Some problems don’t sit neatly within one organisation, profession or service. They cross boundaries. They involve different perspectives, competing priorities and no obvious answer. And the harder we try to solve them using conventional approaches, the more stuck they can become.
The Wicked Problems Hub helps public service leaders, organisations and partnerships make sense of complexity, work out what to do, and build the capability to do it well.
Most organisations are good at solving problems they understand.
The difficulty comes when the problem itself is contested. When different organisations see different versions of it. When relationships, power, history and incentives matter as much as structures and processes. Or when yesterday’s solution has become part of today’s problem.
That’s where we work.
We combine systems thinking, evidence, practical diagnostic methods and deep experience of public services to help people understand what is really happening — and find practical ways forward.
There is no single starting point.
You might have a problem that keeps coming back. A partnership that isn’t delivering what it should. A major decision that needs clearer thinking. A service that needs redesigning. Or a board or leadership team that needs to work differently.
Our work falls into three areas.
Understand what’s really going on.
Before reaching for solutions, make sure you’re solving the right problem.
We help leaders and organisations examine difficult problems, test assumptions, understand why partnerships become stuck and learn from situations where things haven’t gone as intended.
Wicked Problems Clinic · Executive Thinking · Partnership & Alliance Health · Independent Reviews
Work out what to do about it.
Understanding the problem is only useful if it leads somewhere.
We help organisations and partnerships turn insight into practical action — designing approaches that recognise the realities of complex systems rather than pretending they don’t exist.
Solution Design Workshops · Neighbourhood Health Toolkit · Population Health Playbook
Build the capability to do it yourselves.
Working with complexity isn’t a technique that can simply be handed over in a toolkit. It requires different ways of thinking, leading and working across boundaries.
We help leaders, boards and teams develop those capabilities — from strategic commissioning and systems leadership to collaboration, facilitation and problem solving.
The Strategic Commissioning Mindset · Development Workshops · Board Development · Coaching & Mentoring · Train the Trainer
Ideas, evidence and practical thinking on wicked problems, collaboration, neighbourhood and population health, strategic commissioning and working across complex systems.
