Understanding the Principles of Cause and Effect in Your Life

Why You Should Know Understand Cause and Effect Work In Life

One of the most vital laws to understand, in order to exercise wisdom in life decisions, is the law of cause and effect. Understanding how cause and effect work can make you foresee, anticipate, predict, strategize, influence and shape things so you will have a better chance of the end state, or at least your preparedness for many situations and activities.

Whether it's planning for a vacation or planning to do anything else, a proper understanding and appreciation for the nature of cause and effect will help you be more successful.

For instance, if you're planning a vacation, but you know everyone else is planning to drive the same day and time you plan to drive, and that this will create more traffic and more delays, you have foreseen something based on cause (many people off for the holidays) and effect (many trying to travel at the same time.)

Then, your foresight of this cause and likely effect can help you to better anticipate and predict what could happen, and then plan things in a way where you won't be stuck in traffic, for example, or otherwise be at a disadvantage.

For Every Cause, There is Corresponding Effect

Understanding cause and effect will help you live your personal and professional life better, so you can better prepare and shape your future and make your life the way you want it to be.

I'm not going to spend too much time talking about cause and effect here, because many others have written about the topic already. What I will say is this - learn all you can to become good at understanding and predicting cause and effect. Then apply it to your life in smart ways.

Know how things work, and what causes what, or how effects-based results are achieved. This will serve you well in life. If you missed the other rules that are so vital to achieve positive results and success in life, just take a look at various articles at this blog.

How to begin to Master Cause and Effect in Life

This is not some profound "lesson in mastery" here. The concept for mastering this principle is quite simple, as it should be. This is achieved, I have found, in the following way:

• Seek to understand what causes something and what the results of things are
• Keep asking "why" until you find what the root cause of something
• Tie cause and effect together and then find ways to prevent issues within the causes

So if you're going on vacation, for example, figure out the cause and effect of what would impede traveling. First, start with what's called a problem statement, such as: "Why is Holiday Travel So Slow?"

Then, list everything you can think of, read about or others have to say about it, and try to find the most core root cause of it. Maybe you determine this:

• Everyone is traveling all at once, causing traffic congestion and slow-down

Then ask, "what can be done, so when I travel, I won't run into this issue?"

• Discover the best options for where to travel
• Discover the most and least busy paths and routes to these options
• Discover the best and worst times to travel within these routes
• Make a plan to travel to the nest option with the least busy routes and best times

Just ensure you don't travel through more dangerous parts, as a trade-off for time.  Cause and effect  typically involve trade-offs within the decision process.  You must therefore perform what's called risk management, to wither accept or overcome any disadvantages. 

Using the traveling example, this system of thought also tells us that we should always put people's safety above other factors, such as time and convenience. This means a faster route might not be smart, or it is too risky, or dangerous.  

This example relates to understanding cause and effect.  Experiment with it, and use proper risk management principles to apply it correctly, for the least risk with the most gain, in your decisions. 

For more about useful tools and concepts like this, subscribe and be on the lookout for my other articles, like How to Solve Difficult Problems 3 Key Ways to Problem Solve!

A Mistake People Make With All-or-Nothing Thinking #ProblemSolving

What is All-or-Nothing Thinking and is it a Fallacy ofrMistake?

Short answer, yes it is a mistake.  But let's break this one down for a moment.  The all-or-nothing approach is one where you see something as either completely one way or completely another way, with no options in-between. 

This all-or-nothing approach is a limiting mentality that does not like to either acknowledge and/or admit to there being various degrees and stages of things, rather than "all-or-nothing."

For example, we say it is either hot or cold. However, is there not also warm and cool? Is there not also lukewarm? Yes, there is in fact an entire temperature scale, with many degrees on it. This scale shows the full range from extremely hot to extremely cold.

Also, when we think about pain, there are varying degrees to pain. Pain can be a "10" at its worst or a "1" at its least. We usually don't notice a pain until it becomes a 3 or 4, and we don't start complaining about pain until it becomes a 4 or 5.

Just as there are varying degrees of pain there are varying degrees of beliefs found within the two major political parties. Although there seem to be only two political parties, there are varying degrees of their views. One could be a staunch conservative or a staunch liberal. 

One could be a moderate conservative or a moderate liberal. One could be a liberal conservative or a conservative liberal. This is because most things vary in degrees; they are not all-or-nothing as we have been led to believe.

We've unfortunately been taught that things are more one way or another rather than a mix of things. This has led to poor decisions, using an all-or-nothing mentality. Within the discipline of logic, this binary, yes-or-no, all-or-nothing approach is false logic, and even has the name called "fallacy of the excluded middle" for example.

