Engaging with Complex Problems

An increasing percentage of the problems we face today are complex, complicated, and highly resistant to intervention. A compounding factor is that it’s rarely the responsibility of any one person or organization to fully address these issues. This leaves a vacuum with insufficient, frequently fractured responses to dealing with the tough challenges. Good intentioned efforts will address symptoms and effects without getting to the root of a problem. These well-meant actions are often not only ineffectual, but they can make things worse. Entertaining wider and more diverse perspectives can allow us to see the bigger picture. By bringing the right groups of people together, it becomes possible to take responsible, coordinated, and effective action toward addressing these complex challenging issues.

What follows are some roles necessary for generating and sustaining collaborative action. This is not an exhaustive list, rather it is designed to get you thinking about how to bring together the people who have the skills and talents to fulfill one or more functions.

Visionaries – Seeing an issue from multiple perspectives, zooming out and seeing where it connects with other issues, and imagining creative possibilities to address the issue are some of the first steps in the visioning process. As a specific possibilities take shape and become clearer, the visionaries articulate them and share them with others, integrating their input and refining things further. As things unfold and move into production, the visionaries take responsibility for communicating to others the depth and breath of the vision, its purpose, why it’s important, the intended impact, and the values to uphold.

Visionaries often act as project champions and remind people of why the work is important.

Catalysts – Catalysts take the initiative to spark collaborative action towards recognizing a complicated, complex, or messy problem. They research what efforts are already underway to address the issue(s) and they map out what’s being done and how it fits together. They identify the key influencers and actors that are working on the issue. Catalysts will look to see; are there efforts that show promise toward addressing the issue? Is there an existing collaborative effort that is looking at the issue systemically? What level of support is there for these efforts? Where is that support coming from? 

At the appropriate time, the catalysts will form a design team that will work together in creating a draft goal and an interview guide. Then they will conduct interviews to identify what’s being done, where the gaps are, who are the players that need to be involved in any effort to address the issue, and what forces are in place that support or constrain taking action.

The role of catalysts is to enquire, to develop provocative questions, to reach out to people who are invested in effectively addressing the issue and engaging them in exploratory conversations.

A good catalyst is inquisitive, inclusive, open-minded, follows where the energy leads them, and let’s go of any preconceived outcome. 

Weavers and Connectors – Weaving and connecting involves proactively introducing individuals who can benefit each other in reaching a shared goal. This can occur at an person event or through virtual introductions. An important skill is listening deeply to people and tuning into what they are trying to accomplish. Keeping those goals in mind, weavers and connectors invite in those who share similar goals and have valuable perspectives or contributions to offer that can add strength and power to the work.

Good weavers and connectors excel at building relationships and in identifying people who have valuable contributions to make. They are generous in sharing their resources with others – even in the absence of an immediate tangible benefit.

Shepherds – Shepherds help move groups along toward their shared goal. They keep the group focused and on track. They develop roadmaps that provide needed guidance while allowing the flexibilty to cope with emregence and changing conditions. 

Shepherds take on the role of facilitating meetings and tracking the progress and commitments of everyone involved. They can also provide coaching to help people stay accountable and keep momentum going. Shepherds create a culture of possibility, creativity, inclusivity, accountability, and respect. 

Harmonizers, Synthesizers and Mappers – Given the complexity of the challenges we face, it’s important to have people who can take various inputs and create visual maps so that multiple perspectives, interconnections, and impacts can be seen and appreciated by everyone. Our brains need ways to visualize the relationships between people, resources, experiences, and events. Mapping and synthesizing complex issues involving divergent views and unique experiences is critical to harmonizing the tensions inherent in any diverse group. When people can see their viewpoints reflected in a visual representation they see new connections and they know their voice has been heard; making them much more open to hearing the voices of others. 

Dissent is a powerful force for positive change when it’s welcomed, appreciated, and incorporated in ways that redefine the group’s boundaries to provide a greater sense of inclusion. Harmonizers, synthesizers and mappers ensure that everyone’s view is included and that efforts to address issues are co-creative, fair, equitable, and sustainable.

Executive Producers – Addressing complex issues is a team effort that involves long timeframes. Executive Producers take the early steps toward building the team and outlining initial drafts of the phases of activity and a roadmap for collaboration. This might include identifying owners of the issue, finding funders for the effort, and pulling together members of the collaborative action support team. Tasks also include facilitating the creation of a governance model for the effort as well as helping people to jointly articulate a collaborative philosophy and establish group norms for producing high quality results. This can be a team effort with the Executive Producer making sure that tasks are completed and aligned with each other. 

To be clear, one person might play several of these roles. The intention in articulating them is to call them out and invite people to take them on. There is no shortage of complex problems these days and really anyone who has some passion, curiosity and courage can be the spark that launches a more collaborative, systemic and equitable effort to addressing a challenge.

Ken Homer is the Founder of Collaborative Conversations

Todd Erikson is an Associate at Co-Creative Consulting