For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.
(H.L. Mencken)

Complex social problems (more precisely, wicked problems) are beyond the capacity of any single organization – or sector -- to solve. Examples include racial injustice, gender inequity, climate change, and economic inequality. Their intractability suggests that we need new ways of both understanding the problems themselves and imagining solutions that span across the public, private, and non-profit sectors.

This case-based course looks at different ways of structuring, managing, and leading inter-organizational collaboration. First, we theorize power itself. Second, we build a sophisticated understanding of how structural change actually happens. Third, we challenge our mental models of what an “organization” even is. Then, we look at specific, real-world cases – relative success stories -- where relations and structures of power have been de- and re-institutionalized. The goal is to understand what managers, leaders, and activists can actually do, pragmatically, to foster structural, inter-generational change. The course seeks to de-romanticize “NGOs,” “social enterprises,” “social movements,” and quasi-governmental actors such as the UN; we’ll unpack them as instantiations of extant power relations and forms of structural inequality rather than heroic actors somehow immune from such things. We will study seven archetypes – intersectoral, interorganizational relational geometries – of collaborative action and what each is good, and not so good, for. Students will leave the course armed with broad strategies, approaches, tactics, and historical, comparative knowledge about what kinds of collaborative action has worked, in what contexts…and the understanding that when it comes to nudging wicked problems in desired ways, it is necessary to understand past efforts but the future will always demand creativity and new approaches. There is a quite deep conflict between “best practice” mental models and making a positive difference on wicked problems.