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Where does this term 'Wicked Problems' come from?

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Where does this term 'Wicked Problems' come from?

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Horst W J Rittel and Melvin M Webber first coined the phrase in 1973 when writing about social policy and the problems encountered. The original article can be found here below

We recommend you read the article – it is short and very clear – should answer many of the questions or confusions you have about the term.

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Dilemmas in a general theory of planning

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The search for scientific bases for confronting problems of social policy is bound to fail, becuase of the nature of these problems. They are "wicked" problems, whereas science has developed to deal w

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Climate change is a super wicked problem

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Climate change is a super wicked problem

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In 1973, Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber wrote a paper in Policy Sciences that introduced the term "wicked" problems. Wicked problems are societal problems that lack simplistic or straightforward planning responses. According to Rittel and Webber:

We use the term "wicked" in a meaning akin to that of "malignant" (in contrast to "benign") or "vicious" (like a circle) or "tricky" (like a leprechaun) or "aggressive" (like a lion, in contrast to the docility of a lamb).

Characteristics of wicked problems

Rittel and Webber identified ten characteristics of wicked problems. Their list is a bit dated and I prefer the more recent version from the excellent report on Tackling Wicked Problems from the Australian Public Service Commission:

Wicked problems are difficult to clearly define - different stakeholders have different views of what the problem is and appropriate responses

Wicked problems have many interdependencies and are often multi-causal - there may be conflicting goals for those involved

Attempts to address wicked problems often lead to unforeseen consequences - wicked problems exist in complex systems that exhibit unpredictable, emergent behaviour

Wicked problems are often not stable - understanding of the problem is constantly evolving

Wicked problems usually have no clear solution - there is no right or wrong response, although there might be worse or better responses

Wicked problems are socially complex - it is social complexity, rather than technical complexity, that is overwhelming

Wicked problems hardly ever sit conveniently within the responsibility of any one organisation - these problems cross governance boundaries

Wicked problems involve changing behaviour - with all the difficulties that poses

Some wicked problems are characterised by chronic policy failure - they have become intractable, despite numerous attempts at solutions.

Responding to wicked problems

The point of defining particular problems as wicked is not to sit around and lament, but to point out that these problems require a different kind of response. Defining particular problems as wicked was a challenge to the dominant rational responses to policy development. Instead, responses to wicked problems need to be collaborative, innovative and flexible. The kind of strategies typically employed are:

To use holistic, not partial or linear thinking

Innovative and flexible approaches built on action, experimentation and evaluation

Work collaboratively across boundaries

Engage stakeholders (which may include citizens) in understanding the problem and identifying responses

Develop core skills and competencies - communication, big picture thinking and influencing skills, and the ability to work cooperatively

Envision and explore the future / adopt a long-term focus

Understand how to change behaviour.

I've drawn on the Australian Public Service Commission report and a piece by John C. Camillus in Harvard Business Review to develop this list.

Climate change as a 'super wicked' problem

It has become commonplace to describe climate change as a wicked problem. For example, the Australian Public Service Commission report identifies climate change, obesity, indigenous disadvantage and land degradation as wicked problems.

The term "super wicked problems" was introduced by Kelly Levin, Benjamin Cashore, Steven Bernstein and Graeme Auld in a 2007 paper at the International Studies Association convention. Their 2012 paper in Policy Sciences explores the concept and its implications in greater detail.

Now, 40 years after the original Rittel and Webber paper in Policy Sciences, a 2012 paper in the same journal is arguing that climate change is more than just a wicked problem - it is a "super wicked" problem. According to Kelly Levin and co-authors, super wicked problems are a new class of global environmental problem with four key features:

time is running out

those who cause the problem also seek to provide a solution

the central authority needed to address them is weak or non-existent

irrational discounting occurs that pushes responses into the future.

Together these features create a tragedy because our governance institutions, and the policies they generate (or fail to generate), largely respond to short-term time horizons even when the catastrophic implications of doing so are far greater than any real or perceived benefits of inaction.

It's worth looking at each of these features in turn, drawing on the Levin et al (2012) article.

Time is running out

The argument here is that global environmental problems like climate change are different to most social challenges because 'the problem will, at some point, be too acute, have had too much impact, or be too late to stop or reverse'. We do not have the luxury of coming back for another try the next time the political interests align. With respect to climate change:

Significant impacts will occur; with each passing year, they become more acute; and if we do not act soon, the risk of harm to human communities and ecosystems, as well as non-linear change and catastrophic events, increases.

Those seeking to end the problem are also causing it

It is difficult, perhaps impossible right now, to live without creating some greenhouse gas emissions.

Every concerned person trying to reduce climate change has contributed to climate change.

This means, in essence, that we are partly fighting ourselves when we fight climate change. The enemy is distributed - it is all of us.

No central authority

There is no coordinated global governance system that has proven itself effective in addressing global environmental problems like climate change. The glacial process of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations and the lack of any way to enforce global emission limits underscores the lack of central authority on this issue.

Policies discount the future irrationally

We know from psychological research that people favour definite present consumption over possible future gain and that this individual tendency is reflected in our collective policy making.

