How to Address the ‘Wicked Problems’ of the World Today

John Elkington has just published his new book ‘Green Swans’ extending the concept of Black Swans a theory popularized by Nassim Taleb. In his book John introduces the concept of global ‘wicked problems’ (e.g. climate crisis or antibiotic resistant bugs) that can only be overcome with exponential alternative solutions. Regenerative energy generation can be one such ‘Green Swan’ response. Our conversation in this podcast looks at the aspects of responsibility, resilience, and regeneration, with John Elkington challenging managers to actively drive for what he calls ‘Green Swan’ scenarios. COVID-19 is an acute case of the ‘wicked problems’ described in his book and John is optimistic that in coming out of this crisis ‘Green Swan’ solutions will only gain more momentum in this arena.