{"id":35855,"date":"2024-02-15T09:46:45","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T17:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=35855"},"modified":"2024-02-15T09:46:45","modified_gmt":"2024-02-15T17:46:45","slug":"not-going-meta-today-maybe-tomorrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/not-going-meta-today-maybe-tomorrow\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Going Meta Today…Maybe Tomorrow!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cEvery wicked problem is a discrepancy between a present state, and a future, more desirable state.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

So Wicked<\/strong><\/p>\n

This week\u2019s reading could not have been more timely for me. I faced the most wicked problem that I could have imagined. In my role as Interim CEO, I have been tasked with making leadership decisions that impact the organization, the staff, and the community. I felt the weight of the position in a tremendous way this week. Yesterday I faced a difficult decision. I had to execute a plan that was gut-wrenching, and I had no other reasonable choice but to move forward. I had to inform a staff that has been with the organization for less than a year that the program that they work under was being immediately terminated. The decision was completely out of my control, and I knew that it would negatively impact the lives of these ladies and their families. There was no error, no failure to meet deliverables, no conflict that preempted this decision. The sole private donor made the decision, and it needed to be done immediately as funding was cut off and the remaining funds were to be returned. In my 30 years of leadership in the non-profit sector, this was not something that I had ever encountered. I looked across the table at 11 women and delivered life altering news and I felt awful. It was difficult to digest that the words coming out of my mouth would potentially negatively affect their households in the immediate future. If I am being completely transparent, I am still really emotional about it as I type this blog. I did not want to be the messenger of unpleasant news, but it was my job. It is the job of a leader to do the hard, difficult things. It is the job of a leader to work through wicked problems. And perhaps laying off staff is seen as a function of business. Although unpleasant, it is not unheard of that leaders in the non-profit and for-profit landscape face the decision to potentially reduce the workforce at some point in their careers. It is the circumstances that differ from organization to organization. In this instance, I could not have anticipated a more perfect storm of events. I am serving in an Interim role, the staff were employed for less than a year, the donor changed his mind, the organization expanded before my tenure to accommodate this program, a really important program will end, the organization in its 4th<\/sup> search for a CEO and fundraising must continue at an escalated pace. All of these realities were weighing on me.\u00a0 I balanced all of these realities as I entered the room with the eleven ladies, and I attempted to hold the tension of knowing that it needed to be done and not wanting to do it. There are two statements that resonated with me as I prepared for my meeting:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u201cEvery wicked problem is one that has never been seen before, so the value of previous knowledge or experience is limited- there is little generalizing from previous efforts on other problems.\u201d[2]<\/a>, and<\/li>\n
  2. \u201cEvery wicked problem should be considered a symptom of another problem. One wicked problem inevitably leads to or us implicated in at least one equally wicked problem.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The biggest \u201cah ha\u201d moment for me was that wicked problems have no real solutions; they are meant to be worked through but not completely solved. This was a hard realization for me as I determined that I am in the midst of a wicked problem that I will not be able to solve, nor should I expect to solve. As an admitted Problem Solver, this is a foreign concept for me. It was also obvious that the layoffs were not a solution to any problem but a temporary step towards identifying the next steps in the process. I am truly in the throws of a wicked problem. As Bentley and Toth state, \u201cThus, wicked problems present us with real predicaments. They are confusing, dynamic, ill-structured, and ambiguous; they are complex, many-faceted, intricate, and bewildering. They have no solutions, only temporary arrangements.\u201d[4]<\/a> I feel like I am in the midst of a real predicament, one that is both complex and multi-faceted. I am grasping for a way forward that honors the work that has been done and also points towards a less rocky path forward.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    Going Meta<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Do I have the ability to \u201cGo Meta\u201d? I ask myself after an absolutely mentally, emotionally, and physically exhausting week, can I actually do it? The thought of going meta is exciting and maybe even a little inspiring, but in this season is it realistic. \u201cGoing meta means getting better at thinking, talking, and reasoning, and at almost any other activity: making decisions, persuading others, leading a meeting, praising colleagues, disciplining children, giving feedback, composing an essay, or writing a report.\u201d[5]<\/a> The thought of improving at any aspect of my work seems unattainable today. Yet this has to be the goal. To improve, grow, expand, and lead with compassion must be the goal. Tomorrow\u2026perhaps, I can do better! Please keep me in your prayers, Loved Ones.<\/p>\n

    [1]<\/a> Joseph Bentley and Michael Toth, Exploring Wicked Problems: What They Are and Why They Are Important<\/em> (Bloomington, IN, Illinois: Archway Publishing, 2020), 22.<\/p>\n

    [2]<\/a> Ibid.,\u00a022.<\/p>\n

    [3]<\/a> Ibid., 22.<\/p>\n

    [4]<\/a> Ibid., 24.<\/p>\n

    [5]<\/a> Ibid., 41.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u201cEvery wicked problem is a discrepancy between a present state, and a future, more desirable state.\u201d[1] So Wicked This week\u2019s reading could not have been more timely for me. I faced the most wicked problem that I could have imagined. In my role as Interim CEO, I have been tasked with making leadership decisions that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":174,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[544,2310],"tags":[3053,2489],"class_list":["post-35855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-action-mystery-thriller","category-doctor-of-leadership-3","tag-bentleyandtoth","tag-dlgp02","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/174"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35855"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35859,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35855\/revisions\/35859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}