Partly as a result of the above three features, super wicked problems generate a situation in which the public and decision makers, even in the face of overwhelming evidence of the risks of significant or even catastrophic impacts from inaction, make decisions that disregard this information and reflect very short time horizons.

What does all this mean?

The argument that global environmental problems, particularly climate change, constitute a new class of problem is not new. Clearly, climate change is challenging the capacity of humanity to respond like no problem before it. As a truly global challenge that stems from the very structure of our techno-economic systems, it demands responses of unprecedented scale and depth.

Identifying the four characteristics of super wicked problems is certainly a useful contribution. However, like Rittell and Webber's paper, the most important reason for defining a new class of problems is to draw attention to a new class of policy responses. Levin et al suggest that those responding to super wicked problems need to ask:

What can be done to create stickiness making reversibility immediately difficult?

What can be done to entrench support over time?

What can be done to expand the population that supports the policy?

In other words, policy responses to climate change need to find ways to lock themselves in, or create path dependency.

In Australia, it seems very likely that we are about to see the consequences of failing to find ways to lock in climate policy. The likely election of a Coalition Government in late 2013 is expected to lead to the repeal of Australia's fixed carbon price. Could the Labor Government have done more to lock in an effective climate policy?

Applied forward reasoning

Levin et al argue for a new epistemological approach to policy development called applied forward reasoning. This kind of approach looks forward to identify ways in which new policies can consciously generate path-dependence through lock in, self-reinforcing, increasing returns and positive feedback.

In this approach, the key strategies become:

Identifying interventions that have the potential to create lock-in, perhaps by focusing on small changes to existing sticky institutions or looking at lower policy levels where small changes could ratchet up over time

Short-term coalition building, to expand the supportive population and entrench that support over time

Creating new interests whose identities align with ameliorating the super wicked problem, for example through training and education to build skills needed to address such problems (e.g. in solar panel installation)

Paying attention to how norms and values might play a role in policy trajectories, generating new "logics of appropriateness" that are self-reinforcing.

Returning to the example of carbon pricing in Australia, the Labor Government did employ some of these strategies. For example, it linked the carbon pricing policy with income tax cuts, on the good logic that creating a wide constituency benefiting from the policy would entrench support for carbon pricing and make it sticky. While a good strategy, it was perhaps let down by extraordinarily poor communication and the toxic oppositional tone of current Australian politics.

Conclusion

My first response to the concept of super wicked problems was that the additional clarity added little value. Wicked problems are hard enough to deal with and defining climate change as a super wicked problem just underlines that climate change is a really hard problem to deal with - we know that!

On digging deeper though, I can see the value in naming the characteristics that make climate change a new kind of challenge. Most importantly, Levin et al make an important contribution by focusing our attention on ways to make climate policy self-reinforcing and self-protective.

Climate policy involves imposing costs on the present to reap gains in the future. For me, the most telling point that Levin et al make is that we are psychologically inclined to wriggle out of those kind of commitments. We might make them in good faith, but when the costs begin to bite, we give in to temptation and let the future take care of itself.

Carbon pricing in Australia is a classic example. Kevin Rudd's Labor Government came to power in 2007 on a wave of concern about climate change. But when the real, present costs of climate policy became clearer to us, the backlash began. Six years later, we have a carbon pricing mechanism that is under severe threat of being rolled back if the Coalition is elected later this year. What looked like progress may end up in stalemate because the Labor Government was unable to find ways to lock in a progressive climate policy.

My personal response to this situation, and one I think is supported by the Levin et al analysis, is to work towards bipartisan support for an effective climate change response in Australia. This means broadening coalitions and constituencies for action and continuing to position carbon pollution as a social bad to activate social norms. A super wicked problem needs a super broad alliance to make real progress.

I am indebted to Stephen McGrail for introducing me to super wicked problems. His related post on super wicked problems and the role of foresight is an excellent read.

Credits: Photo: duck farm on deviantART

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Climate change is a super wicked problem - Planetcentric

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In 1973, Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber wrote a paper in Policy Sciences that introduced the term "wicked" problems. Wicked problems are societal problems that lack simplistic or straightforward planning responses.

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February 22, 2017

Rosabeth Kanter is arguably the most respected and revered organizational theorist and consultant in the United States and perhaps in the world. She begins her most recent book, Confidence: How Winning and Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End, published in 2014, with the observation that it often seems as if there are only two states of being: " Boom or Bust. " Everyone wants to win and no one wants to lose, Kanter observes, yet some people end up mostly winning and others mostly losing. What's going on?

What Kanter is after is a deeper understanding of three critical issues: First, why is it that some athletic teams, companies, work teams, families, or couples seem to be able to create and maintain winning streaks? Second, why is it that others seem to always be losing? And finally, what needs to happen to turn things around and move the individual or group from losing to winning?
Denial of Problems is Often the Problem
The principle culprit for falling into a losing streak or being stuck in one is not the presence of troubles or problems. That is to be expected. No one escapes from their share of conundrums, dilemmas or difficulties. "Winners are not immune from problems, and winning streaks are not trouble free periods," writes Kanter. "Life is not benign, but that doesn't mean that winning streaks end because of troubles. Winning ends when threats and problems are denied." It is not having problems that is the problem but denying that they exist. "One reason that the mighty inevitably fall is a preference for denial. Lapses from efficient, rational, law-abiding, virtuous...functional behavior are a constant danger and when they occur, denial is tempting."
The Rocking Horse Dilemma
If the first reason for staying mired in a losing streak is denying that a problem exists, then a second one is that those who are responsible for dealing with problem seem unclear or uncertain about what to do about it. Even after getting beyond denial - when problems are recognized and agreed to - what often happens next can turn out to be ineffectual, insufficient or unhelpful: People often get caught in the Activity Trap. There is too much movement from side to side and not enough movement toward important goals. This pattern of working hard and getting nowhere is worse that just wasting time. Repeated thrashings about on problems with limited understanding and less coherence takes its toll on the willingness to stay involved; people become stressed out by too much noise and too little music. Excessive " Strum und Drang " is antithetical to any kind of productive work.

