Wicked Problem Project-Solutions

The wicked problem project is coming to a close and the entire process has been very eye opening for me. The wicked problem my group looked into was “How do we sustain innovation through leadership change?” This problem is particularly wicked because there are many layers of people involved, from administration to teachers to support staff and students, leadership change can rock an entire building and effectively halt any innovation. So how can we stop that halt?

This problem seemed overwhelming at first. Our first step was to question the question. We found patterns within our questions that led us to overarching ideas we could research and look into to help us narrow our questions to a few that would lead us to solutions. I created an infographic that explained the problem from my understanding at this point, and the essential questions that my team decided would guide our path to solutions. We also created a survey to gather information from peers and colleagues that we could use to further inform our research which gave us excellent data to use.

Our last step was to decide on solutions. We meet multiple times via Zoom to discuss the problem face to face and decided on three solutions, or more realistically steps towards a solution. Since this problem is so wicked, there is no solution that will solve it entirely. We decided on three steps schools can take that would prevent a leadership change from entirely halting innovation that is occurring in that school, particularly innovation involving technology. To view our solutions, please see our multimodal presentation.

This project challenged my thinking and expanded my view on not only problems (especially wicked ones) but also on questioning. We used questions over and over to eventually lead us to solutions. The power of questioning and following those questions to wherever they might take you is truly incredible and a skill I will carry with me as I continue to innovate and challenge those wicked problems I am sure to come across.