The Wicked 7
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| Founded | 2019 |
|---|---|
| Founders | Christian Sarkar, Philip Kotler |
| Type | open innovation collaborative |
Area served | Global |
Key people | Anthony W. Ulwick, Stuart L. Hart, Raj Sisodia, Michael J. Gelb, Joseph Pistrui, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, David Hinds, Thomas H. Davenport, John Seely Brown, Tammy Erickson, Christopher Lochhead, David Cobb (activist), Clark V. Fox, Adi Ignatius, Henry Mintzberg, John Elkington (business author), Anil Kumar Gupta |
| Website | http://www.wicked7.org/ |
The Wicked 7 is an open collaboration global project that provides people with knowledge to address the urgent systemic problems of the world.[1] The project is founded in 2019 by Christian Sarkar and Philip Kotler as a spin-off on their work on brand activism concept.
The Wicked 7 concept[edit]
Christian Sarkar and Philip Kotler adopted the initial concept of wicked problems by the 1973 article Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning by Horst W.J. Rittel and Melvin M. Webber.[2] The article was a search for scientific bases for confronting problems of social policy. Rittel and Webber named these problems wicked because there is no optimal solution to social problems in the sense of definitive and objective answers. According to the authors, the term “wicked” denotes resistance to resolution because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. Moreover, because of complex interdependencies, the effort to solve one aspect of a wicked problem may reveal or create other problems.
Classic examples of wicked problems include economic, environmental, and political issues, global climate change [3], natural hazards, healthcare, the AIDS epidemic, pandemic influenza, international drug trafficking, nuclear weapons, nuclear energy, waste, and social injustice. A problem whose solution requires a great number of people to change their mindsets and behavior is likely to be a wicked problem.[4]
In 2019 Sarkar and Kotler in their blog The Ecosystem of the Wicked Problems, came to the conclusion that the basis of the failure of the majority of the change initiatives is the inability of businesses and individuals to cooperate. According to the authors, "We aren’t taught to collaborate. Our careers are based on competition, not cooperation".[5] Sarkar and Kotler offers an ecosystemic approach to problem-solving. Similar to Business ecosystems of James F. Moore[6], this solution-ecosystem aims to create a community of interacting individuals. This ecosystem enables community members to move forward shared visions, to align their efforts, and find the best possible solution for all stakeholders. Sarker and Kotler envision platforms to mobilize people across society – experts and community members – to create lasting and sustainable solutions to society’s most pressing challenges, i.e. the Common Good.[7] The authors refer to those platforms as the Platforms of Purpose. Purpose platforms mobilize people to act. According to the authors, the examples of purpose platforms are the social movements as Civil Rights and Women's suffrage. The examples of the digital world are Move to Amend, Black Lives Matter, and Openideo[8].
Putting the approach into practice, Sarkar and Kotler founded the Wicked 7 Project.
The Wicked 7 Project[edit]
The Wicked 7 project was founded by Christian Sarker and Philip Kotler.[9] Implementing the ideas of brand activism, the project aims to create an open-collaboration platform involving volunteers to solve society's problems.[10] Sarkar and Kotler build on the brand activism idea where businesses are a driver of social change [11] into platforms of purpose in which the community itself is engaged in a movement for change.[12]
Based on the World Economic Forum’s annual Global Risks Report[13], with urgent issues like income and wealth disparity, changing climate, the polarization of societies, cyber dependency, and the aging population, the project is committed to defining and solving seven major categories of the wicked problems:
Climate Collapse: the interlinked global crisis of weather-related events from heat waves, forest fires, flooding, hurricanes, ecosystem degradation, and species extinction.
Inequality: economic inequality is a way to measure social and gender inequality. The growing gap between the 1% and the rest of the population creates an unequal and unjust society[14].
Extremism: the growing intolerance and hate-fueled by identity-based groups that create social unrest and commit acts of terror.
War: includes militarism, the culture of war, armies, arms, industries, policies, plans, propaganda, prejudices, and rationalizations that lead to lethal group conflict.
Corruption: the dishonest conduct by those in power or those seeking to influence them using fraud and bribery. Corruption creates a system that governs not for the many, but for the few.
Health and Livelihood: the worldwide challenge of public wellbeing – economic and physical health[15][16]. Includes the economy, the future of work, employment, education, and the new skills and capabilities required to “make a living.”
Population & Migration: the domestic and global population growth leads to increased conflicts over water, energy, food, open space, transportation, and schooling[17]. Carrying capacity, the number of people, other living organisms, or crops that a region can support without environmental degradation – becomes a key metric for local and national wellbeing. Also includes the growing problem of refugees and asylum seekers, mainly from the “Global South.”
Since its creation in late 2019, the project has enlisted a diverse advisory group of experts from economics, business management, politics and activists such as Anthony W. Ulwick, Stuart L. Hart, Michael J. Gelb, David Hinds, Thomas H. Davenport, John Seely Brown, David Cobb (activist), Clark V. Fox, Adi Ignatius, Henry Mintzberg, Katherine Gehl, John Elkington (business author), Anil Kumar Gupta, Leonard Schlesinger.
References[edit]
- ↑ "The Wicked 7".
- ↑ "Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning by Horst W.J. Rittel and Melvin M. Webber 1973" (PDF).
- ↑ Hulme 2009.
- ↑ Elver-Wapner 2016.
- ↑ "The Ecosystem of Wicked Problems, 11th Global Peter Drucker Forum".
- ↑ "A new ecology of competition, James F. Moore, 1993".
- ↑ "The Platforms of Purpose".
- ↑ https://www.openideo.com/
- ↑ "About Us – The Wicked 7".
- ↑ "Brand activism".
- ↑ Kotler and Sarkar 2018.
- ↑ "Ecosystem of Purpose".
- ↑ https://www.weforum.org/global-risks
- ↑ "Inequality at the Top: Why Should We Care?, Richard V. Reeves".
- ↑ "Corona Is a Wicked Problem, Bart Cambré, Hugo Marynissen & Geert Van Hootegem".
- ↑ "Mapping COVID-19 as a Wicked Problem".
- ↑ "The biggest issues facing migrants today - and what we can do to solve them, The World Economic Forum".
Bibliography[edit]
- Rittel, Horst, and Melvin Webber; "Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning,", Policy Sciences, Vol. 4, Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Inc., Amsterdam, 1973. [Reprinted in N. Cross (ed.)]
- Hulme, Mike (2009). Why We Disagree about Climate Change: Understanding Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-26889-0. Search this book on
- Elver-Wapner, Hilal, Paul (2016). Reimagining Climate Change. Routledge. ISBN 1317370201. Search this book on
- Kotler and Sarkar, Philip, Christian (2018). Brand Activism: From Purpose to Action. IDEA BITE PRESS. ASIN B07K71B413. Search this book on
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