All-or-nothing thinking is therefore a way of reasoning and approaching things where one does not allow for flexibility in thinking or judgment. Instead, things are presented in a way where they must either be one extreme or the other, without a broader and more intelligent range in between.

You are "either for us, or against us." There is no allowance for neutrality. What is wrong with that is that this causes people to follow others, who themselves may also be bad.

This is how political parties do it. They take advantage of issues to cause all-or-nothing thinking. This logical fallacy is related to others, and therefore can carry one away with an entirely incorrect way of seeing things.

One of these fallacies is the short-term view, versus long-term view.  I will talk about these more in another article.  For now, let's look at where absolutism has been misapplied.

A better non-absolutist way is to use the rule of emphasis as a percentage or degree, as opposed to an all-or-nothing way of thinking.  You're already defeated if you with a "I'll try my best" attitude. You come with less than your best. you need to come with a "all or nothing" attitude.

Like I have also said before, you need to have everything lined up where "making it happen" and "doing it" rather than "trying" is the name of the game.  Do or do not, there is no try!  

The difference here is not all or nothing, which people hold the false view about, but instead the right balance based on the person, situation or circumstance.  Things must be uniquely tailored for these variables, and take them into account.

Another example is that our capabilities with tactics and strategy cannot be limited where we only can take worst-case planning or all-or-nothing actions, rather than tailored planning, specific, decisive and precise actions and their graduated levels of response, to the situation. 

This is called risk and issue management, as well as: deliberate response, graduated response or tailored response.  It is also something the military calls "precision engagement" where you tackle the exact, specific problem rather than trying to target everything.  This requires a hyper-focused approach.  

All-or-nothing thinking can get us into trouble, and rob us of resources, as well as make us less agile and more constrained and confounded.  This thinking is too rigid and inflexible, and we should seek to eliminate it where we can.  

Today, we need to be more precise, and be more specific.  Things should have always been that way, actually.  But today, it's more necessary to deal with our complex world and the wicked problems it tends to throw at us.  

Also, remember the approach we used to set SMART goals?  The same kind of thing applies here, using a precise and realistic approach versus all-or-nothing.  #ProblemSolving  #PersonalEffectivness  #GTD

Do or Do Not There Is No Try Yoda Quote Meaning #Quotes

Do or Do Not There Is No Try Yoda Quote and Meaning

Most of us have heard the saying before that goes "do or do not, there is no try". I once knew someone who loved this saying. But I didn't appreciate it much at the time, as much as I do now. 

This is a saying that is especially useful to for those who think that their best is good enough. For some situations, maybe. For many others, not so!

This is again an example of not following all-or-nothing thinking, as a general rule. This saying, "Do or Do Not, There Is No Try” has since grown on me and now I agree with it in a way that I think it was meant to be seen. 

Too many people out there "try" and then fail. Then they become bitter, cynical, jaded naysayers, complainers, critics, unbelievers or they might just be too lazy to try hard enough and well enough.

Why Do vs Try?

They tried, and they failed. So they gave up. They may have even tried 100 times and failed and given up. Am I telling them to try again? NO! I instead will tell them what Yoda said, "Do or Do Not, There Is No Try".

Let me make my point using this analogy: if someone asked you to hold their baby, and said don't drop my baby, would you tell them, "I'll try not to?" Dropping a baby is something that you cannot do, EVER. It is simply unacceptable.

Same logic goes for "Do or Do Not, There Is No Try." There are some things that you just don't fail at. It's called simply doing the things you MUST do them, in order to be successful, no matter what. It is a level of assurance or perhaps "mission assurance" that some of you who were military probably understand well.

When Good Isn't Good Enough

If you tried and failed, maybe it means that your "try" is not a great effort, and your try is such a weak and incomplete effort that it serves only as an excuse, a crutch, and no real proof that you really tried your heart out.

Giving 110%, your maximum effort, your best in all you do - this is how you overcome the "try" attempt at something. You apply yourself fully. That's what all those teachers meant when they said of someone "they could have been good or great, had they "applied themselves."

I'm a firm believer that if you want something bad enough, in most cases you can have it. While there are always exceptions to this, in many and perhaps most cases, it depends not on whether or not you try, but rather on the quality of how you try, how hard, how smartly, how diligently and persistently? 

The quality of your "try" might need a boost! Here is how:

• You must try hard enough.

