June 2, 2015 Nested Problems: Problem situations which have the appearance of being tame (and therefore seem to be solvable), but actually are “bundled” problems consisting of tame problems nested within wicked ones. In early February, 2014, the keepers at the Copenhagen Zoo were face-to-face with a problem. It was clear to them that something… Read More »
May 12, 2015 In Steve Martin’s play Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein find themselves in a bar in Paris in 1904. One year later, Einstein published The Special Theory of Relativity, and Picasso painted Les Demoiselles d’ Avignon. In this scene, Germaine, a waitress, is trying to be helpful… Read More »
May 4 Things that are hard: – Saying “I’m sorry.” – Saying “I was wrong.” – Saying “I am wrong” when you are mostly right. -Not saying “I told you so.” – Narrowing the gap between what you say and what you do. – When in the middle of a complex, complicated and constantly changing… Read More »
April 18 Who are the most important contributors to our society? Scientists? Doctors? Politicians? Inventors? Business Leaders? Parents? Does the question even make any sense? Jim Clifton and Sangeeta Bharadwaj Badal think so. Not only is the question important for them – even crucial – but they also offer an answer, one they share with… Read More »
March 30 The issues and situations that trouble us and at times keep us awake at night have many names: predicament, dilemma, conundrum, double bind, challenge, quandary, enigma. The term we most often use when we talk about these concerns is Problem. It is a word we use frequently and one that everyone understands: Something… Read More »
March 17 In the previous essay I quoted Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr’s trenchant and powerful insight: I wouldn’t give a fig for the simplicity on this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity. Successful work with wicked problems can only happen when we… Read More »
March 1, 2015 Among the most important ideas that have guided me in making important choices and decisions is one expressed by the former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr: I wouldn’t give a fig for the simplicity on this side of complexity, but I would give my… Read More »
February 15 “In a dark time, the eye begins to see.” Theodore Roethke Few of us spend much of our lives down in the swamps of confusion, contradiction, confrontation, or controversy. On the contrary, most of us enjoy quality time on the high ground where we relish our particular version of order, tranquility, civility,… Read More »
February 2 ON THE WATERFRONT “I coulda had class, I coulda been a contender…” There is no agreement among movie critics on the most memorable lines ever spoken by an actor in a movie. But undoubtedly, the lines most often quoted by people who are willing to share something personal about themselves come from… Read More »
January 23 As we make our way through our lives, we each will have our share of wicked problems. We struggle with raising a family, with finding a career, with making ends meet, with trying to find a balance between what we have and what we want, with getting through college, with making the… Read More »