WickedVUCA or complex problems in a dynamic environment follow the same process as a good narrative. It does not matter if the story is fiction or non-fiction. And it does not matter if the problem is a Black Swan or Wicked Problem in the form of Geopolitical, Nonprofit, For-Profit, etc. It can be a Black Swan that becomes a Wicked Problem like COVID-19.
Narratives follow five steps: inciting incidents, rising actions, climax, falling action, and resolution. The inciting incident is when the hero acquires an intention to act. The rising actions increase the complexity of the plot. The climax is the turning point in the story where things can go good or bad. Falling actions release the tension stemming from the story’s central conflict decreases, and the story moves toward its conclusion. Finally, the resolution is the part of the story’s plot where the main problem is resolved or worked out.
Today’s leaders are challenged with detecting an inciting incident amongst all the ambiguous noise in their environment. Compounding their problem is the volatility of change and the need to interpret the complexity of their interconnected WickedVUCA problems. Finally, leaders must develop their risk tolerance uncertainty.
Gray Zone coaches a WickedVUCA framework through storytelling that involves Systems Thinking. Steven Pressfield wrote that “the human mind is a story processor, not a logic processor.” Through simple storytelling steps and other methodologies, it’s easy to learn to break down problems into simple terms. Simple terms teach leaders to reduce noise, interpret complexity, and develop higher tolerances for volatility and uncertainty.
Illustrated by Eric Bakey
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Outlier Solutions to Wicked Problems
