Leading when it is unclear
Complexity, uncertainty and problem structuring methods.
Two and a half hours on leading when it is unclear: wicked problems, Cynefin and the Stacey Matrix, adaptive leadership, groupthink and dissent, and four problem structuring methods.
- Level
- Focus
- Learning time
- 2 hours 30 minutes
- Where
- Complexity, decisions and innovation
- Price
- £69
When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Read the full terms
Certificate of Completion, or Certificate of Completion and Assessment with a short assessment
Overview and Outcomes.
Who It's For
Leaders and managers in public services and the voluntary sector working on problems with no single right answer
Overview
No plan survives first contact, and leaders who wait for certainty often wait too long. Built from the Immerse When there is no right answer, this Focus begins with leading through complexity: Rittel and Webber's tame and wicked problems, the Cynefin framework and the Stacey Matrix, followed by Heifetz's adaptive challenges, the Stockdale Paradox and Marquet's leader-leader model. It then turns to groupthink, drawing on Irving Janis and the Bay of Pigs, and to countermeasures such as leaders speaking last. The final section brings in four problem structuring methods, from Checkland's Soft Systems Methodology to Rosenhead's Robustness Analysis, and four questions you can use without training.
Aims
Above all, it seeks to help leaders act well without waiting for certainty: recognising wicked problems for what they are, spotting the symptoms of groupthink in their own team and giving a messy problem enough shape to act on, because clarity is made rather than found.
In summary, you will be able to:
- Distinguish tame from wicked problems using Cynefin and the Stacey Matrix, and choose a leadership response that fits.
- Identify the symptoms of groupthink in your own team and use countermeasures such as the leader speaking last.
- Use four simple problem structuring questions to give a messy problem enough shape for your team to act.
What you'll develop
Through this Focus course, you will build the ability to:
- Diagnose whether a situation is clear, complicated, complex or chaotic using VUCA, Cynefin, the Stacey Matrix and the distinction between tame and wicked problems.
- Describe groupthink and identify its four symptoms while a decision is still open.
- Identify the signs that a situation needs problem structuring before any option is chosen.
- Distinguish technical problems from adaptive challenges and use sensemaking, the OODA loop and the pre-mortem to decide and act under uncertainty.
- Explain why capable, cohesive groups are especially vulnerable, using the Bay of Pigs case.
- Compare Soft Systems Methodology, the Strategic Choice Approach, SODA and Robustness Analysis and what each contributes.
- Plan how to lead a team through uncertainty by moving information and authority, protecting psychological safety and building antifragile habits.
- Plan structured dissent by matching each countermeasure to the specific failure it addresses.
Built from 2 parts.
2 hours 30 minutes of learning.
- 01When the way ahead is unclearLeading through complexity and uncertaintyBitesize · Leadership1 module
- 02The value of a dissenting voiceGroupthink and problem structuring methodsBitesize · Solving Complex Problems and Decision Making2 modules