Mucking around in the middle of a problem with little or no awareness or understanding of what is needed can be described as the Rocking Horse Dilemma: "Do not confuse motion and progress," says writer Alfred Montapert. "A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress."

Kanter is clear about antidotes to the denial of problems and the endless rocking back forth with little productive movement. Both are serious obstacles that block the way toward changing a losing game into a winning one. What is required to counter them is effective problem solving: "Problem solving," writes Kanter, "consists of open dialogue, diagnosis of the situation, facing the facts, and mobilizing to take corrective action."
Conversations Are Required
Foe Kanter open dialogue involves effective people talking to each other in ways that encourage a deeper understanding of two critical aspects of effective work with problems. The first is the presence of differing perceptions and convictions about what isn't working as it should; the second, clarity about possible opportunities that may lie ahead. In the best case, these open conversations can lead to an accurate diagnosis of the problem: a clear description of the gap between the present state of affairs and a future one, and the identification of the most important obstacles that stand in the way.

What is next is "facing the facts" - agreeing on the critical issues and events and what they mean. And finally, mobilizing resources in order to deal with the obstacles that block the way forward. Robert Frost once wrote "...the best way out is always through," yet for some obstacles "going through" may not work, and going over, around or even under may be the better choice.

No matter which way is chosen to deal with these obstacles, open, honest, extended and productive conversations will always be required. No progress can be made on diagnosing the problem and putting together an plan to take corrective action without continuing conversations among those who are addressing the problem.
Not All Conversations Are Equal
Conversations are not rare events. We spend large parts of any one day in conversations with others. But not all conversations are equal. Most consist of "small talk," often no more than random discussions of trivial issues. While they have their purpose, these are not suitable for dealing with wicked problems. When we talk to each other about moving from failing to succeeding, the conversations that are most helpful are those, says Kanter, that increase the presence of "accountability, collaboration and initiative." Conversations that insist upon accountability, increase collaboration, and encourage taking initiative as part of the process are never "small talk" conversations, but require sustained effort, risk-taking, courage, and tenacity.
Fierce Conversations are Required
Conversations that exhibit these qualities are best described as fierce. In the last essay, I defined fierce conversations as those in which "we come out from behind ourselves into the conversation and make it real." A real conversation in one in which people say what they think. prefer, mean, want, can support, disagree with, and wonder about, without making the others in the room feel angry, defensive, hostile or under attack. Fierce conversations move us from hiding, distorting, misrepresenting, avoiding, smoothing over, or dodging to openness, honesty, accuracy, and clarity. Above all, when we talk to each other about about important issues, fierce conversations help us reduce the gap between we think and what we say.
Four Fierce Conversations
Jack Welch Hangs Up the Phone:

In recent years, Beth Comstock's rise in General Electric has been meteoric. She has put together an impressive winning streak. In 2008 she was named Chief Marketing Officer, and in 2015 she moved up to become Vice-Chair and President and CEO of GE Business Innovations. In 2016 she was #45 on Forbes Magazine list of the "World's 100 Most Influential Women in Business."

She joined GE from a successful career in media. "My life in the media - especially network news - had been an adrenaline rush," she wrote, "racing from deadline to deadline. If you don't make it to air, there is nothingness. You're dead." Expanding upon this description, she added:
For me, it was a constant whirl, making sense of the constant stream of information coming in, calling reporters covering us to tell them what was happening and why we were doing it best. I'd think sometimes, if only I could field phone calls with both hands and both feet all would be good.
Moving fast and being organized were my strong suits. The more to do, the more I felt alive. Productive. Efficient. Every to-do list was checked, with urgency as my soundtrack. I loved the thrill, and I was good at keeping up with it.

One afternoon while talking on the phone to her boss, CEO Jack Welch, the line suddenly went dead. She tried to call him back but to no avail. When she reached his assistant Comstock reported that they had been disconnected. "No you weren't," she said, "Jack hung up on you."

Later she learned why. Jack Welch let her know that he hung up on her so she would understand how other people felt when they were talking to her. He told her that when she was with other people she came across as too efficient, too organized, too rushed. They often wanted her to slow down and once in a while to shut up!

Comstock was shocked to hear that her style was not helpful. Her boss had admonished her for being "too efficient [and] my zeal to do everything on my to-do list...made me come across as abrupt and cold... [I learned that it was not helpful when] I started every meeting by jumping right in and left with every action under control."

