The Four Dimensions of Complexity
inventory , White Springs determined the following assets or resources :
• Willing and capable underdeveloped population
- Education - Health
• Underutilized tax / revenue base
• Competitive Florida initiative
• Ecological assets
• Historical assets .
The lines of effort in the resolution approach are broad and holistic treatments to wicked problems . Lines of effort are the ways to resolution , providing flexibility and adaptability . White Springs identified five ways , broad and acceptable , that it could achieve the prescribed endstate . These ways allow for change of plans ( if needed ) without changing strategy , objectives , and more importantly ends . Fundamental to lines of effort is that they occur simultaneously and are rank ordered . This order is a resource prioritization mechanism rather than order of execution . Should budgets be reduced and factor in decision-making , policymakers will be guided by this resource prioritization regarding what decisions they “ should ” make . After determining the endstate and inventorying the means , the policymakers decided on five ways ( lines of effort ) to resolve the wicked poverty problem in White Springs :
1 . Advance and increase level of education 2 . Grow and improve economic base of the town 3 . Expand and improve infrastructure of the town and other areas of opportunities
4 . Improve and sustain the overall health and wellness of citizens over their lifetime
5 . Increase resiliency through building reserves for downturns beyond the control of the town .
A critical component of the resolution approach is the timeline . A wicked problem does not develop at once but over an extended period . Therefore , its resolution takes time . Time affects complex problems , instituting a period of waiting for resolution to come to fruition . Appropriate solutions to wicked problems may not yield results right away . Conversely , inappropriate solutions may yield immediate and shortterm relief . More dangerously , some shortterm solutions bring about more harm over the life of the problem than if no actions were taken . Even when positive results are noticed , waiting for full resolution of a wicked problem is difficult to accept for some actors . The timeline assures discipline over the life of the strategy .
Another critical component to the resolution approach and framing in general is assessment . Assessment in framing provides feedback in two distinct ways : through measures of performance ( MOPs ) and measures of effectiveness ( MOEs ). In order to measure MOPs and MOEs , clear intermediate and terminal objectives must be identified .
Methods
I propose conducting a statistical analysis of this sample ( the town of White Springs ). To assess the effectiveness of framing , a 20-year longitudinal study will be conducted of the sample . The null hypothesis of this study is that the twenty-first century problem-solving approach framing is not more effective at resolving U . S . poverty than twentieth century problem-solving approaches . The alternative hypothesis of this study is that framing , a twentyfirst century problem-solving approach , is significantly more effective in resolving
95