• You must try using the right tools, methods, ideas and plans

• You must try the right things

• You must try after seeking it out and finding the thing to try

• You must give it ALL you've got once the above criteria for "trying" have been met

In other words, when Yoda said, "Do or Do not" he was saying, as I see it:

• You're already defeated if you come here with an "I'll try my best" attitude

• You come with less than your best, and that is like Sun Tzu, you lose the fight before it even begins, you lack commitment to truly see it through

• You need to come with an "all in" attitude, willing to commit fully, do what it takes, within reason, and get it done

• You need to have everything lined up where "making it happen" and "doing it" not just "trying" is the name of the game. So do this...

• Be decisive. Be exact. Be sure. Do it. Do or Do Not, There Is No Try! 

Let’s now look at another area of personal effectiveness, which is called the error or all-or-nothing-thinking in my article The Mistake People Make With All-or-Nothing Thinking. #Yoda  #GTD   #Quotes

How the 80-20 Rule Can Help You Be More Effective #8020

How the 80-20 Rule Can Help You Be More Effective

In my other article entitled "What is the 80-20 Rule and Why is it so Useful?” I talked about what the 80-20 rule, or Pareto principle is and gave some basic examples of how it can help make you more effective. This article is a continuation of that first article, and is an important concept for maximizing personal effectiveness and getting things done.

Are You "Living 80-20" And Producing Max Output with Minimal Effort (input)?

Like I said before, the 80-20 rule for me is always in the back of my mind when I look at anything and everything I do. What I mean is, I am always asking if there is a way I can do things better, in light of what the 80-20 rule often tells us is sub-optimal. I call this 80-20 living, or 'living 80-20".

Others relate this 80-20 living to GTD - "Getting Things Done" or using "Zen Habits", or maybe even the "4-hour Work Week." All of these are similar in that they utilize the 80-30 principles and concepts to help us be more efficient and effective, and turn the output maximization on its head, so max output with minimal effort can be achieved.

Once you look at things through the lens of 80-20 Living, your life will improve because the 80-20 rule helps you find a major way to improve your life personally and professionally. In fact, 80-20 living is contagious, and soon others around you will use these living 80-20 concepts to increase their output and maximize their personal effectiveness.

In fact, when you start 80-20 living, you'll find the following happen:

• You'll do things smarter and more effectively
• You'll simplify your life
• You'll spend your time on worthwhile and meaningful things
• You'll become more effective
• You'll accomplish more and waste less time
• You'll require less effort to accomplish more output
• You'll spend more time on the most important things
• You'll spend less time on the less-important things

In a time of information overload and social media overload, the 80-20 rule will help us to filter through all of the nose and clutter of this big data and get to the heart of what's most important. If for no other reason, the 80-20 rule must help us focus on the essentials, and discard the non-essentials. So what are some additional example for how we could use the 80-20 rule?

Greater Awareness of our Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats

80-20 thinking can help us re-examine some incorrect assumptions as well as highlight some things we're not aware of, that are nonetheless very important, to make a smarter decision.

By using the 80-20 rule, we should assume that we are not necessarily doing the right things or doing things right. Re-read what I just said. Doing the right things is the first priority. We must identify what those are.

Second, we must then do them right - in the most efficient way. We must be open to what the facts and data tell us, to correct our focus and thinking in many areas. For instance, the 80-20 rule may help us to see some of the following:

20% (or less) of your efforts make you money, 80% (or more) don't!

What does this tell you? For me, it makes me want to find out where I should spend more effort, and where I may just be wasting my time. I would want to flip this equation, where I would ensure 80% (or more) of my efforts are what made me money. I would home in on the specifics that are most important to maximize my output and effectiveness.

20% (or less) of the people in this country have 80% (or more) of the wealth and power

This tells me the other 80% only have 20% and probably much less. This would help to see who our government should focus on helping, versus who is often does focus on instead (i.e. the common ordinary people, the lower and middle class, not just the privileged elite or special interests they seem to give 80% or more of their effort, skill, attention and allegiance to, right?)

20% of the e-mails you get is actually worth your time, the other 80% is just junk or vaguely important information.

This will help you see where you need to focus your energies and where you'd waste most of your time. The key point is that we need to identify wasted effort and then stop doing things that wastes our time and life, our energy, effort or money.

Living 8020 tells us we need to get rid of the junk we don't need, at least 80% of it because we'll never use it, for example. 

These are just a few of the millions of possible examples of how to apply the 80-20 rule, and the trick is to find creative ways to apply it yourself in your life. It really works and is extremely useful, so I hope you will adopt it as a tool for your life's toolbox because 80-20 Rules!

