Problematic problems, complex contradictions

and muddy messes...

Is that your problem??

Draft 2002

Minna Takala

What is Your Problem ?

• A research question or a personal trouble ?

• A confusion of mind or a contradiction of values?

• A choice between opposites / dichotomies / paradoxes ?

• A mistake, a failure, an error ?

• A puzzle, a collache ,,, ??

• A dilemma, a mess, a muddle, a chaos, a riot ??

Is it ?• Simple or complex, open or closed, separate or integrated, theoretical,

empirical or real ...

• Mathematical, ethical, social, scientific, political, aesthetic, mechanical, religious, legal, economical …

How to describe your problem?

A Hammer and a Nail

- problem?

"If the only tool you have is a hammer,

you will see every problem as a nail."

The perception of problems is faulty at best…

?Denials

Unknowables

Knownunknowns

Errors

TaboosThe Three Wise Monkeys at Nikko shrine, Japan“See No Evil, Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil “

Tacit / Explicit

(Partly applied from Dr. Ann Kervin)

… blurred by deceitful sensory receptors,twisted mental models, social values and personal beliefs, ruling paradigms,mixed emotions, wishful expectations etc.

Unknownunknowns

Unknownknowns

Automated, closed problems?

What is a problem statement?

• What are the possible limitations of the problem statements?

• What if you don’t even know what you are looking for?

• Impediments… blindness, mindlessness, automated behavioral patterns… mechanical solutions to living problems, inability or refusal to look & see, to listen & to sense & feel???

Is ignorance a bliss? Mental absenteeism, learned helplessness - ancient myths enforcing the bliss of ignorance

• How to reformulate a problem statement ?

• How to keep a problem statement open, fluid and flexible?

Source: Mondoveaunu, M. and Langer E (2002)

Mindful Thinkers: Cognitive Strategies for Adapting to the Age of Uncertainty.

Problematic problem types

• Non-problems. Misperception of the situation. Something is perceived to be problematic, even though it is not. Or something is perceived to be non-problematic even if it is. Possible approaches to non-problems is dissolving them or revealing real problems. Examples: artificial administrational problems related to micro-managing, …

• Problems. Perception of a problem in a rather clear, certain and stable situation. Leads to application of various rational problem solving methods. Possible approaches to problems by applying management tools and methods for predictable and controllable situations and environments. Examples: case-study methods in education, management models for industrial era, mechanistic engineering problems, solution methods based on standards, statistical correlation, operations research etc…

Source: DH in salons...

Complex contradictions

Contradictions. Uncertainty about the problem arises. It is not clear what is the problem that would need to be solved. There are two, or more possible options to be chosen from. It is highly uncertain which option could be the right one, and it is very possible that there isn’t one right solution... Sometimes these opposites exist simultaneously and act as counter forces to each other. Possible approaches to contradictions… realizing opposites or complex set of contradictions, discussion and negotiation with stakeholders… Examples: Contradictory dichotomies or opposites, value sets, good and evil, body & mind, pain and pleasure, Yin & Yang …Jantch, Jung, Bohm, Koestler …

Fuzzy logic...

Source: DH in Systemic Business salons...

Contradictions / dichotomies? Either /or?

Global

Closed

Service

Firm FastMeasures of Failure

Active

Shortterm

Peoplehigh-touch

Local Open Product

FlexibleSlow

Measuresof Success

PassiveLongterm

Machine -high tech

Public

Private

Flow between opposites • Jancth (1975, p. 7) pays attention role of opposites in life. He claims that steering a

course in the life stream requires awareness of its flow between opposites. Cutting a across this stream, such opposites for any number of dimensions can be identified:

Individual System

Nature Culture

Body Mind

Instinct Rationality

Appreciation Creation

Good Evil

Pleasure Pain

Subjective Objective

• For Jantch human life is not an expression of either one or the other, or of the specific shade between. He emphasizes human life drawing its energy from living out the tension to which it is subjected in the flied of force between such opposites.

