Climate change, terrorism, mass migrations and the epidemic of chronic diseases threaten to overwhelm us. As the world around us grows more complex we tend towards despair, believe our problems are beyond hope and focus on simple solutions. Yet if we recognized that complex or “wicked” problems are not the same as complicated problems we could approach these challenges differently. This Café will explore the differences between simple, complicated and complex problems and consider how we need to shift our approach in complexity.

Dr. Finegood is a Professor in the Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology and a Fellow in the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue at SFU. She is well known both nationally and internationally for her academic work and her leadership roles. She currently teaches in the Semester in Dialogue program where she focuses on systems thinking and complex adaptive systems.