'You have to wallow in it," counseled Welch. "Take time to get to know people. Understand where they are coming from, what is important to them. Make sure they are with you."

Welch's intervention with Beth Comstock was fierce. He pulled no punches. Was it helpful? "I cringe sometimes," said Comstock, "when I think how I must have come across at times and how long it took me to change my ways...But yes, I've learned not only to wallow it in but to enjoy it...I will be forever grateful for the time and humor Jack invested in me to teach me these important work and life lessons."

Clearly, among the many reasons for Comstock's success is that when Jack Welch helped her became aware of a serious problem, rather than deny that it existed, she embraced it and took "corrective action."

And her impressive winning streak continued.

Haji Ali's Lesson:

In 1993 an American mountaineer named Greg Mortenson, after a failed attempt to climb K2, stumbled into an impoverished village in the Karakoram mountains of Pakistan. Nursed back to health by the kindness of the villagers, Mortenson made a commitment to return and build a school for the village.

Several years later, Mortenson watched with satisfaction as the walls of a school for the village children rose steadily. What worried him, however, was the persistent absence of many of the workers. On any given day, about half of the villagers who were building the school stayed at home to tend their crops and animals. " I tried to be a fair but tough taskmaster," wrote Mortenson in Three Cups of Tea. "I spent all day at the construction site, from sunrise to sunset, using my level to make sure the walls were even and my plumb line to check that they were standing straight. I always had my notebook in my hand, and kept my eyes on everyone, anxious to account for every rupee...I drove people hard."

Several weeks later, Haji Ali, the leader of the village, appeared at the construction site, tapped Mortenson on the shoulder, and asked him to take a walk. The old man led the former mountain climber uphill for an hour, then halted on a narrow ledge high above the village. Panting from the strenuous climb, Mortenson worried about all of the work on the school he was failing to supervise.

Haji Ali put his hand on Mortenson's shoulder, gestured to the mountains that rose all around them, and said, "These mountains have been here for a long time. And so have we. You can't tell mountains what to do," he continued. "You must learn to listen to them. So now I am asking you to listen to me. By the mercy of Almighty Allah, you have done much for my people and we appreciate it. But now you just do one more thing for me.

"Anything," Mortenson replied.

"Sit down. And shut your mouth," Haji Ali said. "You're making everyone crazy."

Reaching out, he took Mortenson's plumb line, his level and his account book, then turned and walked back down the mountain to the village.

"That day, Haji Ali taught me the most important lesson I've ever learned in my life," Mortenson wrote. "We Americans think you have to accomplish everything quickly. We're the country of thirty-minute power lunches and two-minute football drills. Our leaders thought their 'shock and awe' campaign could end the war in Iraq before it even started. Haji Ali...taught me to slow down and make building relationships as important as building projects. He taught me that I had more to learn from the people I work with than I could ever hope to teach them."

Three weeks later, with Mortenson demoted from foreman to spectator, the walls of the school were finished and the villagers moved to put on the roof.

Dean Acheson's "Truth to Power" to LBJ

On March 31, 1968, at the end of a speech to the American public about the progress of the war in Vietnam, President Lyndon Baines Johnson made an announcement the stunned everyone: "I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President."

While his reasons for this decision were undoubtedly complex - members of his own party were announcing that they would run against him - there is no doubt that the primary motivation was that Johnson could see no hope for victory in Vietnam. The government had run out of options that he could support.

Earlier, on February 28, 1968, in a last effort to find solutions to a problem that was increasingly seen to be without solutions, LBJ made two decisions. First, since he could get no agreement from his advisors on what to do, he decided to force the issue. He created what he called a "working group," assigned senior political, military, economic officials in the government to be members, and gave them the following assignment: "I wish alternatives examined, and if possible, agreed recommendations to emerge which reconcile the military, diplomatic, economic, Congressional, and public opinion problems involved. " He assigned Clark Clifford, the newly-appointed Secretary of Defense, to chair the group and report back in five days. "Give me the lessor of evils," pleaded LBJ

His second decision was to send for former Secretary of State Dean Acheson, a man whom he greatly respected. David Barrett, in Uncertain Warriors: Lyndon Johnson and his Vietnam Advisors, describes Acheson as "a man of notable self-assurance and a venerable member of the Wise Men."

When Acheson arrived at the White House, what he found was "a blizzard of activity - aides coming and going, phones ringing, and a president in a bad mood." Acheson had hardly settled into a chair when Johnson began what seemed to Acheson to be an endless monologue of worries, complaints, frustrations, fears and anxieties. The generals wanted 200,000 more troops, he said, and the battle at Khe Sanh might turn out to be another Dien Bien Phu. "I don't want no damn Dien Bien Phu's" he thundered.

Acheson's reaction was that the president was doing "too much talking and not enough listening." Excusing himself, he stood up, left Johnson's office and walked back to his own office a block away. Johnson's assistant, Walt Rostow, phoned immediately wanting to know why he had walked out on the president. "You tell the President - and you tell him in precisely these words - that he can take Vietnam and stick it up his ass!" Acheson said.

That response got the President's complete attention. Johnson picked up the phone, asked Acheson to return, and when he retuned, was ready to listen.