Jantch and value sets

• To Jantch's values are not fixed but they fluctuate according to the shades the various components assume and their interrelations. Values are not clear cut an unambiguous conceptions and they may be viewed as tension fields between pairs opposites. These opposites are always present, and full quality of value emerges only from this tension. However, people often attempt to resolve them by choosing one or the other value sets. For example

• Competition vs. Responsibility …. Growth vs. Sufficiency• Efficiency vs. Effectiveness ….. Power vs. Equity

• Entrepreneurship vs. Security

• An alive value system not only is a continuous fluctuation introduced by tensions between pairs of opposite values, but also changing relationships between pairs and clusters. This alive and flexible value system enhances changes in the consciousness of individuals, organizations and institutions. This creates possibilities for the development and learning in deeper levels.

• Jantsch, E. (1975) Design for Evolution - Self-Organization and Planning in the Life of Human Systems. George Braziller. New York.

From contradictionsto complex messes? Both & and! &Anything goes...

Global

Closed

Private

FirmFast

Measures of failure

ActiveShortterm

Peoplehigh-touch

Local

Open

Public

Flexible Slow

Measuresof success

Passive

Longterm

Machines,high tech

Contradictions enhancecreativity, innovation and energy,

but also tension...

Don’t get stuck in

the middle ...

Dilemmas, muddy messes, complex systems

Dilemmas (messes). Ambiguity emerges from the environment. There are multiple possible contradictory problems perceived simultaneously within an unpredictably changing environment. The choice has to be made between unknown, continuously emerging choices.. Possible approaches to dilemmas: confronting and unraveling dilemmas interactively with stakeholders, description of holistic images of dilemmas, embrace the dynamic change and chaos (… messy, muddled, complex, undisciplined, unpredictable situations…), foster dialoque and negotiation, create mutual trust and appreciation as a basis for collaborative action...Examples. Dilemmas in social relationships, Faustian tragedy (Goethe), Catch -22 (Heller) and double-binds (Bateson), Queen's cricket game in the Alice in the Wonderland,...

Myths, storytelling… Chaos theory... Source: DH in salons...

Bohm’s paradoxes

• According to Bohm (1996, pp.61 - 68) a paradox has no discernible solution (like problems) and a new approach is required. Because a paradox is not solvable, serious and sustained attention needs to paid to paradox itself, rather than a determined attempt to eradicate the "problem". Assuming that paradoxes are problems, the mind can be caught in the paradoxes forever. Paradoxes exist in the realm of social relationships. There is often a confusion between practical problems and paradoxes in the society, from a single individual to the global levels creating fundamentally unsolvable contradictory situations. " ... In the essence, therefore, what is needed to go on with the life in its wholeness and entirety, but with sustained, serious, careful attention to the fact that mind, through centuries of conditioning, tends, for the most part, to be caught in paradoxes and to mistake the resulting difficulties from problems. ”Bohm, D. (1996) On Dialogue. Routledge. New York.

Ackoff’s four approaches to problem solving

• Absolution: to ignore the problem and hope it will solve itself of fade away.

• Resolution: to approach a problem humanistically - experientially, with qualitative judgment and common sense, in search of ‘solution’ that is good enough, satisficing. Clinical approach, focus on the unique aspects of the problem faced.

• Solution: to approach a problem scientifically- experimentally, with quantitative methods, in search for the best available ‘solution’, optimizing. Approach is based on research and focuses on the general characteristics of the problem faced.

• Dissolution. To approach a problem systemically - by redesigning either the system that has the problem or its environment so as to eliminate the problem and the possibility of its recurrence.

How to Think Mindfully ?• Thinking conditionally• Thinking in terms of particulars rather than universal rules

• Thinking interactively with stakeholders & thinking dialectically • Thinking in terms of intentions rather than causes (teleological approach)• Thinking spirally & thinking holistically• Thinking consequentially• Thinking in parallel & thinking recursively• Thinking like a detective

“ The awakened, dialectical mind takes neither theories nor observation for granted: it lives instead, at the uneasy interface

where truth and falsity co-exist uneasily and certainty vanishes.”

Source: Mondoveaunu, M. and Langer E. Mindful Thinkers: Cognitive Strategies for Adapting to the Age of Uncertainty.