Have you ever encountered a problem that was so complicated that you didn’t know where to begin? Then you’ve run into a wicked problem. While these issues may not have a clear remedy, there are steps you may do to prevent any harmful consequences. You may enhance the world and the lives of the people who live in it by learning how to solve wicked problems.
What Exactly Is a Wicked Problem?
Because of its intricate and interwoven structure, a wicked problem is a social or cultural problem that is difficult or impossible to handle regularly. Wicked problems are characterised by a lack of clarity in both their goals and solutions, as well as real-world constraints that prevent risk-free attempts to solve them. Some classic instances of wicked problems are Poverty, climate change, education, homelessness, and sustainability are all problems that need to be addressed.
The way they’re connected with one another makes them worse. If you try to solve one problem, you’ll almost certainly create unintended effects in another. It’s no surprise they’re twisted! When you’re dealing with a wicked problem, it’s evident that traditional problem-solving strategies aren’t going to cut it.
How you can solve Wicked Problem?
Wicked Problems are difficult to solve, but companies may learn to deal with them. If you’ve ever been presented with a wicked problem, you’ve probably felt frustrated because you didn’t know where to start. You can apply these five useful strategies based on systems thinking and agile methodology the next time you and your team need to solve a wicked problem:
Inspect the information to nodes and links
If you divide the down the information into nodes (chunks of information such as things, people, or concepts) and links, you can use systems thinking (the connections and relationships between the nodes). This can help you handle wicked problems more effectively by making your private mental models (your representations of external reality) public to the outside world. A pioneer in computer engineering as well as systems science, Jay Wright Forrester, stated it eloquently when he said: The mental representation of the world that we have in our heads is only a model. Nobody
imagines the entire globe, government, or country in his thoughts. He has merely chosen a few relationships that exist among them to depict the genuine system.
Make a visual representation of the information.
When you draw out and place information in a physical location, it will aid you and your team in absorbing and comprehending the systems at hand, as well as the links that exist inside and between them.
Collaborate with stakeholders and incorporate them in the process.
To help others build on your ideas, share your mental models, and vice versa. When you use physical drawings and group notes to develop distinct system models, your team can synthesise several points of view.
Release solutions as soon as possible in order to collect continual feedback.
Feedback on success aids in the resolution of wicked problems for which there is no evident correct answer. The more feedback you collect from your users and stakeholders; the more direction you’ll have to move forward.
Carry out several iterations.
At each iteration, you and your team have the opportunity to use feedback. Hence more iterations you perform, the more probable it is that you will determine whatever changes are required to further improve your solution to your wicked problem.