Leading Through Wicked Problems

by Britteny Cioni-Haywood

e have all lived what feels like a decade throughout the last year and half. Many are feeling exhausted, burned out, on the edge, and are having serious reconsiderations of their careers, locations, and what aspects of life and work are individually important. These questions and dilemmas are all understandable because we have been living through a wicked problem. The COVID-19 pandemic is just the latest in a series of wicked problems facing the world.

Wicked problems were first defined in 1973 by Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber. Unlike tame problems, wicked problems don’t have definitive, testable or true solutions. The solution to a wicked problem may just lead to another problem needing another solution. Wicked problems also cannot be tested through trial and error. These types of problems are notoriously difficult to solve.

There are many wicked problems facing us today. Climate change and disinformation, for example, are wicked problems that have contributed to the current pandemic. Climate change is expected to contribute to future pandemics as loss of habitat increases the probability of zoonotic diseases. Likewise, disinformation is a rampant “infodemic” impacting all of society. These three issues alone demonstrate how wicked problems are often intricately intertwined. Because of the deadly consequences that wicked problems can impose, it is imperative that we gain a better understanding of these types of problems and work to construct solutions.

Because of the deadly consequences that wicked problems can impose, it is imperative that we gain a better understanding of these types of problems and work to construct solutions.

Unlocking Wicked Problems

I was serving in a leadership role in a large state agency, the Alaska Division of Commercial Fisheries, when the pandemic started. In March 2020, as reports surfaced of the virus arriving in Alaska, I went to the division director and suggested we gather the division’s leadership team (DLT) immediately. As a voracious reader of news, I had been following stories about the virus since they had begun to emerge months earlier. I could sense that this was going to be a growing issue for the division, and the sooner we could understand the changes we would need to deploy, the better we could handle the coming complexities. The DLT had previously met infrequently, typically a couple times a year, for multiple-day, in-person meetings. The team would now make a sudden pivot to meeting weekly and remotely, first via a teleconference call and then by video conferences. These meetings and the collaboration that happened as a result would be essential to the division successfully navigating the pandemic and completing its mission-critical work.

Be Data Driven

The state agency in which I serve is a research-based division filled with many scientists. The members of the DLT shared the latest information and research in the meetings and via email. We based many of our decisions on information available at the time. We knew that we needed to pivot quickly to teleworking, but prior to March of 2020 we had less than a handful of staff formally working remotely. Now we would move most of the staff to at least a hybrid telework schedule. There were numerous hurdles to overcome – how to handle telework, acquiring VPNs and necessary equipment, tracking equipment relocated by staff from the office to their homes, developing staggered schedules and other protective measures for those staff members that could not work from home.

We also had to be forward-looking in the face of this wicked problem. The busy season for the division would be upon us within a couple of months. The field camps and research vessels posed an entirely different set of problems than those of the office environment. We had to figure out the best way to send staff out to remote areas or out to sea where little to no medical services were available. The tools at our disposal were limited, as testing was not widely available, vaccines were still in development, and the understanding of the virus was still preliminary. There were so many issues to be addressed and decisions to be made. The DLT laid out weekly action items, assigned tasks to individuals, and hammered out solutions in our weekly meetings. There were disagreements, but they were worked out with professionalism and humor.

All this required flexibility and adaptability in the state’s processes and by our staff. We had to adapt our processes quickly, which is often not easy for a government agency. My efforts early in the pandemic developing formalized situational telework agreements to guide supervisors and employees would later be implemented by other state agencies.

Fueling Cooperation

Collaboration across groups is essential when facing wicked problems. Diverse perspectives help to identify the variables that make up these complex issues. Wicked problems demand new ideas, and a strong team or network can help create and vet these ideas. And yet true to the nature of a wicked problem, diverse perspectives can also worsen wicked problems. We have seen this with the politicization of science and protective measures to reduce the risks of the COVID-19 virus. This politicization has worsened the pandemic throughout, and as the Delta variant again changes the path of this wicked problem, that same politicization will hamper containment of this virus.

Wicked problems will always be with us and may even become more prevalent and interconnected as technology and disruption continue to accelerate. The ability to adapt, pivot, be empathic, collaborate, be forward-looking, and build relationships will be vital in dealing with the wicked problems of the future.

Build Relationships to Untangle Wicked Problems

Wicked problems are influenced by our habits, beliefs, and values, which can either help with possible solutions or hinder them. Allowing staff the flexibility to telework was challenging to some of our managers’ habits and beliefs. Yet we needed to show empathy for our staff and their personal situations, which included high risk factors for themselves or family members, the sudden loss of schooling and childcare, and the anxiety created by this new and unknown disease.

Wicked problems must be faced with an understanding of the relationships between variables within the problem as well as relationships between the people being impacted. The skepticism expressed about moving to telework and managing staff remotely had to be transformed by strengthening relationships and building trust. We had to care for our staff as much as we had to care for our mission-critical work. To be successful many of us would need to make changes to our habits, beliefs and values.

Unfortunately, the pandemic is still with us as variants change the landscape and cause us to pivot again. We have implemented useful changes. The speeding up of telework acceptance and the tools to make it feasible have contributed to a better work-life balance for many people. The tools and skills that we are using to get through the pandemic are useful for both tame and wicked problems. I am hopeful that we can start working on the wicked problem of disinformation, as we have seen its deadly impact.

Britteny Cioni-Haywood is an economist and aspiring futurist. She is currently a senior administrator at the Alaska Division of Commercial Fisheries. Her eclectic career path includes financial analyst and qualitative research manager at a Fortune 500 company, assistant professor of economics, and former director of the Alaska Division of Economic Development. She holds a Master of Science in economics. She is a committed lifelong learner whose current study topics include strategic foresight and complexity theory.

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