UNDAUNTED: How Successful Leaders Face Wicked Problems

This is the 2nd of 2 articles. Article 1 was “Daunted by Complexity: Traditional Management Theory Is No Match For Wicked Problems”. This, the second article, looks at the new theories and practices adopted by leaders that remain undaunted.

This article is based on a presentation I gave recently at the WarwickCG, Warwick Business School, conference organised by the executives on the Doctors in Business Administration (DBA) programme. The event took place in the Warwick Business School facilities in the Shard, London. Reframing Impact-Driving Change Under Wicked Conditions was the theme of the conference, and my talk had the same title as this article.

I began by challenging a statement in the conference preamble which said, “what it means to drive change and impact has and will always be open for debate”. I argued that, “the most impactful leaders are never in doubt what drives change and what impact they need to have, even when they face wicked problems. What they remain focused on is value creation. In business that means customer value creation first and foremost. And this focus helps them remain undaunted”.