Returning to the topic that Johnson had been talking about earlier - the problem that none of the generals or the senior advisors could agree on what should be done - Acheson looked at the president and said "With all due respect, Mr. President, the Joint Chiefs of Staff don't know what they are talking about."

"That's a shocking thing to say," answered Johnson.

"Then maybe you should be shocked," was Acheson's response.

Stunned by Acheson's straight talk, Johnson told Acheson that he wanted his considered judgement on the choices in Vietnam. "That would be possible only if [I] could get beyond the 'canned briefings' of Rostow, the CIA and the Chiefs of Staff," responded Acheson.

Anxious for his help, Johnson assured him that he would have full access to information, cable traffic, and anything else he wanted from anyone in the Foreign Office bureaucracy. Acheson agreed and told Johnson that he would report back on what needed to be done in a few days.

A week or so later, the working group headed up by Clark Clifford reported to Johnson that they had failed. According to Barrett, "They were unable to agree on any bold new initiative, either hawkish or dovish." Some of the members, supported by the military, argued that the time had come for the government to "smash the communists, if only it had the courage to do so by increasing its strategic posture." Others in the group argued the opposite, that neither side could win militarily. What they ended up with was a compromise. The military wanted 200,000 more troops: Send them 23,000 they suggested.

In early March when Acheson returned to talk to Johnson, his message was dramatically different from that of the working group: clear, blunt, and unequivocal. "Mr. President, " he told Johnson, "you are being led down the garden path." His message was the Johnson should "banish any presidential hopes that significantly more soldiers would make a difference in Vietnam." In other words, there would be no military solution to the war.

Three weeks later, Johnson announced that he would not seek re-election to the presidency.

Joanna Hoffman Confronts Steve Jobs

There is wide agreement that Steve Jobs was one of the genius' in America history, on the same level as Edison, Ford, and Alexander Graham Bell. He was also one of the most obnoxious, stubborn, unbending, and offensive persons that those who worked with him had ever known. One of the most difficult and complicated issues that he struggled was during his life was his relationship with an early girlfriend, Chrisanne Brennan. Beginning in 1972 and marked by frequent separations and reconciliations, their relationship was never smooth nor easy. In 1977 Brennan discovered that she was pregnant. When she told Jobs, Brennan later wrote, his faced turned "ugly" and he refused to discuss the pregnancy. Lisa Brennan was born in 1978 and even though a DNA test confirmed that Jobs was the father and was ordered by the court to provide child support, for years Jobs continued to deny that he was the father.

During his turbulent years with Apple Computers - he was fired in 1985 and then rehired in 1997 after Apple teetered on the bring of bankruptcy - his relationships with Chrisanne and Lisa continued to be full of conflict, controversies and recriminations.

In the 2015 movie Steve Jobs, director Danny Boyle places the relationship between Jobs, Brennan and Lisa at the center of his personal and professional struggles. Joanna Hoffman, vice-president of marketing in Apple, played in the movie by Kate Winslet, was the only person who could successfully confront Jobs and live to tell about it afterwards.

In this scene from the movie, Jobs is furious that Chrisanne sold the house that he gave her and blames Lisa, now nineteen, for not stopping her mother:

Joanna Hoffman: You don't think you're having a bizarre overreaction to a nineteen-year old girl for allowing her mother to list her own house?

Steve Jobs: She could'a tried...

Hoffman: She's supposed to stop her mother - that particular mother - from living...

Jobs: She gave Chrisanne her blessing to sell the house and she did it to spite me!

Hoffman: I don't care if she put a pipe bomb in the water heater. You're going to fix it now!

Jobs: She's been acting weird for months. She's turned on me.

Hoffman: (Knocking a pile of papers off a table to the floor): Fix it!

Jobs: What the...

Hoffman: (Knocking more papers to the floor): Fix it, Steve!

Jobs: Take it easy.

Hoffman: (Knocks even more papers to the floor) Fix it or I quit. How 'bout that? I quit and you never see me again, how 'bout that?

Jobs: (Now concerned) Tell me what wrong with you this morning.

Hoffman: (With tears in her eyes) What's been wrong with me this morning [has been wrong] for nineteen years. I've been a witness, and I tell you I've been complicit. I love you Steve. You know how much I love you. I love that you don't care how much money a person makes; you care what they make. But what you make isn't supposed to be the best part of you. When you're a father...that's what's supposed to be the best part of you, and it's caused me two decades of agony, Steve...that it is for you... the worst. It's a little thing...it's a very small thing. Fix it. Fix it now or you can contact me at my new job working anywhere I want.

While Steve Jobs was never able to "fix" his relationship with Lisa - dysfunctional relationships and not "broken," and so they cannot be "fixed" - and reaching out to his daughter was in no way a "small thing," Jobs was brought up short and deeply affected by Hoffman's "fierce" confrontation. Slowly, cautiously, and painfully, he began to reach out to his daughter, and even though his ways were clumsy, inadequate and insufficient (I am "poorly made" he tells her), by the end of the movie she begins to understand that he does in fact accept and love her.
Fierce Conversations - Not Flabby Ones - Make the Difference
Serious problems need to be addressed in serious ways. Yet instead of facing up to them, people often fall into denial or rely upon unproductive and misdirected activities. In the examples cited above, Beth Comstock's actions were both controlling and frenetic; Greg Mortensen was convinced that building the school depended entirely upon him; President Johnson was caught between wildly contradictory recommendations and was unable to decide what actions he should take; and Steve Jobs denied over and over that he was the father of his daughter, creating a tension between them that blocked for years any expression of love.