The Possibilities for Using the 80-20 Rule Are Endless

Using the 80-20 rule and seeing its possibilities for use, which only increase over time, will be very exciting. I love to follow it, and know you'll catch the "Living 80-20" fever. If you do, it can and will become an important “rule of life” and “rule of business” for you, so you can focus on what you should and avoid the stuff that is insignificant.

I hope that you will begin to use this rule to help prioritize your life, both personally and professionally, to be more effective.

Other rules of life will be discussed in future articles, but "Living 8020" is so central to happier, more focused and simpler living method, it is one of the first concepts to understand.

There are endless possibilities for how to apply the 80-20 rule, and you must seek to discover those for yourself, now that you have the basic knowledge for how to do that.

The trick is to find creative ways to apply it yourself in your life, both personally and professionally. It really works and is extremely useful, so I hope you will adopt it as a tool for your life's toolbox because 80-20 Rules! 

Let's look next at another valuable concept that ties into this, in my article Understanding the Principles of Cause and Effect In Life.

What is the 80-20 Rule and Why is it so Useful? #8020

An Intro to the 80-20 Rule aka the Pareto Principle

The 80-20 Rule is also Called the Pareto Principle, named after an Italian economist, as Wikipedia has pointed out. The basic gist of the 80-20 rule is that 20% of anything, is often the part we probably should pay more attention to, but probably don't, for whatever reason.

Yet this 20% might just contain the most important stuff that what we've assumed to be less important than the other 80% or greater, that we've focused on and where we spend (waste!) most of our time and effort.

Basically, the 80-20 rule brings to light that we might be greatly lopsided and wrong in our thinking, decision-making and in our efforts and resource utilization. We might have deemed the wrong things as more significant, and did not deem the right things as significant, but instead have deemed them as insignificant.

80-20 is one of those rules that you should not avoid, break nor despise. To the contrary. This in one I know you will love, and grow quite fond of. Again, it's called the 80-20 rule and is one of the most important rules you'll ever learn for getting things done and for maximizing personal effectiveness.

I think the best way to describe the 80-20 rule is that it's an extremely important idea or concept that can truly help us work smarter, rather than harder. The 80-20 rule helps us see things in a different light, and hopefully in a better way than we've ever seen it before. It enlightens and informs us in a better way than our current view.

The 80-20 rule requires an open mind, as well as flexibility in our thinking rather than rigidity, as a pre-requisite. If you can't get past this hurdle, you'll become your own worst enemy and won't successfully learn or apply this outstanding and highly useful rile of life!

The 80-20 Rule Helps Us prioritize and Focus

One of the most important points here about the 80-20 rule is one of focus and prioritization. The 80-20 rule has as an assumption that you cannot simply focus on everything, all of the time. You cannot give 100% max effort 100% of the time in 100% of the things.

The 80-20 rule helps us prioritize, because otherwise, we might try to make everything a priority.  And when everything is a priority, nothing is a priority! We just can't focus on everything. There have to be some choices and decisions. 80-20 is a tool to help.

Following the 80-20 Rule Has Positive and Multiplying Effects

If we want to multiply our output, multiply our efficiency and effectiveness, the 80-20 rule is a great way to do exactly that. The 80-20 rule helps us focus on 20% of what's effective and important, rather than 80% of what's not effective or important.

Likewise, the 80-20 Rule helps us not waste time on 80% of things that we might think are effective, but are actually ineffective. These are things that might only deserve 20% of our efforts and focus, or less. So we should know what these things are, right? The 80-20 rule tells us that, and then we must then seek out this knowledge!

For instance, say you're trying to learn something new, such as learning a new language. Instead of trying to learn everything in that language, the 80-20 rule would declare this:

• Focus the majority (80% or more) of your efforts on learning the most important and common things found within that language.

• Focus on the 20% of things (or less) that matter the most in conversations you're most likely to have, every day 

• Give 20% or less of your efforts towards anything else.

This is a much faster as a highly focused way of learning, a great time saver!

Using the language example from above, the 80-20 Rule also says:

Since only 20% of the language is the most important part that you should learn, 80% is unimportant or not nearly as relevant, and therefore not really necessary to learn.

Focus on the 20% that matters, with 80% of our efforts, rather than focusing 100% of efforts on 100% of everything. This would spread us too thin. 

Also, the 80-20 rule helps us to possibly use only 20% of efforts on the 80% that is not as important, so we don’t waste the majority of our resources on less important things. That is a key principle for effectiveness.

