Understanding Wicked Problems: A conversation with Daniel Gutierrez
What is a “wicked problem?”
Wicked problems are these big societal problems that shift as you try to solve them.
For example, let’s imagine a community responding to a growing mental health crisis. Schools are overwhelmed, ERs are full and families want help. So the first move makes sense — you expand services. But Clinicians start saying, “We’re treating downstream what’s being created upstream.”
So the problem lens widens. Now we’re talking about housing instability, economic stress, loneliness and community violence. And that is the wickedness of it. The problem changes as you engage it. The causes are interconnected, the boundaries of the problem keep moving, and even defining what the problem is dependent on where you stand in the system.
The causes are interconnected; stakeholders see them differently. There’s no clear endpoint and no single right answer. A wicked problem is a problem that doesn’t stay still long enough to be solved—it changes as you engage it.
What does it take to solve wicked problems?
Wicked problems demand transdisciplinary approaches because they exist between systems. Any piece of reality that is fundamentally interconnected and constantly changing.
Wicked problems are dynamic. If you take a single-discipline approach to the problem, you may not even notice how it is changing.
In your experience, what are some wicked problems that illustrate these complexities?
We see this clearly in areas like youth mental health, substance use and chronic loneliness. Teaching coping skills and offering therapy, helps the individual, but only to a point. If that same young person is dealing with housing instability, under-resourced schools, or constant online comparisons, the conditions shaping their distress remain active. So the response expands. Invest in schools, support families, build community programs. That helps too, but more slowly, and now the problem starts to shift. Is this a mental health issue, an education issue, or an economic issue? Who is responsible for responding?
As each part of the system is addressed, new pressures show up elsewhere. Expanding access to care increases demand and strains providers. School-based supports help students but stretch educators beyond their roles. Social interventions take time, while families are asking for immediate relief. Each intervention improves something while complicating something else.
This is an area that the VCU Convergence Mental Health group is addressing, and under the leadership of Dr. Patrick Mullen we are engaging schools and community groups to best define the work that needs to be done.
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