It was only when each one could hear a different perspective and then begin to understand what he or she was doing and why it wasn't working that they were able to begin the slow, difficult, and complex journey toward discovering better ways to address their problems.

While each one had a different malady, all needed the same medicine: Someone willing and able to initiate and continue a fierce conversation until new and more productive ways of behaving became possible.

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February | 2017 | Taming Wicked Problems

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February 22, 2017 Rosabeth Kanter is arguably the most respected and revered organizational theorist and consultant in the United States and perhaps in the world. She begins her most recent book, Confidence: How Winning and Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End, published in 2014, with the observation that it often seems as if there are only two states of being: " Boom or Bust.

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Learn more: http://go.unimelb.edu.au/r5i6
Every year, the largest and most detailed ongoing study of Australians gives us a snapshot of where the country is at. This Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey is known as HILDA.
You can read more on this year’s HILDA survey on Pursuit, the University of Melbourne’s multi-media news site.

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Learn more: http://go.unimelb.edu.au/r5i6 Every year, the largest and most detailed ongoing study of Australians gives us a snapshot of where the country is at. This Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey is known as HILDA. You can read more on this year's HILDA survey on Pursuit, the University of Melbourne's multi-media news site.

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We're failing to solve the world's 'wicked problems'. Here's a better approach:

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We're failing to solve the world's 'wicked problems'. Here's a better approach:

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Migrants at the Greek-Macedonian border earlier this year: Is there a better way to deal with seemingly intractable problems? Ognen Teofilovski/Reuters

We live in a world burdened by large-scale problems that refuse to go away: the refugee crisis; terrorism; rising sea levels; frequent floods, droughts and wildfires; not to mention persistent inequality and violation of basic human rights across the world.

What do these problems have in common? They resist any simple solution. In policy research they are called " wicked." This is because cause-effect relations are complex and solutions unclear; many of these problems are urgent, yet there is no central authority to solve them; their magnitude is often hard to estimate; and those trying to solve them may even contribute to causing them.

The EU refugee crisis, the topic of a recent U.N. summit, is a good example: Driven by regional conflicts and poverty, and assisted by trafficking networks, people from Africa and the Middle East continue to take enormous risks to enter EU territory by land or sea. For several years now, thousands of refugees have died on this journey each year and no solution is in sight. EU member countries continue to blame their neighbors for either taking in too many refugees or for refusing to help, while there is little shared interest and limited capacity for actually addressing the sources of the problem.

What's the best way to effectively address these types of wicked problems?

Grand solutions don't work

Facing the current refugee situation, U.N. member states got together two weeks ago to sign a declaration for a more coordinated response to the refugee crisis. Yet, critics have pointed out that the goals are too vague and the document is not legally binding. Such meetings have happened several times in the course of the EU refugee crisis - with very little outcome. In reality, "grand solutions" for large-scale problems either do not exist, or they are too vague or controversial to be of much value.

The Paris climate agreement is another example of an attempted grand solution to a large-scale problem - climate change. The goal was to get all nations to agree on limiting temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. To reach consensus, all participants further agreed to assist developing countries technologically and financially to ease the transition to renewable energies. The agreement was signed by all participating nations - 175 in all.

United Nations, CC BY-NC-ND

But critics regard the agreement as too ambiguous and unclear about implementation to be effective. Also, it leaves the door open for continuous exploitation of fossil fuels.

Are small wins an alternative?

Indeed, many have argued that finding a single solution to climate change or the refugee crisis is too difficult because it is almost impossible to get multiple parties with diverging interests to reach a consensus. We believe more nimble approaches are needed.

A number of development experts have argued that " small wins " might be a promising alternative to tackle large-scale problems. Small wins focus on smaller-scale independent projects with attainable and measurable objectives. For example, many firms independently develop solutions to increase energy efficiency or to avoid waste. Likewise, several EU countries have looked into better ways of processing asylum applications and easing the integration of refugees.

Such small wins may not solve the entire problem - in these cases, climate change or refugee crisis - but they have tangible positive outcomes in line with longer-term goals. Also, the more countries and parties deal with the same problem, the greater the number of innovative experiments.

The only problem is: How can such small wins add up to a larger-scale sustainable solution?

Learning from sustainable coffee

We argue in a recently published article in Research Policy that there is a promising way of linking small wins to larger development objectives - the "modular" approach. We studied this by looking specifically at the development and adoption of so-called sustainability standards in the global coffee industry.

Nestle, CC BY-NC-ND

Such standards train farmers to apply methods and policies that protect the environment, increase productivity, improve labor conditions and secure incomes for themselves and their communities. Transnational standard-setters, such as Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance, have played an important role in this process.

Standards adoption is voluntary, but a combination of consumer and peer pressure and market incentives has led to rather rapid diffusion. Within a decade, the global coffee industry has become a pioneer in developing sustainable supply chain practices that address the twin challenges of endangered livelihoods and environmental degradation. Today, over 40 percent of the global coffee volume is certified or verified sustainable.

