Articles:
Strategy as a Wicked Problem – Camillus (2008)
Facilitated modelling in operational research – Franco & Montibeller (2008)
Beyond Productivity loss in brainstorming groups: the evolution of question – Stroebe, Nijstad & Rietzschel (2010)
Group model-building to support public ...
Strategy as a Wicked Problem – Camillus (2008) – week 1
- Companies tend to ignore one complication: they can’t develop models of the increasingly
complex environment in which they operate.
- Strategy issues aren’t just tough or persistent, they are wicked.
o Wickedness isn’t a degree of difficulty
o Wicked issues are different because traditional processes can’t resolve them.
o A wicked problem has innumerable causes, is tough to describe, and doesn’t have a right
answer.
o E.g. environmental degradation, terrorism and poverty
What is a wicked problem?
- Wicked problems has some or all of 10 characteristics. They criteria are not a set of tests that
mechanically determine wickedness; rather they provide insights that help you judge
whether a problem is wicked. 5 most important ones:
o Problem involves many stakeholders with different values and priorities
o The issue’s roots are complex and tangled
o Problem is difficult to come to grips with and changes with every attempt to address it
o The challenge has no precedent
o There is nothing to indicate the right answer to the problem
- Wicked problems often crop up when organisations have to face constant change or
unprecedented challenges
- The greater the disagreement among stakeholders, the more wicked the problem.
Managing the wickedness of strategy
- It is impossible to find solutions, but companies can learn to cope with them. The simplest
techniques are often the best.
o Involve stakeholders, document opinions and communicate.
Organise brainstorm sessions to identify various aspects of wicked problem
Aim should be to create a shared understanding of the problem and foster a joint
commitment to possible ways of resolving it.
Companies must go beyond obtaining facts and opinions from stakeholders; they
should involve them in finding ways to manage the problem.
Shareholders and customers are viewed as important stakeholders, but employees
are even more crucial.
Documentation process is a good way to generate new ideas
o Define the corporate identity
Values what is fundamentally important to the company
Competencies what does the company do better than others do?
Aspirations how does the company envision and measure success?
An identity provides executives with direction and focuses attention on
opportunities and threats.
o Focus on action
o Adopt a ‘feed-forward’ orientation
Companies design planning systems to work based on feedback; they compare
results with plans and take corrective actions.
, Thought it is a powerful source of learning, feedback has limited relevance in a
wicked context.
It allows enterprises to refine fundamentally sound strategies; wicked problems
require executives to come up with novel ones
To develop a feed-forward orientation as a complement to the feedback practices,
corporations must learn to envision the future.
Wicked strategy issues don’t occur according to a timetable.
To forge effective approaches to wicked issues, executives must explore and
monitor the assumptions behind their strategies
Discovery-driven planning executives list the assumptions underlying
revenues and income they expect and test the validity of each premise.
Facilitated modelling in operational research – Franco & Montibeller (2008) – week 1
Introduction
- Little doubt of positive role and impact that the discipline of operational research (OR) has
had in organisations since it appearance.
- Most common and traditional way of conducting these OR interventions is to adopt expert
mode, where the operational researcher uses OR methods and models that permit an
‘objective’ analysis of client’s problem situation, together with he recommendation of
optimal solutions to alleviate the problem situation.
- When dealing with problem situations at more strategic level, expert mode of intervention
may not always be appropriate
o Lack of agreement on scope and depth of problem situation to be addressed
o The existence of several stakeholder with distinct and often conflicting, perspectives,
objectives, values and interest which have to be negotiated in order to reach a decision
about the situation.
- Since 1980s, an alternative way of conducting OR in organisational interventions has been
suggested operational researcher act not only as analyst, but also as facilitator to client.
o Uses facilitated modelling as the intervention tool, which requires to carry out whole
intervention jointly with client.
o This mode of engagement is particularly suitable for supporting the analysis of complex
situations.
Modes of consultancy engagement
- Expert mode in QR interventions
o Traditional way in which consultants operate
o The operational researcher is not only expert in OR but also expert in particular field
where the client’s problem is located.
o The expert mode seems like a natural and sensible way of solving a problem
o Some key assumptions underlying the expert mode of OR consultancy:
Problems are real entities – exist as external realities and therefore they should not
depend on who is describing such reality
The analysis should be objective
Clients want optimal solution
Implementation of scientifically based analysis is straightforward
, - Facilitated mode in OR interventions
o Management team or group drawn from the client organisation, is typically places as
responsible for scoping, analysing and solving the problem situation of interest; the team
is supported by the QR consultant, who acts as a facilitator.
o Almost every step is conducted interactively with the team.
o Four main assumptions
Problems ae socially constructed entities – while some aspects of the problem are
tangible, their nature and salience will depend on how mangers subjectively
construct them.
Subjectivity is unavoidable
Client want ‘satisficing’ solution
Participation increases commitment for implementation
- None of the two modes of engagement described above is necessarily the best.
- For operational, well-defined problems, expert mode is usually quite appropriate.
- Strategic problems frequently require the facilitated mode due to their complex social nature
and qualitative dimensions, their uniqueness, and the need to engage a management team
in the decision making process.
Facilitation as an intervention approach
- Philosophers such as Socrates deployed what can be considered facilitation skills, such as
questioning, storytelling, metaphors, and self-reflection, to engage people in challenging
their mindset and encouraging new ways of thinking.
- Facilitation can be done at two levels: individual or group.
o As the problem situations for which the facilitated mode of OR is required typically
involves a management team drawn from the client organisation.
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