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Handling wicked problems

There are critical problems, tame problems, and wicked problems ― Alex Wood finds a leadership theory that finally offers something of use for the profession.

This year’s Scottish Learning Festival had less buzz, less decisive debate, than previous years. The ministerial contributions combined Panglossian optimism and over-generalisation, but the issue of leadership was attacked head-on by Keith Grint, Professor of public leadership at Warwick University Business School. 

His presentation, Leadership: Enemy of the People?, started from Ibsen’s eponymous play. The mayor’s brother indicates that the new town baths, built to bring business and prosperity, are in fact poisoning the town’s water system. No-one will listen and he is branded an enemy of the people. Prof Grint suggested that the problem for leaders was the nature of the problems with which they grappled.

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