L34 - PA A Wicked Policy Problem

• The problems around PA promotion are obstinate, tricky & wicked

  • Problems themselves are difficult to define
  • Too many snakes or not enough anti-venom
  • Not enough time or not enough pressure applied to people & organisations to commit
  • Solutions will be temporary bc/ people/organisations react purposefully, politically & perversely
  • Solutions can have spillover effects that can come back to bite us
• We should not be paralysed by wicked problems

  • Continue to look for solutions
• New problems will emerge & we have to be willing to initiate &/or abandon a variety of tools to attend to the ‘whack a mole’ nature of the problem(s)
• Never 1 complete solution

  • Requires multiple solutions to help solve a wicked problem
• Don’t have full picture of problem - is segmented, multiple parts to the problem
• Side effects to solutions - respond differently to what we think
• Can’t be discouraged from trying to solve these problems

  • Still have to try to solve it
  • Pretend what going to do is going to work, way to get things to advance
  • Know limits of own work, will have to change, work with others, accept what may work today won’t next year
  • Resquit irony