Feature By Martín Carcasson, Colorado State University Center for Public Deliberation

Tackling Wicked Problems

A revolution is beginning to The age of wicked problems Such tactics are simplistic and
occur in public engagement, fueled by counterproductive to community
Wicked problems have no technical
the growing distrust and cynicism in our problem-solving.
solutions, primarily because they involve
communities, the increasing limitations Wicked problems actually cannot be
competing underlying values and
of more traditional communication “solved” in the sense that a solution can
paradoxes that require either tough
models and problem-solving processes be implemented that would serve in the
choices between opposing goods or
that are no longer up to the task, and the long term to overcome the tensions. The
innovative ideas that can transcend
growing realization that we can do much inherent tensions between key American
the inherent tensions. Addressing
better. Currently, there are two dominant values such as individual responsibility,
them well also often requires adaptive
models of public problem-solving: equality, justice, safety, and freedom for
change — changes in behavior or
One focuses on expertise, the current and future generations cannot
culture from a broad range of potential
other on advocacy. be resolved — only negotiated in better
actors — that neither expert nor
Communities often have significant adversarial processes tend to support. or worse ways. Likewise, the tensions
resources for expert problem-solving, between economic, environmental, and
Wicked problems cannot be solved
including municipal staff, as well as social goods will always be uneasy.
through research, particularly research
ample capacity for adversarial politics, Every complex issue has its own set
that attempts to divide them into
such as the trappings of partisan party of underlying competing values. Taken
manageable, disciplinary parts.
politics, interest groups (which can now one at a time, each value is generally
Research certainly can provide more
spring up overnight due to social media), broadly supported, but the issue is not
clarity about the tough choices that need
and influential activists. Such experts whether people hold particular individual
to be made, but cannot make those
and activists are critical resources for values or not (is anyone really “anti-
choices self-evident. Adversarial tactics,
community problem-solving, but they are freedom” or “anti-safety”?), it is how
especially those that rely on strategic
not sufficient, particularly for the growing they rank the values and address the
communication framed around narrow
class of problems that practitioners have tensions among them. Unfortunately,
key values and “good-versus-evil” or
labeled “wicked problems.” public discourse hardly ever focuses on
“us-versus-them” frameworks, often
In important ways, over-reliance on the tensions, which are the real issue.
create mutual misunderstanding and
experts and advocates can often make Instead, we tend to hear disconnected
undue polarization, and tend to make
tackling these problems even more voices narrowly espousing the different
wicked problems even more diabolical,
difficult, fueling a negative feedback loop values talking past each other.
primarily because they often avoid the
of the polarization, cynicism, and apathy reality of tough choices and rely on Addressing wicked problems calls for a
that have unfortunately come to define magic bullets or affixing blame for the third type of public problem-solving:
our political culture. problem on opposing devil figures. deliberative engagement. Deliberative

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engagement begins with the recognition adversarial processes. Said differently, The first stage calls for divergent
of the underlying values inherent to such a vision requires high-quality thinking. Too often, processes squelch
public problems, and focuses on communication about difficult issues, dissent or do not allow enough voices in
developing mutual understanding and and the current quality of our public the room, and decisions are therefore
genuine interaction across perspectives, communication and civic engagement weakened as false consensus can
which then provides a base to support often falls woefully short. The bottom develop. Or publics are engaged too
the constant adjustment, negotiation, line is that due to the prevalence of late, so the issue is already artificially
and creativity required to tackle wicked wicked problems, the quality of our local narrowed. To defend against that,
problems. This constant process of communities will be directly related to municipalities need processes that can
adjustment represents the essence the quality of our public discourse, and help ensure sufficient divergent thinking
of a 21st-century democracy. Such a we know of much better ways to handle from the beginning. The good news is
perspective envisions democracy as public discourse. that there are currently plenty of
an ongoing collaborative process of community resources to support this
constant communication and negotiation Working through stage. Whether it is citizen comment
focused on solving common problems, “The Groan Zone” during city council meetings, public
rather than an adversarial zero-sum Consider, for example, the work of hearings, emails to lawmakers, local
exercise between stable, competing Sam Kaner and his associates, who newspapers, or the growing number
interests, or a technocratic world of developed the “diamond of group of blogs, the free speech tradition
experts searching for the best solutions. decision-making” in their Facilitator’s in the United States tends to naturally
It offers a much more effective model to Guide to Participatory Decision Making. allow for broad divergent thinking.
address wicked problems and handle the They argued that ideally a difficult Whether decision-makers fairly consider
complexities of diverse democracies, but decision-making process must go all the voices may be a different story,
it requires rather extensive community through three stages, each with its own but the main point here is that currently
capacity as well as a cultural shift away barrier to overcome and strategy for most communities handle this
from an over-reliance on either expert or engagement (see below). stage adequately.

