Opinion | Not just Brexit, but all of the world’s ‘wicked problems’ need creative solutions

A blog post by Boris Johnson’s chief adviser inviting ‘weirdos and misfits’ to get involved in government policymaking reflects a yearning in many societies for solutions to the intractable problems we face, such as inequality and climate change

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Dominic Cummings, special adviser to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, attracted controversy with his recruitment blog for “assorted weirdos” to join the administration. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 2:00pm, 18 Jan 2020Updated: 2:00pm, 18 Jan 2020

If you think the world is being thrown into chaos by tweets, look instead at blogs, which reflect the thinking behind the policymaker. Having helped Boris Johnson win the ‘Brexit elections’, special adviser Dominic Cummings has stirred up a hornet’s nest with his blog post on looking for out-of-the-box thinkers – including “weirdos and misfits” – to help Britain change.

In the “Guiguzi” collection of treatises on Chinese political strategies dating back to the Warring States era, it is said that to understand a ruler, you should look at his closest advisers. United States President Donald Trump may have fired Steve Bannon, but the former strategist is Trump’s real Svengali, able to articulate consistently what Trump is thinking and acting on.

Any leader with a mandate for change faces huge resistance from vested interests who think the status quo is best. His or her advisers are therefore lightning rods for controversy, a test of which way the winds blow.

People want change – from what is being preached and what is being delivered. Almost every community, city or state is facing the same problem worldwide – from Hong Kong to Iran, Britain and the US.

Brexit showed the British do not like Brussels bureaucracy and want their sovereignty back. Hong Kong’s protesters do not like Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor but do not know how to make her deliver the policies they want. These are understood by management consultants and social planners today as “wicked problems”.

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