4 The complexity of problems

Of course, the scope of the strategy and detail behind the execution plan will depend on the type of problem you are trying to solve and the urgency within which you are trying to solve it. Some plans need to rapidly react to a situation and others have time to plan and explore 'what could be possible'.

Stage 1 of Sola and Couturier’s (2014) five stages in the strategy development process is ‘Assessing the situation’ and Stage 2 is ‘Identifying the core challenges and setting the goals’. Both of these together give you a view of the problem you are trying to solve.

There are many ways of describing, analysing, and resolving problems depending on their level of difficulty and complexity as shown in the figure below. There are even concepts that describe complex problems in terms of ‘tame’ to ‘wicked’ (Alford and Head, 2017).

Maximise

Figure 17 Types of complex problems. Source: Alford and Head, 2017)

Show description|Hide description

Figure shows a chart of the types of complex problems in a chart. The x axis – increasing difficulty re stakeholder/institutions, and fall into three areas:

Co-operative or indifferent relationships: Cognitively complex problem Analytically complex problem tame problem.

Multiple parties each with only some of relevant knowledge: conceptually contentious problem, complex problem, communicatively complex problem.

Multiple parities conflicting in values/interests: very wicked problems, politically turbulent problem, politically complex problems.

The y axis shows - increasing complexity of problems, which fall into three areas:

Neither problem nor solution is clear: Cognitively complex problems, conceptually contentious problem, very wicked problems.

Problem clear, solution not clear: Analytically complex problem, complex problem, politically turbulent problem.

Both problem and solution clear: tame problem, communicatively complex problem, politically complex problems.

Figure 17 Types of complex problems. Source: Alford and Head, 2017)

John Alford and Brian Head (2017) suggest that a ‘problem' is more likely to be wicked if several conditions (or most of them) are present. These include the following.

Russell Ackoff coined the term ‘Messes’ in 1974 to distinguish between different types of problems. ‘Messes’ are larger in scale than ‘difficulties’ and have more serious implications due to the larger number of people affected, the longer duration of the situation, and they are more complex. Additionally, there is an uncertainty element to ‘Messes’, and it is not easy to succinctly define the situation or problem.

These problems can be categorised as shown in the table below.

In addition, Rittel and Webber (1973) identified ten characteristics of wicked problems, which helps to further understand the complexity of considering what may be in involved with approach problems you have. See Figure 18.

Maximise

Figure 18 Wicked problems, adapted by Sarkar and Kotler (no date) from Rittel and Webber (1973)

Show description|Hide description

Image shows a large central circle containing the term ‘Wicked problems’. In individual circles sitting around the central circle are the ten elements noted as wicked problems. Starting at the top and going clockwise, the text reads: ‘No stopping’ rule; Solutions are not right / wrong but better / worse; No immediate or ultimate test for a solution; ‘One shot’ solutions have consequences; No final end to solutions; Unique; Every problem is a symptom of another; Solutions limited by ‘world view’; No ‘right to be wrong’; No clear definition

Figure 18 Wicked problems, adapted by Sarkar and Kotler (no date) from Rittel and Webber (1973)

By its very nature, you may not be able to solve the overall wicked problem, but you can mitigate some of the consequences. This requires being open to ideas and experimenting with different approaches, such as human-centred design or an interdisciplinary focus (IDEO, 2015).

While wicked problems have frameworks from which to consider them, another approach is to think about problems as ‘intractable’ − those for which there is no obvious approach to solving them. As you consider a problem you reframe it and try to make sense of the problem and look for different paths that will help to mitigate the issue. This draws from taking a more human-centred approach to problem solving.

That involves observing, using empathy to explore the problem further, to uncover what at first might not be obvious, generating ideas, with test-and-learn activities to gather feedback, prior to implementing a potential solution.