Execution is a Wicked Problem

When people think of “Wicked Problems”, they tend to go to the stratosphere: Climate change, income inequality, and the like. In reality, the truly vexing Wicked Problems are much more pedestrian: Execution is a Wicked Problem. Organizations come up with new ideas and new initiatives all the time, and they deliver the technical components quite well. Where things get tricky is when we need to get thousands, or tens of thousands of people to do something different. We lack the language and ability to enable execution, on the ground.