Wicked Problems are Becoming Commonplace
The concept of a Wicked Problem was originally conceived in 1973, and was a phrase used in social planning to describe a problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. What made them worse was that complex inter-dependencies efforts made to solve one part of a problem often created or revealed other problems.
In 2005 Jeff Conklin generalized the principles in his book "Dialogue Mapping: Building Shared Understanding of Wicked Problems," as follows:
- The problem is not understood until after the formulation of a solution.
- Wicked problems have no stopping rule.
- Solutions to wicked problems are not right or wrong.
- Every wicked problem is essentially novel and unique.
- Every solution to a wicked problem is a 'one shot operation'.
- Wicked problems have no given alternative solutions.
In today’s business environment, wicked problems are becoming common and are part of any modern business. Why are they more prevalent today? Maybe because we have solved many of the easier problems, and this is what is left. Maybe our efforts to solve other problems or through the creation of new markets we have created new wicked problems. (Take for instance the popular coffee cup issue) However, what we do know is this: traditional organizational structures are not set up to effectively work on wicked problems. Organization that can be structured to not only operate on these problems but turn them into competitive advantage will see business success as well as higher motivation levels in their employees due to the high (good) levels of mental stimulation and creativity required to address them. If current companies can’t do it, new business’s or even non-business groups (such as betacup) will form to fill the void.
As an aside – there is a great blog post by Brynn Marie Evans on user-centered design thinking that formed the foundation of betacup in July 2009 here.
