Blogs

So you wanna

14 November 2008

By Paul Miller

I recently came across this website (www.soyouwanna.com) – based in the US.

It’s split into many ‘SYW’ categories including things like ‘SO YOU WANNA KNOW WHAT CONSULTANTS DO’. It occurred to me that we need lots of these at the moment: ‘SYW…solve the problem of unemployment’; ‘SYW…stop all those City bonuses’.

There are no silver bullets for many of life’s SYWs, but it is important to recognise that most of them are made up of mini SYWs. Achieving  each would get us a little closer to the big one.

For example, the really big  SYW for most in economic development is ‘SYW…make your economy stronger’.  What are all the SYWs that go to make this up?  We think there are about 30 sub-SYWs and each of those might be further sub-divided into sub-sub-SYWs.  

The point is that splitting up what is an apparently insurmountable problem into component parts is crucial. Academics have long known that we humans have to break things up into ‘bite sized’ chunks. Charles Lindblom developed the notion of ‘incrementalism’ in policy and decision-making. He wrote a great small book called ‘The Science of Muddling Through’ which argued that policy change is, under most circumstances, evolutionary rather than revolutionary. 

We would do well to remember Lindblom when the next ‘big’ project comes along. I know there is a tempatation to think that big projects mean big change, but for Lindblom they are more likely to mean failure.

So the next time ‘you wanna’ do something, my recommendation is that you think mini wannas.  These small, evolutionary steps might not make a huge splash, but the ripples will spread out eventually. And for now, I think I’ll pack up my metaphor bag and head for the weekend.

Permalink: http://www.gavurin.com/wanna (copy'n'paste)

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