New Mindsets

New problems and challenges require new solutions.

Debates about sustainability and the environment do not usually lead to definite conclusions. Indeed they are likely to be ambiguous, contradictory and ill-defined. This has led to new theoretical perspectives which reflect the messiness of the real world.

The importance of networks and feedback mechanisms is now widely recognised both in science and social policy. In a business context, complexity theory has alerted managers to the way organisations operate as living systems. Such approaches have the potential to reveal layers of meaning which tend to be excluded from binary and linear perspectives.

One notion that has proved particularly illuminating is the idea of ‘wicked problems’. Whereas ‘tame problems’ tend to be stable, ‘wicked problems’ are ill-defined and ambiguous. They are characterised by unexpected feedback and complex connections and are often associated with strong moral, political or professional purposes.

A further dimension to ‘wicked problems’ is that they have no clear edges or boundaries. As solutions emerge, they themselves change the nature of the problem. This makes it extremely difficult to compare different strategies or to verifying particular lines of thought. Many sustainability issues appear to have these features (figure 1).

Figure 1 - Different examples of how creativity (shown by the bold arrows) can promote new thinking.

After Sternberg (2003) The Development of Creativity as a Decision-Making Process in Sawyer et al (Eds) Creativity and Development Oxford: Oxford University Press

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