Stage Divergent thinking Working through “The Groan Zone” Convergent thinking
Barrier to False consensus False polarization Paralysis by analysis
overcome
Engagement Public input, citizen Dialogue and deliberation; structured, small Prioritization, innovation,
strategy comment, focus groups, group discussions collaborative planning
surveys, email

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 Municipalities should consider three ways to build deliberative capacity:

increase the deliberative nature of internal city processes;

deliberative and interactive; and help build capacity

The problem is that if you successfully discovering potential treatments, rather Application to municipal
allow sufficient divergent thinking, you than simply supporting or opposing a governance
face the problem of having many voices specific solution. Such engagement
Due to the reality of wicked problems,
and perspectives in play, which can be requires more preparation and a broad
communities need to build capacity for
difficult to handle. Kaner aptly labeled range of skill sets, such as issue
deliberative engagement to assist with
this “The Groan Zone.” The second framing, convening, process design,
all three stages. Municipal government
stage — working through the groan and facilitation. It also requires that
is obviously a key player in such
zone — requires a very different form organizers give up some control of
capacity, but due to the nature of wicked
of communication than the first. People the message, symbolizing what the
problems, the conversation must also
need to interact and listen to each other. International Association of Public
range beyond them. Policy changes and
They need to develop an understanding Participation has termed the move
city budget allocations are only a couple
of the issue as a wicked problem. They from PR (public relations) to P2
of options in a vast range of potential
need to ask good questions, and be (public participation).
actions to address wicked problems;
provided with good information that A third obstacle can arise on the therefore, conversations need to be
frames the issue productively. Most back end of the groan zone. The third framed much more broadly than
importantly, they need to engage the stage — convergent thinking — requires “What should city government do?”
tensions, and struggle with the best people to prioritize, work toward a Municipalities should consider three
way to address them. decision, and move to action. Once ways to build deliberative capacity:
Without sufficient interaction understanding begins to develop during increase the deliberative nature of
and understanding among broad the working-through stage, participants internal city processes; work to make
perspectives, the pitfall of false let go of their simplistic “good versus official city public engagement
polarization can occur. Public discourse evil” frames and recognize the inherent processes more deliberative and
becomes a loud cacophony of voices complexity of the issue. Such learning interactive; and help build capacity
with everyone shouting, but no one also has the effect of making decision- within the broader community.
listening. Unfortunately, the dominant making more difficult. Groups can now
The first shift would impact both council
public engagement processes fall into paralysis by analysis. One
deliberations and how municipal staff
communities often rely on tend to work advantage of simplistic frames is that
researches, infusing both with a
pretty well for divergent thinking, but they motivate behavior and keep people
recognition of wicked problems, a
very poorly for working through. How engaged. Without such a frame, the
recognition of the limits of expert and
much listening or productive interaction move to action is much more difficult,
adversarial models, and the need for
occurs during citizen comment? At but we cannot simply talk forever. This
robust deliberation. Many cities and
public hearings? Open houses? Online? third stage thus requires a set of
towns may already do this well. Indeed,
How many genuine conversations are engagement processes that can help
some councils may see themselves as
sparked where real learning occurs? communities react to the tensions by
the entity that must “work through” the
Working through tends to require prioritizing, innovating, and sparking
groan zone and make the tough
smaller groups, ideally arranged in a collaborative action. Recall that wicked
decisions, not the public. From this
circle, working with a facilitator and problems often require adaptive
perspective, the fact that most public
through material specifically prepared to changes from a broader range of actors.
engagement focuses only on the
nurture deliberative engagement. It also Ideally, the convergent stage includes
divergent opinion stage — gathering
tends to require engagement earlier in many of those actors, and opens up
input from multiple sources — is not
the process, so participants can be a discussion to creative means that cut
problematic because the council itself
part of framing the problem itself and across individual, public, private, and
serves as the deliberating body. For
nonprofit lines.
many, expecting the public to do the

October 2013 11
The challenge to municipalities now will be to build

a culture of engagement in their communities so that they can

attract broader audiences, not just the advocates

for particular positions.

