Our current ways of thinking and acting in silos are not able to engage with the complexity of wicked problems. We need to move away from fragmentation and specialization towards recognizing the complexity and interconnection, making our minds more wicked in the process. Socratus believes that only ‘wicked minds solve wicked problems.’

Why the system doesn’t help in decision-making today

Decision-makers have the same cognitive impulses as the rest of us and therefore, their decisions are:

1. driven by shortcuts and heuristics that can oversimplify the big picture and
2. influenced by the current emotion, whether that’s pleasure or anger.

People tend to assess the relative importance of the issues involved in the complex system by the ease with which they are retrieved from memory - which is dependent on their experiences and exposure to issues that are in turn dependent on media and their filter bubble.

While these shortcomings can be overcome through appropriate advice, the typical model of advice done in a 'consultant' or 'advocacy' mode is broken. Too often, the people advocating changes in policies are not embedded in the system, which means they lack the deep insights and wisdom of the system. They may also lack skin in the game when it comes to adverse outcomes of their suggestions.

How we make minds more Wicked in Wicked Sprints

We think that any effective way forward to a wicked problem will come from co-designing solutions with agents embedded in that problem. We believe that we need to get the right set of agents in the room with diverse points of view and unlock the wisdom they already have. Further, agents must become sufficiently involved in the solutioning process to internalize it and have the energy to drive it later. That requires slow thinking - a slower, more deliberate and effortful form of thinking.

Decision-makers for social problems sometimes lack spaces where they can learn, discuss and collaborate with other agents in the room over a period of time. Socratus creates such spaces using our deep experience within the social sector, cognitive science, education, organizational behavior, technology and design. We design our spaces so that the participants are naturally guided towards opening up their views, aligning with others, making public commitments and then leading from that position of commitment. This process is illustrated in the figure.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/4zypjmo2rkWlRxmukNOVYA6o1bKy36qyRg-rntyTRCvAqC-5RXBn0pZXb419kxLS7WCfjgcb625Q2_UC_XFCQl3459ewe1WETfjTdf7qt5FKuHdgwejOfHFyWHNIa93_cuIDv7M=s0

We achieve these goals through the careful management of the following features:

Opening up

1. We create a space of trust in which participants bond with each other over an extended period of time and that lowers polarization and increases creativity. We have found that even people skeptical of each other’s views or intentions find a way to align and understand each other.
2. The diversity of agents and perspectives means that even the most experienced participants have something to learn from others and are exposed to the possibility of atypical collaborations. Further, they are alerted to the possibility of blind spots in their own views that can be filled by others without conflict.
3. The sequence is designed and facilitated in a manner that encourages listening. Care is taken to avoid situations where people go into argumentative or defensive modes.

Alignment

1. Data serves as an honest broker of complexity - it sets a common ground. We make sure that data is not just a fact, but a jointly held resource to which all participants commit their beliefs. As a result misinformed beliefs are corrected, inconsistencies within mental models are revealed, and as the data is queried repeatedly, participants test their ideas and change course if needed.
2. Visceral experiences shift the participant’s engagement from cognitive to emotional & physical. Feelings contribute to shifting mindsets while physical involvement forms muscle memory that contributes to change in mental models and behavior.
3. Participants work collaboratively in teams to design interventions which they present to the group and revise based on feedback. ****This leads to holistic and thought-through solutions.