We show in our study that one key to the success of sustainability standards in coffee has been their modular architecture. Each standard consists of multiple well-defined and measurable modules, such as soil conservation and elimination of child labor. Modules have their own independent objectives. Yet, they are also interconnected and build on each other.

For example, two basic modules across standards are elimination of banned pesticides and occupational health and safety. Each makes a tangible contribution to the environment and well-being of farmers.

But they also reinforce each other's effect: For example, omission of pesticides has a positive impact on farmers' health. Furthermore, doing without pesticides serves as a foundation for advanced practices, such as organic farming, which may increase the brand and market value of coffee beans. This helps private farms and cooperatives generate more revenue and make further investments into their workforce and production capabilities.

Managing problems step by step

In the case of coffee sustainability standards, the modular approach emerged over time and was not designed up front. But the modular principle can help develop solutions to various wicked problems, including climate change and the refugee crisis. This is because it tackles problems step by step, eases consensus among multiple stakeholders and promotes knowledge exchange and replicable solutions.

For example, as part of climate adaptation, today many coastal communities are trying to develop idiosyncratic solutions to respond to rising sea levels. Yet, while local experimentation is important, both costs and risks of failure of location-specific solutions are very high.

By contrast, a modular approach would prompt local communities to implement over time combinations of tangible and tested building blocks towards greater resilience. For example, Florida has been a testing ground for resilience modules, such as installing water pumps and raising the grade of entire streets. Online services, such as Coastal Resilience, disseminate such modular solutions and provide platforms for exchange of knowledge and best practice.

Similarly, EU countries are increasingly moving from idiosyncratic to modular solutions of refugee management and integration. For example, the German trade union organization IG Metall is currently developing connected modules of language and professional training for refugees that allow for faster integration into higher-skilled labor markets. These modules are designed to be transferable across industry sectors, and they serve as important foundations for more job-specific training.

Overall, modular solutions can reduce the complexity of climate adaptation and refugee integration. In developing and disseminating such solutions, intermediary organizations are very important - development agencies, standard-setters, consulting groups, NGOs, industrial relations partners.

Of course, modular approaches cannot eradicate today's large-scale problems entirely. But they are more practical than grand solutions and more scalable than small wins. And they do not require reinventing the wheel. As a result, wicked problems may not look so wicked after all.

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We're failing to solve the world's 'wicked problems.' Here's a better approach

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We live in a world burdened by large-scale problems that refuse to go away: the refugee crisis; terrorism; rising sea levels; frequent floods, droughts and wildfires; not to mention persistent inequality and violation of basic human rights across the world. What do these problems have in common? They resist any simple solution.

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It takes a village, so the adage goes, to raise a child and it may also take a village to raise a healthy child and tackle obesity.

A new study by researchers from Harvard demonstrated that community-based programs can deliver modest improvements, even in a relatively short time.

The school, after-school and health centre-based programs encouraged healthy eating, drinking fewer sugar-sweetened beverages, increasing physical activity and sleep, and decreasing time spent in front of technology.

Researchers then compared the children from two communities doing the program with children from communities that didn't and found a 2 to 3 per cent decrease in obesity in the intervention group as well as a reduction in soft drink consumption and, in one of the groups, less computer time.

One in four Australian children are overweight or obese. Blaming parents for the problem is shortsighted, said Professor Louise Baur, a paediatrician and an internationally renowned childhood obesity researcher from the University of Sydney.

"The factors influencing obesity are largely beyond the responsibility of a family," Baur said. "Of course parents have an important role in influencing a child's food and physical activity environment. But, it's not as though all these families have suddenly gone and done something really bad - many things have changed and most of them are beyond the control of an individual, or even a family, to modify."

Quiet streets, where children used to play and "just hang outside for hours", are often a thing of the past, Baur says, as is walking or bike-riding to school.

"I look at the school I went to - kids used to ride their bike or walk to school, now they're not allowed because they're worried about being run over," she says. "Parents drive their kids to that same school. There used to be bushland where we'd play and now there's a big motorway through that."

She adds that "sophisticated marketing of food and beverages" is often targeted towards children.

"There's a reason for it - it actually sells products," Baur says, noting that food marketers and the food industry are "powerful" which is why such marketing has not yet been banned.

"Now there's a third person in the lounge room. There's a different type of food being made available - fast-service restaurants have really sprung up. The amount and type of junk food has dramatically increased over the last two to three decades. Fifty years ago parents didn't have to contend with that and now they do, so that's hard. There are new pressures on families."

Socially disadvantaged families are particularly susceptible to these pressures and need support to resist them and create sustainable change.

"There is very strong social patterning of obesity, so if you live on the north shore or the eastern suburbs the prevalence of obesity is much less than it is in western or south-western Sydney," Baur explains. "Every person and every parent has responsibilities in this area but the way we need to think of it is we, as a community, need to support parents in the important process of raising children and I think we've made it very difficult for people to make healthy choices.

"It's very easy to blame parents, but they live in the same environment that their kids do - it's difficult.

"Every complex or wicked problem needs a community response, not just an individual response. So whether we're talking about poverty or education or abuse - we need a community response. Obesity is a wicked problem and we need a community response."
A village approach to tackling obesity
There are various "onion skin layers" that need to be addressed to tackle the obesity epidemic; as well as the government, these include the food industry and its marketing of junk foods to children.