In the end, our smarter focus results in what can be called a "force multiplier" because it multiplies our efforts into a sort of "smart work factor" that is between 4-10 times more effective than any other way of doing it (but again we must focus on the most essential 20%, while using 80% of our efforts towards it, to achieve this output factor.)

Another Great 80-20 Rule Example - Studying for an Exam

• Why spend 100% of your time studying 100% of everything? This is unrealistic.

• Why spend 80% of your efforts that's not as important or likely to be tested?

• Why spend 80% of your efforts studying stuff you might already know?

• Why not spend 80% of your efforts on 20% of the material that you don't know, and stop studying what you already do know?

• Why not spend 80% of your efforts on the material that is most likely to be tested, if you can determine what that might be? There is probably a way!

• Why not spend 80% of your efforts on the 20% of where you really need to? That's the bottom line!

Are We Doing The Wrong Things or the Right Things?

The 80-20 rule also help us to focus on doing the right things, rather than doing the wrong things. It helps us to do the right things first, in the right way second, rather than just "doing things right" when they are not the right things.

We must do the right things, not just do things right. We can otherwise be doing the wrong things right, which though noble, is not smart. This is a very important distinction in life that I talked about before.

The 80-20 rule helps us stay correctly focused in that regard, effectiveness first, efficiency second, and not ever the other way around nor ever efficiency, at the expense of effectiveness. When we do 80-20 thinking correctly we will also not do effectiveness at the expense of efficiency either.

80-20 thinking helps us re-focus on 20% of things we didn't know or think were effective, but might actually be more effective than the 80% we mistakenly focused on, because we thought it was the right stuff. 

In end effect, we become more effective when we use the 8020 rule, and we learn to do better when it  comes to making decisions for things such as:

• spending money
• wasting time
• conserving energy
• focusing effort
• understanding cause and effect
• staying efficient
• staying effective

Ultimately, all of this becomes a mind tool or set of tools that can helps us solve problems more effectively!

Next let's look at exactly that - How the 80-20 Rule Can Help You Be More Effective

What You Must Know about General Rules and the 80-20 Rule #8020

What's Important About "General Rules"

 A pineapple might be good to eat for most people, as a general rule, but maybe there are those who are allergic, to whom that rule would not apply.

General rules are very useful tools for our thinking, as a general rule, ha ha. That is the general rule about general rules.  By me saying "as a general rule", realize then, I am also implying that this rule does not always apply to every situation. 

So now we see the important nature of a "general" rule.  It applies, "generally speaking", or "in most cases" and perhaps as much as 80-90% of the time, but sometimes it does not apply all of the time (perhaps 10-20% of the time it may not). 

What's important is that we do not think that it will always apply, in an all-or-nothing way.  General rules do not follow an all-or-nothing way of thinking, as most things do not seem to nor should they.

General Rules and the 80-20 Rule

I dare say a general rule is closely related to an 80-20 rule, or way of thinking, that I explain in an article entitled "What is the 80-20 Rule and Why is it so Useful?" 

Again, what's important is to understand that when a general rule is declared, it is applicable in most cases, but also that it is not always so, it is not absolute.

A general rule therefore has the important characteristic that there could always be one or some (but few) exceptions. If the exceptions grow too large, then maybe the rule should not be a "general rule" or need to be re-looked.

What's Great About Declaring a General Rule?

A general rule is a useful guideline for our thinking in most situations and encounters. So it is a good way to keep ourselves congruent and consistent in our thinking and response to our environment. We should therefore know what rules fall into the category of general rules.

Rule application requires good judgment and perhaps some trust, when we determine a general rule might apply or not apply to specific situations, for specific reasons.  Yet the fact is, most rules are, or should be, general rules - while very few should be specific rules to be followed all of the time. Again, that's the general rule about general rules.

For instance, if we say that someone should not open an attachment or click on a link, we would not be wise to say this should not be done in every case. Otherwise, we might miss a legitimate attachment or link that we need for our job. So we require some judgment here.

Maybe if we don't know the sender, or were not expecting the email, the rule should probably apply. But when we are expecting a specific attachment or link at a specific time, and from a specific individual, then the general rule is, it should be ok to click.

General Rules Have Exceptions

Now, because that also is a "general rule" this means there may be an exception to this trust as a "possibility" worth entertaining in some cases. For example, if someone is a VIP in a company, maybe they should have as a rule to first have another level of verification before they click.

