvement and commitment of the stakeholders.