"The minister for health has relatively only limited influence on the factors influencing obesity - the minister for transport or the minister for agriculture or the treasury will have bigger influence," Baur says.

But, what happens on the level of the community can also make a huge difference to a huge problem.

"This sort of work is very welcome. It's also keeping in line with some good Australian work," says Baur of the Harvard study.

Baur notes the "world-first" whole system intervention program Healthy Together Victoria and a project in the Hunter region where experts are working with schools, sports clubs and hospitals to tackle childhood obesity at a community level.

People in the community are doing their bit too.

Champion surfer Sally Fitzgibbons has created the 500,000km Challenge where people can connect their fitness tracking app to the challenge page on Running Heroes and "donate" the kilometres they run or walk.

Once the community hits 500,000 kilometres it will "unlock" a $100,000 cash donation from partners of the Sally Fitzgibbons Foundation to buy skipping ropes and deliver educational material to children across Australia.

"When you band together it becomes more powerful," says Fitzgibbons, who adds that more than 2000 people have already signed up for the challenge and have "smashed" past 360,000 kilometres combined.

"We're actually powering through and can see the target - 500,000k - being smashed and we want to head towards 1 million [kilometres] if we can and that's going to attract more support."

The 26-year-old former competitive athlete, who is now a "hobbyist" runner, says she wanted to create something where people could create change without having to "dip into the pocket".

"I've always seen running as one of the most accessible things you can do, so I geared it a little differently so you can donate kilometres and that unlocks the donation from our partners ... they'll do the big donation for everyone, " she says.

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Childhood obesity is a 'wicked problem' but we shouldn't blame parents

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It takes a village, so the adage goes, to raise a child and it may also take a village to raise a healthy child and tackle obesity. A new study by researchers from Harvard demonstrated that community-based programs can deliver modest improvements, even in a relatively short time.

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Where Australia's immigrants were born: Adelaide

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Where Australia's immigrants were born: Adelaide

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Where Australia's immigrants were born: Adelaide | SBS World News

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SBS World News Australia - bringing you the global & national news that matters. Watch SBS 6.30pm nightly and 10.30pm Mon-Fri, listen at 6am & 6pm Mon-Fri.

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Community profiles
The Community Profiles provide a snapshot of South Australia's diverse communities, looking at country of birth. The profiles may be useful to government departments, non-government departments, students and teachers, the general public and people wanting to settle in South Australia and who are wanting to learn more about our multicultural society or a little about their own ethnic community.
Use this resource to better understand what we mean by glocal - Adelaide is a  diverse, multicultural community!!

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DCSI is committed to ensuring that all South Australians have access to quality services that protect and enhance the community's well-being and provide support to people when they need it.

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Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership

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Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership

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Learning Through Doing: Introduction to Design Thinking September 2014

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South Australian Government Data Directory
Explore over 1,145 datasets related to Government Departments, Groups (like Education, Transport, Arts, Crime and more), and by 'tags' (you think of a concept & there may be data on it).

A great place to look into for answers to niggly questions that the other data sets just don't answer!!

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The Development Application Register contains the details of Development Applications lodged within the City of Playford. This register is published per Regulation 98 of the...

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Tackling wicked problems: A public policy perspective

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Data by Region provides you ease of access to statistics from the ABS and other sources on a particular geographical region. Use the tools to browse, search or explore by map to find statistics about different regions in Australia.

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Click here for data from the 2016 Census data. Go deeper by exploring via terms like "volunteerism", "connectedness" or "sporting activities" to really understand the community you're exploring. Let's look beyond factors like income, employment and culture!

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Stories from the 2016 CensusArticles on a wide range of topics using 2016 Census data

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Explore over 1,145 datasets related to Government Departments, Groups (like Education, Transport, Arts, Crime and more), and by 'tags' (you think of a concept & there may be data on it).

A great place to look into for answers to niggly questions that the other data sets just don't answer!!

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'What was before Lord Vestey born and I born? It was blackfella country.' Vincent Lingiari (Wattie Creek 1966)

Australia's First Peoples have been living on the Australian continent for millenia.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia is made up of many different and distinct groups, each with their own culture, customs, language and laws. They are the world's oldest surviving culture; cultures that continue to be expressed in dynamic and contemporary ways.

The AIATSIS map serves as a visual reminder of the richness and diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia. It was created in 1996 as part of the Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia project and attempts to show language, social or nation groups based on published sources available up to 1994.

The map shows only the general locations of larger groups of people which may include smaller groups. There are also variations in the way that some language or group names are spelt. You can view some of these alternate spellings on the list of alternate spellings for names on the AIATSIS map of Indigenous Australia below.

Note that the borders between groups are purposefully represented as slightly blurred and are not meant to be exact. Some of the information shown on the map is contested and may not be agreed to by some traditional custodians - the map isn't suitable for native title or other land claims.

The map isn't the only source of information; if you would like more information about Australian Indigenous languages please see our Austlang database. The National Native Title Tribunal also produces maps that show native title claims determinations.

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The AIATSIS map serves as a visual reminder of the richness and diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia.