Wicked Problems and Clumsy Solutions: the Role …

1 Wicked Problems and Clumsy solutions : the Role of Leadership Keith Grint BA (Hons) Sociology BA (Hons) Politics DPhil Professor of Public Leadership and Management Warwick Business School Originally Published Clinical Leader, Volume I Number II, December 2008, ISSN 1757-3424, BAMM Publications BAMM Publications is the publishing arm of The British Association of Medical Managers. To learn more about them or their various publications please get in touch at the address below. The British Association of Medical Managers Petersgate House, 64 St Petersgate, Stockport, SK1 1HE Tel: 0161 474 1141 Fax: 0161 474 7167 Email: 11 AcademicPaperThe Proble mofCha ngeIn his 199 0 bo ok ,Ma nag ing on the Edg e, Richar d Pa scalepr ovi des a grap h of bus ine ss fads and fa shio ns acro ssti me between 195 0 an d 19 95.

2 The gr aph reveal s all th epr im ar y tren ds from Mana gi ng by Wa lki ng Abo ut toOrg ani zation al Cult ur e to Bu si nes s Pr ocess Ree ngineeringan d ever yt hing in be tween. In deed , ro ughlyever y year anew fa d come s alon g to di spl ace th e old in a neveren di ng cycle of changeabou t cha nge .Str ange ly eno ugh,ev en thoug h we now seem to kn ow more ab out changeth an eve r before we still run up again st the universa l andapp are ntl y timelesspr oblemof fail ur e roughly 75 perce nt of all cha nge progra mme s seem to fail (Grint, 1995).Ve ry oft en we ass ume that cha nge is the equivalentofre st ru ct uring,for ex ample, th e Britis h NationalHea lthSer vi ce ha s spen t inor di nate amou nts of moneyand timein tryi ng to chan ge its elf bu t ve ry oftenthat cha ngeamo un ts to litt le more than a restr ucturingandre labe ll ing of th e orga ni zationrath er tha n any ra dic alat tem pt to ret hink it s purpose and rea lign it on that man y ways, th en, th e NHS reformslook mor e lik e anen dl es s cy cle of cen tral izati on an d dece ntra li zationsoth at the str uc ture in 200 8 looks rema rka bly simil ar to thestruc tur e in 1981 it s d j vu al l over fact.

3 If you look ove r most of th e po pul ar tex ts oncha nge there is a certa in fa mil iari ty about them. Gra nted,th e numb er of ele mentsin th e ch an ge processdiffersandso does the order in wh ich th ey shou ld be attempted, bu tby and lar ge they co mpri se somet hin g like this list of TenCommandments:1. An accep ted need to ch an ge2. A vi abl e vision /al ter nat ive state3. Ch an ge agen ts in pl ace4. Spon sors hip fro m abo ve5. Real isti c scale & pace ch an ge6. An integr ated tr an siti on pr ogr amme7. A symb ol ic en d to th e stat us qu o8. A pl an for likel y res ista nce9. Co nstant advo cacy10. A loca lly own ed ben efi ts pl anNow , ther e is nothing wro ng wi th this list, indeed, it sin tui tivel y ob vi ou s that thes e ki nds of issuesneed to beaddr ess ed whenun der taki ng any kin d of change,but thepro bl em is that the list does n t seem to work ver y wel l.

4 Itmi ght be , th en , that we neverunder take an y kind ofch an ge we on ly ever under ta ke a partic ular ki nd ofch an ge . In sho rt, the univers al so lution fa ils pr eci selybecau se no or gan izat ional change is th e sameas anyot her th er e ar e al ways sli ght bu t significantvar iati onsth at bedevil such ap proa ch es. Let us now tu rn to adiffer ent unders ta ndi ng of the nat ure of pro blemsto seewh eth er this migh t lead us ou t of the cha nge ma :theRoleofLeadershipKe ith Gri ntBA (Ho ns) Soci ol ogy BA (Ho ns) Pol itics DPhilPro fes so r of Def ence Le ad ershi p & De puty Pri ncipal(Ma nagementand Leadership)Def en ce Leadership& Ma nag em ent Cent re, Cranfield Univ ersityAbst ractKe yw ordsWe kno w a lot abou t organ is ation al ch ang e but despite- or pe rha ps because- the numbe rs of changemodelsar ound mo st change initiati ves fa il.

5 Th is art icle suggeststhat th is failuremig ht be to do with ou r frami ng of thepr obl em and co nsequent appro ach to re solvingit . Itsugg ests that dif ferentiating betw een Tame ,Wick ed andCr itic al Problems , an d ass ocia tingth es e withMana ge ment,Le ad er ship and Co mmand, mightbe away for wa rd. It then co nsiders th e ro le of defaultcu ltu res an d how thes e per suade us to engage elegant - that is inter nal ly co her ent - res po ns es. Thesemay befi ne for Ta me or Crit ical pro bl ems bu t Wicked pr obl emsne ed us to go beyond inter na ll y coh erent appr oac hesan d adoptso cal led Clu ms y Sol ution s that use the ski ll sof bri col eu rs to pr agmatic al ly en gage whatevercomesto han d to addr es s thes e mo st co mpl ex pr , Wi cked, Crit ical, Le aders hip, Man age ment, Command,Elegant, adem ic PaperThe Proble mofPr oblems.

