wickedproblems Archives

A Heard of Elephants: Managing Gnarly Stakeholder Issues

do a lot of stakeholder management, either building teams, helping to change how organisations work, or getting conflicting groups to collaborate. And it’s staggering how often the agenda and subsequent outcome of the initiative is driven, not by the leaders, but by the elephants in the room. The inconvenient, invisible and usually surly metaphorical pachyderms that people know are there, but aren’t willing to deal with. But you have to. In fact, if you want to do this well, start with the elephants.

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The Opposite of Work Is Not Play, It Is Dysfunction

Play is a biological necessity. We need it as much as we need food, water, sleep, shelter and sex. All animals play. Man is the only animal that sees it as either a luxury or frivolity.

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The Secret to Taming Your Messiest Problems (Part III in a series on Wicked Problems)

This is the final article in a three part series on Wicked Problems. If you missed Part I (the difference between Simple, Complex and Wicked problems), click here and for Part II click here. So you’ve diagnosed your problem and have most likely come to the conclusion that at least a significant chunk of it is…

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Your Biggest Problem is Impossible to Solve — And That’s a Good Thing (PART II IN A SERIES ON WICKED PROBLEMS)

This is Part II of a three part series on Wicked Problems. If you missed Part I (the difference between Simple, Complex and Wicked problems), click here. For Part III, click here. So how do you tell what kind of a problem yours is? Any of these sound familiar? The company restructure looks great on…

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Your Biggest Problem is Impossible to Solve — And That’s a Good Thing (PART I IN A SERIES ON WICKED PROBLEMS)

Think of a problem. In fact, think of two. A professional one and a personal one. Problems that are of the gnarly-never-seem-to-go-quietly variety, regardless of how often you take a run at it. Maybe you can’t get a micro-managing boss to give you enough space to do what you can do, or you need to…

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Thinking Outside of the Box Paradigm Shit Cartoon

The #1 Reason Your Design Thinking Program Isn’t Working and What You Can Do About It

Design thinking is touted to help solve the business problems that existing or BAU processes can’t deal with. Problems like; becoming more innovative, becoming more customer centric, running a successful transformation program, breaking down organisational silos, building “One Team” by engaging your workforce, or perhaps trying to convince a bunch of usually pissed-off stakeholders to…

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Handling the Overwhelm: sorting your chaos to get unstuck

Well I asked a bunch of you what you wanted to know more about and, apart from the usual existential selection (finding career fulfilment, love, and obedient offspring), the most popular questions are looking for guidelines on running difficult sessions, handling obdurately complex thinkers in a patently wicked space, and recommendations re which are the…

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Design ≠ Design Thinking

I used to sort of dislike the term Human Centred Design for it’s un-human clunkiness. Now I think I may be becoming a firm advocate. I recently had three really interesting design thinking related experiences. The first was with a highly creative corporate type discussing the dangers inherent in formalising a company’s approach to design…

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Partners in Procurement? You’ve got to be kidding

Are you a consultant? An executive? A human? In which case I defy you to read the following email I just received and not have “Get stuffed” or something more profane running through your mind… (names redacted to protect the guilty – and I’ve worked with lots of BigCo’s in my time, most of whom I’ve…

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Design isn’t a Development: It’s an Inversion

There is a lot of talk these days about company orientation. Is your company a Decision (Divided Hierarchy) or Design (Connected Holarchy) company? (Dave Gray). Does it have a Delivery or a Discovery mindset? (Gregerson / Dyer / Christensen) A sales or marketing focus? Is it business process or customer centric? They all sound distinct,…

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Archives of wickedproblems

A Heard of Elephants: Managing Gnarly Stakeholder Issues

The Opposite of Work Is Not Play, It Is Dysfunction

The Secret to Taming Your Messiest Problems (Part III in a series on Wicked Problems)

Your Biggest Problem is Impossible to Solve — And That’s a Good Thing (PART II IN A SERIES ON WICKED PROBLEMS)

Your Biggest Problem is Impossible to Solve — And That’s a Good Thing (PART I IN A SERIES ON WICKED PROBLEMS)

The #1 Reason Your Design Thinking Program Isn’t Working and What You Can Do About It

Handling the Overwhelm: sorting your chaos to get unstuck

Design ≠ Design Thinking

Partners in Procurement? You’ve got to be kidding

Design isn’t a Development: It’s an Inversion

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