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Wicked Problems: How Values Both Create Tension and Offer a Way Forward

July 18th, 2023

I have written previously about the importance of values: both personal and organisational. Clarifying and prioritising values forms a key part of mch’s advanced leadership programmes such as its Source of Leadership. Their inclusion stems from the finding that clarity of values helps with decision making. The relevance to leadership becomes apparent if you subscribe to the following definition;

‘Leadership is about deciding what to do and then articulating the decision well to those who matter.’

Another key advocate of values is Brené Brown. In her book, Dare to Lead, she sets the challenge of not only identifying your values, but prioritising them, so that one value trumps all others. In my view, the importance of this exercise stems from the reality that life is messy. It’s uncertain, complex and often ambiguous. Consequently, situations can arise where upholding one value comes at the cost of not upholding another.

I’ve found prioritising my values a very difficult exercise: I started doing so in early 2021 and have yet to reach a consistent answer. In early 2023, I was reminded of the exercise and why it’s important. In early March, I was practicing my usual routine of yoga, exercises and a walk every morning, together with running three to four times a week and cycling once a week. By the end of March, I could barely walk 200m. My balance, strength and suppleness had disappeared. My fine motor skills were compromised, such that I could barely write or type. I had constant pins and needles in my hands and feet, which made sleep difficult. Furthermore, I didn’t know why any of this was happening.

To cut a long story short, towards the end of April, I was sitting across the table from a couple of neurologists at my local hospital. To try and diagnose the problem and thus (hopefully) develop a treatment plan, three tests were scheduled. The test with the longest wait could be done (quicker) privately, or through the publicly funded National Health Service (NHS). Done privately, the test would still be done in a public hospital and performed by a doctor who also worked for the NHS. Fortuitously, I had sufficient savings to afford a private test.

Cue a tension between two of my core values: health and equality. Going private was the obvious decision if I was to prioritise health. Being seen in weeks, rather than months would enable a quicker diagnosis, ending the uncertainty and allowing treatment to start sooner. However, if the specialist did not test me privately, it’s very unlikely that they would spend that time twiddling their thumbs. Instead, they would have more capacity for their NHS work. Thus, in my view, prioritising equality would mean choosing to wait along with most other patients. Given the limited number of specialists, it was hard not to conclude that accessing provision privately comes at the cost of increased waiting times for NHS patients. In the end, I waited and was seen on the NHS. I was comfortable living my value of equality, at the expense of health, by waiting a couple of months, rather than a couple of weeks. However, would I have been comfortable if the wait had been four months, or six months, or a year?

In my view, the scenario I faced is an example of a ‘wicked’ problem: one with no clear solution, regardless of the level of knowledge and expertise that can be brought to bear. With wicked problems there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer and its often difficult to even classify options as better or worse than one another. In the event of ‘better’ options emerging, their status as ‘better’ can be very fleeting, as there are numerous competing variables and the significance of each is often continually changing. Wicked problems are invariably fluid. When the educationalist, Laurence J. Peter, was quoted as saying that;

‘Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them.’

I believe he was referring to wicked problems.

Some may say that wicked problems illustrate the limits to which values can help with decision making. On reflection though, once I’d received all the facts and expertise I could, I think values, together with my intuition, offered the only way to make decisions I was comfortable with. Furthermore, I believe another core value was underpinning my decision making and, in some ways, arbitrating the tension between my values of health and equality. That value is integrity. To me integrity is being honest and truthful to oneself. I like the researcher, Brené Brown’s definition of integrity;

‘Integrity is choosing courage over comfort …. it’s practicing your values, not just professing them.’

With my scenario, integrity provided clarity in relation to how I would discern ‘success’, when the ‘story’ which was my illness came to an end one way or another. Regardless of the diagnosis and subsequent impact on my life, success would be recalling the decisions I made and then being comfortable looking at myself in the mirror, because I’d been honest with myself about what was most important and I’d acted accordingly when each decision needed taking. Crucially, I believe integrity and its ‘signpost for success’, would have enabled me to be more at ease with changing my mind, if key variables, like waiting times, had changed significantly.

I hope you do not have to go through a similar experience to get clear on your values. Do you know your values though? Can you prioritise them? The following links can help identify your values:

https://www.mindtools.com/a5eygum/what-are-your-values

The above link asks you to consider times when you were happiest, proudest and most fulfilled. It also features a list of common values that you may find helpful to select from.

https://www.lifevaluesinventory.org/

This link allows you to take a free questionnaire designed to identify your values.

Having identified your values, I would encourage you to embark on Brené Brown’s challenge to identify your number one value. Considering scenarios that test one value against another is often an effective (albeit challenging) way to do so. In my case, perhaps integrity is a higher value to me than either health or equality. Or perhaps the relative importance of values is situational. I wonder what Brené Brown’s view would be on that?!

All the best with your journey.