6 Ta me,Wickedan dCri ti ca lMuc h of the writingin the fi eld of lea de rship research isgrounded in a typo logy tha t distinguishesbetweenLea ders hip and Managementas differentfor ms ofau th ori ty that is le gi timatepower in Weber s conception wi th lea ders hip te ndin g to embodylongertime periods,a more str at egic pe rsp ective,an d a requ ir ementto reso lvenov el prob lems (Brattonet al , 20 04) . Anotherway to putth is is that the divisi on is ro oted pa rtly in the conte xt:ma nagement is the equiv alentofd j vu(see n th isbe for e), whereas leader shi p is the equ ival ent ofvu j d (nev er seen this befor e) (Weic k, 19 93 ).. If this is val id thenth e mana ger is requir ed to enga ge the re quisitepro cessto resolvethe pr oblemthe last ti me it emer ged.

7 Inco ntr ast, the lea de r is re qui red to redu ce the anx iety of hisor he r fo llo wers who fa ce the unkn own by faci li tatingthecon struc tion of an innovativere sponseto the nov elpr oble m, rat her than rol lin g ou t a kn own proce ss to apr evi ousl y exper ie nced probl gement and Leadershi p, as two formsof autho rit yroot ed in th e distin ctionbet weencert aintyandun ce rta in ty, can also be rel ated to Ritte ll and Webb er s(19 73 ) typ ologyofTa meandWick edPr obl ems (Grint,2005).ATam e Problemmay be complicated but isre so lvab le thro ugh un il in ea r acts and it is li kel y to haveocc urr ed befo re. In oth er words,ther e is only a li miteddegre e of un ce rt ai nty and thu s it is asso cia ted withMana gement.

8 TamePr oblemsare akin to puzzl es fo rwh ic h there is alwaysan ans wer an d we mi ght considerhow Taylor(t he ori gi nator of Sci en ti fi c Management)ep it omi zed th is appro ach to pr obl em sol vi ng simplyapp ly sc ienc e pro pe rl y an d th e bes t so luti on wil l naturallyem er ge. The (s cie ntif ic ) man ager s role , th er efor e, is topr ovi de the app ropriatepro ce sse s the verita ble standardoper ati ng proced ure (S OP ) - to so lve the mpleswo uld in clu de: timet ablin g the railways,bui ld ing a nuclear pl an t, trai ni ng the army, pla nned hea rtsurge ry, a wag e ne go ti ati on, or en ac ting a tri ed andtru st ed policy for elimin atin g gl oba l terro ed Probl emis mor e complex,ratherthan justco mpl icat ed that is, it can no t be remo ve d fr om itsen vi ron ment,solve d, and retu rned wi thoutaffectingtheenvi ron , ther e is no clea r relations hipbe tweencauseand h pro blemsare of tenint ra cta bl e fo r insta nce, try in g to devel op a NationalHe alth Service(NH S) on the bas is of a sc ientificappro ac h(a ssu min g it was a Tam e problem )

9 Wouldsugg estprovi di ng ever yon e wi th al l the servi ces and medi ci nesthey req uire d bas ed on ly on the ir me dicalnee ,wit h an ageingpo pula tion, an increasingmedi ca l abi lit y to inter vene an d mai nt ai n life ,a potenti all yinf ini te increa se in demand but a finite level of economicres ou rce ther e can not be a scient ific solutionto theprob lem of the NHS .In sum we can not pro vide every thingfor ever ybody ;at some poi nt we need to mak e a pol iti caldec is ion abo ut wh o get s wh at and on what criteri a. Thisinh eren tly con tes ted aren a is typ ical of a Wick ed Probl emand wh il e we oftenturn a co llect ive blind eye to su chiss ues we can no t avo id maki ng a deci sion at some poi nt.

10 So if we thin k abou t the NHS as th e NIS the Nati onalIl ln es s Serv ice then we have a di ffer ent understandingofthe prob lem becau se it is es sent ial ly a seriesof TameProbl ems : fixi ng a br oken leg is th e eq uivalentof a TameProbl em ther e is a sci ent ific sol uti on to that and wekn ow how to fix them. Or rat her, suit ab ly qualifiedmedi calpr ofes sion al s kn ow how to fi x them. So to such peopl eyou r br oken leg is a Tame Pro bl em, but if you run (sorr y,cr awl ) into a res ta ur ant for yo ur br oken leg to be fix ed itwi ll becomea Wicked problem bec au se it s unlikely thatan yon e th er e wil l have the kn owl edge or the reso ur ces tofix it.