The Essential Leadership Necessary to Solve a Wicked Problem like Poverty

 Researchers Rittel and Webber suggest that most public policy problems are “wicked”—that is, “[t]hey are inherently resistant to a clear definition and an agreed solution.” Tackling wicked problems requires attention to complexity, uncertainty, and disagreement.  

In their article “Wicked Problems: Implications for Public Policy and Management,” authors Brian W. Head and John Alford are cautiously optimistic about solving such public policy problems.

 Articles by Horst W. J. Rittel and Melvin M. Webber speak to three styles of leadership in solving wicked problems. These categories have continued to evolve over the past several decades:  

The first example is a corporate hero, where the leader maps out a vision for  everyone, provides diagnosis of the problem, and indicates which strategies to  pursue. In this style of leadership, the leader prescribes solutions and applies  their leadership to gain compliance from others.  

The second style is adaptive leadership, in which the leader focuses on the engagement and mobilization of their team around problem solving. 

The third example is collaborative leadership, a model in which people equitably shared power. Leaders come together to “. . . frame the issues, orchestrate the agenda, recognize particular expertise, engage in win-win negotiations, spot entrepreneurial opportunities, and generally engage in diplomacy.”

While Rittel and Webber use the term transformational leadership interchangeably with corporate hero, our definition of Transformational Leadership combines all three styles because effective leadership is dependent on a leader being able to adapt her or his approach to the demands of context, complexity, and urgency.  

You will need to tap into your core values as an initiator in pursuit of the vision of ending poverty in your community. You will need to articulate the persistence to end poverty as a non-negotiable value to others in order to recruit like-minded leaders, as well as followers, to join the cause. But it will take a collaborative team of leaders to ensure that a shared vision for reducing poverty is communicated to and taken up by all sectors of the community. This team, collectively, will need to create and facilitate an environment that fosters learning and innovation. Finally, the team will need to embed transformation of the poverty alleviation system into long-lasting policy, programs, and funding, all while supporting the next generation of leaders. 

Of course, we’re not suggesting that you attempt to force people to do things your way. We encourage you to be inclusive in encouraging others to lead, generating their own diagnosis of the problem and suggesting possible solutions to be tested. You need to produce a process of collective will to solve the wicked problem of poverty. This requires using the wisdom of power versus force. With self-awareness, power is derived from your clarity regarding what you want to change. Force is manipulating others to follow your will. As Rittel and Webber said, “. . . [I]n the absence of clear and definitive solutions . . . you don’t so much ‘solve’ a wicked problem as you help stakeholders negotiate shared understanding and shared meaning about the problem and its possible solutions. The objective of the work is coherent action, not final solution.” 

Crucial to your leadership capacity is your personal coherence about your non-negotiable values, and your self-awareness about what drives your desire to see a change in the world. Given the mission to end poverty, lives are at stake, time is of the essence, and there is a particular and essential contribution that only each of us can personally fulfill. If we accept the call, many people’s lives are potentially changed for the better. And most certainly, our own life will be transformed.  

We each hear the call to leadership differently. It might seem like a random series of events that leads us to a crossroads where we must decide which social cause to pursue. The leadership to solve a wicked problem like poverty requires letting go of all the “good ideas” in favor of pursuing the great idea. If that great idea is, for example, ending poverty, then put all your attention on solving it. Don’t diffuse your efforts by chasing a group of smaller good ideas. You won’t make any difference in the long run. The problem of poverty demands your full attention.  

In the next blog we look at the tipping point that moves us into a new poverty alleviation system.  

-Scott C. Miller 

Founder, The Poverty Solution