VIPs may require an alteration of the general rule, in their case, because they are higher risk more than the average user, and there is the potential the sender could have "spoofed" the email, or sent a fake email with a fake attachment, due to their high value. An attacker may take their time to do this, in their case, in a highly-specific way.

The point here is, and the "general rule" is (about rules) that there are almost always an exception to most rules, for one reason or another. It could involve a change of risk, politics, money, or whatever else.  Our thinking must be flexible enough to accept this and handle this.

Conditions and situations often differ in each case, and should be perceived individually, case-by-case rather that "all-or-nothing" in order to ensure the proper level of flexibility in one's thinking, in order to survive and prosper in our dynamic world.

This All Deals With Maintaining Flexibility In Our Thinking

To not remain flexible in our thinking, in this dynamic world, is like putting ourselves in our own box that we then can’t climb out of, resulting in a self-imposed limitations and self-imposed denial-of-service or denial-or-flexibility that we would otherwise need, to survive and prosper.

Maintaining flexibility in our thinking is one of the most important attributes necessary for dealing effectively with our world. Without this flexibility, we will struggle to survive and prosper.

With flexibility, we are able to bend, flex and adapt in amazing ways to not just survive, but in many cases, prosper and get ahead.   Without flexibility, we are easily broken.  I talk about this more in my article Why Flexibility Resilience and Agility in Life are So Important. 

Next, I will introduce the 80-20 rule in more depth in my article "What is the 80-20 Rule and Why is it so Useful?”   #GTD  #MindTools

10 Characteristics of a Wicked Problem #ProblemSolving

What is a Wicked Problem and its 10 Characteristics?

As Laurence J. Peter once said, "Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them." This describes a wicked problem perfectly. Just understanding a wicked problem can be an immense challenge.

One former Prime Minister described it this way, "If a problem has no solution, it may not be a problem, but a fact - not to be solved, but to be coped with over time." This perfectly describes the novel characteristics of a wicked problem.

A Wicked Problem is usually large and complex and is not easily solvable. But it goes far beyond that. A wicked problem does not include small issues that are easily solved, unless they relate to a larger problem set.  This means that solving the small issues may have unintended and possible negative effects or unknown effects on the larger, overall problem.

As such, we're talking about the big issues when we talk about wicked problems, where our attempts to solve them can create even more problems and issues, as we try to solve them.

The secondary problems created from our attempt to solve a wicked problem is known as unintended consequences or second-order and third-order effects. You must watch out for the emergence or possibility or various unintended consequences, as you try to solve a wicked problem.

An example of this could be, for instance, taking medicine for one issue and then having side-effects which cause other issues. Then, when you try to take medicine for these secondary issues, they cause even more issues.

Next thing you know, you're now taking 10 medicines and they are all working together in a very negative way, and all stem from your original attempt to solve the problem with only one medicine. Now you have a wicked problem on your hands.

The 10 Characteristics of a Wicked Problem

Wicked problems have been historically said to be comprised of 10 key characteristics. These 10 characteristics are what make solving wicked problems so difficult.

It is very important to get to know these characteristics and understand them so we can determine what may be a waste of time versus what may not when we attempt to solve these huge, wicked problems.

Regarding the 10 Characteristics of Wicked Problems, what follows is my interpretation and explanation, in my own words,  from what I understand these wicked problems to be, based on researching the various sources and my experiences in the cyber domain and the real world, and with credits to: httpd://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_problem, as well as the original authors of Wicked Problems, Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber, two professors from UC Berkeley, in their 1973 paper entitled "Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning."

Note that I follow the original 10 from Rittel and Webber for the most part, again as I have come to understand them, and based on my own experiences.  However, at times, these have seemed to blend a bit together, and therefore some overlap may have occurred in the 10 I list below, but with explanation how they tie together to a degree, which seems only natural. 

Also, remember these things regarding wicked problems are not definitive in and of themselves; they are only descriptive elements open to some interpretation and re-explanation.

Consider these as general guidelines and characteristics, rather than carved-in-stone, so I believe some variance is acceptable. The most important thing is that in the end, you understand the general nature of wicked problems to help you begin to tackle them more effectively, despite their challenges!

1. A wicked problem is very difficult to frame, define and describe.  Nonetheless, as in Einstein's quote above, we must take an extraordinarily vast amount of time to understand them and define them as well as ask the right questions first and foremost - if we are to begin to tackle them.

It's very hard to capture the full scope and extent of a wicked problem because they are complex and may change or transform when you try to solve them.

