Action protocols solve wicked problems
How action protocols reveal key choice points to solve wicked problems
Rule-bound coordination of action
Imagine you are lost in the forest. You have a map, but it is hopelessly outdated. The forest has changed a lot. The stream that was is now a lake (beavers!) the old paths are overgrown and the young paths point in different directions. If you use your map as a rule book, it is less than useful. You will walk right into the lake, in the same way that people drive off bridges when they merely obey the instructions that their gps is giving. This is called rule-bound coordination of action.
Sensemaking — dependent action and complexity
Now imagine you realize the map is outdated. Now you are interpreting both the map, and the history of the territory. You make sense of the lake by constructing a narrative history about the activity of beavers. You study the young paths, create a theory about the animals’ behavior and the paths they lay down, and adjust your interpretation of the territory on by rewriting the map. Most of your “best guesses” don’t work, but they help you revise your theory which in turn helps you revise your map. This is called action dependent on sensemaking. It is inherently a complex approach.
Action-protocols
A third way out is a new notion based on simple, powerful protocols that reveal key choice points for action in unknown or even unknowable situations.
One action protocol you could use is to “always stay on the left of the water” whether it is a lake or stream. It is an action-protocol that establishes a strong bearing, and decreases your risk of retracing your steps. However, if the water system curves like a clamshell, turning in on itself, sometimes the water will be on the left, sometimes on the right, sometimes on both sides of you. (I know I was once lost in a landscape like this while long distance horseback riding.) Now you are hopelessly lost and confused! We would say this protocol is not robust or adequate to the situation.
Robust action protocols are based on some eternal truth or natural law. Here in the forest we can use the protocol “follow the water upstream” because it is based on the enduring truth of gravity and that following flowing water upstream will lead to higher ground.
Choice points
A robust action protocol leads to clear choice points. Following a river upstream leads to a higher elevation and a wider vantage point in order to view the territory. Here, we can create a new, accurate map.
Solving wicked problems
Switching to robust action protocols helps reduce sensemaking overload (which inherently escalates complexity through ambiguity and polyvocality); and leads to choice points that lead to action that holds key leverage to release the complexity of the problem situation. The wickedness resolves itself into increasingly apparent preferred futures. You see not only your way out of the forest. You see many ways out of the forest, some that afford advantages you will pursue. The forest is now not a problem situation. It is a rich landscape for journeying to desired frontiers.