working through seems unrealistic. In groan zone themselves, problems communities so that they can attract
general, this perspective has merit. It is will ensue. broader audiences, not just the
the basis for representative government, The second shift involves ranging advocates for particular positions.
and can work on certain issues when beyond the traditional forms of public The good news is that deliberative
the public trusts the council. Due to the engagement that tend to focus on engagement has been shown to create a
wickedness of problems, however, positive feedback loop, increasing trust,
one-way exchanges of information (see
issues arise at all three stages when we decreasing cynicism, and making it more
below). Public engagement of wicked
leave most of the work to representative likely that people will return. Involving
problems needs to involve a broader
bodies, regardless of how well they may citizens earlier in the process to help
range of stakeholders interacting with
deliberate themselves. In the first stage, define the issue and imagine potential
each other, not just given a chance to
not enough divergent opinion may be responses also engages them as
express their individual opinions. Most
considered by the council if concerted problem-solvers and innovators — roles
traditional forms of engagement primarily
efforts are not made to seek out voices many will relish — rather than simply as
and respect dispersed expertise. At the attract the usual suspects or those with
already entrenched opinions, leaving the supporters or complainers. People are
second stage, if they do not bring the yearning for genuine, meaningful
public along during the working-through vast majority in the middle disengaged.
Citizens rarely approach the microphone engagement, something that traditional
process, council decisions may not be
at council or board meetings or write forms of engagement rarely deliver.
understood or considered legitimate,
especially with polarizing issues. Most letters to the editor to explain that they The third way to build capacity ranges
importantly, if too much of the heavy have sympathy for various approaches beyond municipal government. Just
lifting is left to experts or the council, the to the issue and are still trying to work shifting official public engagement
third stage — convergent thinking — is through the implications and negotiate processes to a more deliberative model
woefully limited. The adaptive changes the tensions. Instead, the voices that is not enough. Addressing wicked
and broad range of actions so critical to are heard are those with a clear — but problems requires a broad range of
addressing wicked problems require often simplistic and at times scripted by treatments, adaptive changes, and
shared responsibility and ownership by others — view of the matter. Again, collaborations across public, private, and
the public. Those cannot be dictated to alternative voices simply talk past each nonprofit lines. Municipal government
them by the council. If citizens simply other without significant interaction or can therefore serve as a catalyst or a
provide their opinions on the front end mutual understanding. The challenge to convener of these broader processes,
and then hear the final decision on the municipalities now will be to build but often they will need to give up some
back end, without going through the a culture of engagement in their control and simply be part of a broader

Traditional forms of municipal public participation

Inform / Persuade

Town Hall
Input
Citizens
Interact

12 COLORADO MUNICIPALITIES
 conversation. Fortunately, there has accomplished. They are focused on and public libraries are often great
been a growing movement that cities improving the conversation and bringing resources for passionate impartiality.
and towns can tap into to build their people together, rather than advocating More and more nonprofit firms, such as
capacity in deliberative engagement at for particular points of view. Civic Results in Denver, provide these
all three of these levels. The National Coalition for Dialogue and services. Lastly, there is a growing
Deliberation (www.ncdd.org) serves as number of centers and institutes tied to
The deliberative democracy an umbrella organization for this sort of this work at colleges and universities
movement work, while organizations like Public across the country, such as the Institute
The deliberative democracy movement Agenda, the Kettering Foundation,
for the Common Good at Regis
is a conglomeration of academics, Everyday Democracy, AmericaSpeaks,
University, and the Center for
practitioners, civic entrepreneurs, and the International Association of Public
Participation, and the Deliberative Public Deliberation at Colorado
national and international organizations
dedicated to developing the capacity to Democracy Consortium all readily State University.
support deliberative practice and infuse provide useful resources (see author’s Author’s note: I oversee the Center for
note at end of article). Numerous Public Deliberation (CPD) at Colorado State
our communities with genuine
University (CSU), which trains undergraduate
opportunities to tackle wicked problems, trainings are available. The National students as small group facilitators, then
“work through” tough issues, form more League of Cities, the Institute for Local designs and runs various deliberative
nuanced public judgments, and support Government, and the Alliance for projects for local cities, school districts, and
more inclusive civic action and public Innovation also have produced material community organizations, providing critical
policies. These individuals and specifically targeted for municipal use. capacity for deliberative engagement. We
also are partnering with CSU’s extension
organizations are essentially resources For a list of key deliberative engagement
program, as well as other institutions of
for “passionate impartiality.” They are resources for municipalities, visit higher learning, to build such capacity across
passionate about democracy, about www.cpd.colostate.edu/cmlresources.pdf. the state. As the state’s land grant university,
solving problems, and about improving In local communities, there are a CSU has a mission to serve Colorado, and
the CPD hopes to serve as a statewide hub
their communities, but nonetheless take number of places where deliberative and resource for deliberative engagement,
a more impartial, process-oriented, and capacity is being built. Organizations like with the goal of making Colorado the most
supportive stance on how that may be the United Way, community foundations, democratically advanced state in the nation.

deliberative engagement: the new public participation

Citizens
Private sector
Nonprofits
Private sector
Nonprofits

Town Hall

October 2013 13