Wicked problems are therefore always changing and transforming, and even morphing. This means these problems require constant framing and re-framing to try to understand and keep up with them and their new issues

This re-framing also happens because of the second and third-order effects that create new problems. The reason for this is because many solutions which are proposed or attempted might only treat symptoms rather than find and fix root-cause issues causes.

So step one to counter this negative tendency if a wicked problem to create more problems is to stop trying to treat only the symptoms and think only short-term. Instead, by going after root causes and thinking more long-term, we can more likely avoid unintended consequences and additional problems from developing.

We do have to be careful in how we also approach the problem solving, because unintended consequences are a partner of Murphy's Law, and will always try to surface.

This is easier than it sounds because wicked problems may be a tangled web of several big issues with several root causes. These wicked problems might be a conglomeration of multiple problems interwoven with each other in a complex way, versus one-off issues.

Wicked problems can become quite a tangled web, where one solution for a root cause could solve the problem that only causes another problem or set of problems. 

This weaving of multiple root causes and cause-effects for other problems being spawned, could also have the potential of affecting other root issues while solving only one issue, thereby making things worse than better.  For instance, using a military solution to invade a country might solve one problem, but could also create many more, making things no better than before, overall.

2. Another characteristic of a wicked problem is that you can't truly begin to understand it, without trying to first solve it.  This is because once you’re in it knee-deep and perhaps neck-deep; you truly can have an appreciation and understanding that is not obtained by mere theory and observation or second-hand information.

This means one is further enlightened to the problem or issues involved, when trying to solve it. For instance, when you have a car issue, you might not understand it unless a mechanic shows you visually where the issue is and what a faulty part looks like, and why it must be replaced. 

More depths of our senses are involved, not just hearing or reading about it. This is also another lesson in how wicked problems need to be approached and solved. There should be a full range of senses and depth involved, rather than just a theoretical approach. This requires an experience-based, hands-on approach.

3. Wicked problems are not solvable from a "finally solved, once-and-for-all" perspective.  They tend to persist (the no-stopping rule of a wicked problem) and they tend to also change and transform, as you try to solve them. The result if this is a wicked problem will tend to get worse in some respects, while seemingly better in others. In the end, it must be seen from a give-and-take process of trade-offs.

This also means there is no such thing as a "solved-and-done" approach to a wicked problem. There are only solutions for the time, and these may need to be re-worked and/or possibly scrapped and re-done repeatedly. 

Also, wicked problems are a moving target, and they are persistent, adaptive, and dynamic - they change often and can transform and transfigure and morph into another problem just when you thought you fixed it. Ever have a problem like that? I have!

In simple things, I have been in situations where I fixed one thing on my computer, and then caused another issue. There is a constant series of trade-offs and dynamics at play with such things, and solutions are harder than they seem, even in simple things. So imagine what solutions must try to be for the hard, complex and wicked!

As such, wicked problems epitomize Murphy's Law in a worst-case scenario kind of way. Humans make this so, by the way. This is why we should focus on human side solutions, rather than just technical ones. More on that later.

This also means wicked problems must involve a continuous control method to keep it in check, rather than a once-and-for-all method to solve. 

The Department of defense recognized this in the 1070's with what they called a "Net Assessment" or a strategy where things are scoped 20-30 years into the future to determine what the issues might become, as a means to try to plan and prevent "today" in a preventative fashion for what’s possible in the landscape "tomorrow".

Think of this as taking big data and predictive analytics into the long-range analysis of the future rather than just moment-by-moment.

Our solution model for a wicked problem must be cyclical, repeatable, iterative, self-correcting, adapting, improving and re-scoping one that can focus on and align with the short, medium and long-term.

4. There is no great "true-or-false" solution for a wicked problem.  This means that even after testing, we most likely will not discover some definitive, highly effective way to test or solve it. Instead, we have to solve it using a "good enough" approach in varying degrees, rather than with an all-or-nothing approach.

This also means there is no immediate or ultimate test to solving a wicked problem, you just have to try things and think in terms of degrees of risk, and stick with what works best rather than what works entirely and completely. A lot of expectation management is required, for you and your bosses, so the nature of the problem and solutions are known and understood as iterative rather than permanent.

5. Those who try to solve wicked problems are fully accountable and do not enjoy the privilege of making mistakes.  A wicked problem must use a hands-on approach rather than an over-focus on theory, but this causes a dilemma. 

Those who solve wicked problems may create un-doable actions, from where there is no return, and they are therefore fully accountable without the benefit of any consequence. Their decisions will create impacts and effects, some good, some bad. This also means any certifications and training should focus on hands-on approach rather than just concepts without this hands-on approach. 

