Organizing for Grand
Challenges
Session 1
Three characteristics of grand challenges:
- Complex: Grand challenges are complex, entailing many interactions and associations,
emergent understandings, and nonlinear dynamics.
o Problem is made up of many components that constantly influence each other
o Nonlinear dynamics mean that these influences are often unpredictable and appear
random
o Leading to vicious feedback loops
Example: Cobra effect
- Uncertain: Grand challenges confront organizations with radical uncertainty, by which we
mean that actors cannot define the possible future states of the world, and therefore cannot
forecast the consequences of their present actions.
o Grand challenges are highly uncertain and the problem cannot be defined from the
start as it will develop and change over time
Example: Covid-19 development from a disease -> epidemic -> disease
- Evaluative: Grand challenges are evaluative, cutting across jurisdictional boundaries,
implicating multiple criteria of worth, and revealing new concerns even as they are being
tackled.
o Grand challenges cut across social, economic and environmental domains, affecting
many different sectors
o Many different stakeholders are involved that have different understandings and
therefore approach the problem
-
Four characteristics wicked problem:
- There is no clear formulation
- Unique
- No stopping rule
- Every problem is symptom another
,
Challenges
Session 1
Three characteristics of grand challenges:
- Complex: Grand challenges are complex, entailing many interactions and associations,
emergent understandings, and nonlinear dynamics.
o Problem is made up of many components that constantly influence each other
o Nonlinear dynamics mean that these influences are often unpredictable and appear
random
o Leading to vicious feedback loops
Example: Cobra effect
- Uncertain: Grand challenges confront organizations with radical uncertainty, by which we
mean that actors cannot define the possible future states of the world, and therefore cannot
forecast the consequences of their present actions.
o Grand challenges are highly uncertain and the problem cannot be defined from the
start as it will develop and change over time
Example: Covid-19 development from a disease -> epidemic -> disease
- Evaluative: Grand challenges are evaluative, cutting across jurisdictional boundaries,
implicating multiple criteria of worth, and revealing new concerns even as they are being
tackled.
o Grand challenges cut across social, economic and environmental domains, affecting
many different sectors
o Many different stakeholders are involved that have different understandings and
therefore approach the problem
-
Four characteristics wicked problem:
- There is no clear formulation
- Unique
- No stopping rule
- Every problem is symptom another
,