This is where things such as design thinking can help us rapidly develop prototypes for possible solutions and options, versus long streams of solutions that cannot be tested early and often. Probably better to say options rather than solutions, as well, since these wicked problems are not completely solvable.

6. Trying to solve a wicked problem may be a one-shot deal that requires a large gamble and the solution is also probably very risky because it may not work.  Consider all of the attempted solutions in cybersecurity, for example, with Antivirus. 

While this "solution" helps to block known viruses, it also itself becomes a vulnerability, as a system that can be subverted especially in light of antivirus’s root-level access. That itself becomes a vulnerability while seeming to be a solution.

Or consider how a web browser plug-in or extension might block against unwanted advertisements, but itself may be susceptible to other forms of hacking that make the browser vulnerable in other ways, perhaps even more so that the risk of visiting sites with the ads.

Wicked problems are also hard to enumerate and nail down definitively with solutions in a one-for-one issue-and-solution approach. This means that you cannot always map things in a one-for-one way, in a clear engineering or scientific way.

This is because the wicked problems are not a 0 or 1, they are not true or false, they are not linear. Instead, they are many shades of gray, and solutions or attempts to solve them are either better or worse, in varying degrees, rather than strictly right or wrong, or good or bad.

The realm of wicked problems requires "art" just as much as, if not more than "science", for trying to solve these wicked problems. This is why tools and concepts such as design thinking are used, as ways to insert the "art" into otherwise inadequate science-only approaches to attempt to solve problems.

7. There is no definite or immediate solution to a wicked problem.  Every wicked problem is in a unique class or type of its own problem, and therefore requires new innovation and creativity without necessarily being able to port over specific solutions that work from one area to another.

However, this doesn't mean we should "throw the baby out with the bathwater" so-to-speak. That is probably what happens though, and some useful elements we could have used go with it.

This is unfortunate, because what we could do is use precedents and other lessons and concepts and principles of something close or similar, to at least give us something somewhat useful, versus nothing at all. 

The nature of wicked problems does make this difficult, especially if the problem or issue is very unique, which leads to my next point.

8. Every wicked problem is unique, not able to be fully broken down, and there is no definite formula.  This means every wicked problem has its own distinctive nature and problem set, in its own right, and again is completely new, with little precedent to help us. It also means we cannot ever fully grasp or comprehend every aspect or enumerate every detail of the problem.

This makes the solution process continuously iterative and requires flexibility in our thought processes and an open mind for creative solution attempts as well as an increase in the tolerance for trial-and-error and failures. It’s hard to get buy-in for this, from management, further exacerbating the problem.

Nonetheless, we must try to find something we can use, and some principles which we can test. Here is an example where the 80-20 Rule and 80-20 Thinking cam come into play. 

You can read more about that at one of my other articles "What You Need to Know about General Rules and the 80-20 Rule" where I talk about the usefulness of these tools for problem-solving.

Using the 80-20 rule, we can, therefore (hopefully) assume that we have enumerated either 80% of the problem, or better yet, at least 20% of the most important aspects and areas for a problem to focus on.

9. Every wicked problem is a symptom of another problem. This means that there will likely always be second and third-order effects and unintended consequences, by inserting solutions somewhere, due to this interconnectedness.

This happens because one wicked problem may also be interconnected or related to other wicked problem, as these can come in loosely coupled clusters, it seems. They might make each other worse, like a tangled ball yarn, but then combine as multiple balls of yarn that one can't possibly begin to untangle.

So there may need to be a re-look at what the objectives are to determine what is and is not worthwhile, and what the trade-offs are from a primary and also from secondary and third-order effects.

Effects-mapping needs to be a process employed to do this, where one seeks to think of and map as many primary, secondary, and third-order effects as possible via a mind-map, and then clusters them in ways to look at possible solutions versus their trade-off. However, the last point about wicked problems also makes this difficult.

10. Theory or explanations for causes of wicked problems vary, making solutions difficult from a people perspective. Different perspectives might also explain and see wicked problems differently, further making their solvability difficult, due to things such as viewpoint disagreement or dispute, based on various perspectives, biases, and agendas.

This means that teams who try to get together and solve wicked problems are inherently biased against the ability to do so.

That doesn't mean they should give up or not try. Instead, it means they should recognize their strengths and weaknesses and the knowns and unknowns, and set up their processes to account for all of these things. 

Also, rather than try, we should follow the advice of Yoda, to Do or Do Not, There is No Try!  #Solutions #ProblemSolving