What is the best use of public spaces?
Governments have public lands and buildings they need to manage. Choosing how to invest while balancing both short- and long-term priorities has a real impact on the character of an area. When our government chooses how to shape the lives of their many citizens, they need to take a broader view of the options and the impacts.
Complex problems are often vague and have many possible solutions. The Meta-Problem Method may lead you far away from the dilemma that started your quest. That’s because the method forces you to clarify what you really want and what you are willing to give up. It enables you to compare objectively the possible pathways and their trade offs. It prevents you locking into solutions mode too early and then doubling down on solving a low-yield problem that does not serve your goals as well as the alternatives. At the end of this process, you will have a better understanding of your priorities and how to achieve them.
Steps in the Meta-Problem Method
Dilemma
The high-level issue you are trying to address
Which improvements make sense for public property?
Goal
The changes you want to make to address the dilemma. There are usually many options.
Supporting Goals
- Improve usability of existing public spaces.
- Create new public spaces.
Other goals could include minimizing investment costs, improving environmental efficiency, a variety of specific benefits public property could provide to citizens, and minimizing operational expenses.
Problem Space
The set of problems you could chose to solve to advance your goals, plus the constraints that hold you back.
Example problems
- Which improvements would increase the usability of existing public buildings and land? Maybe the problem to solve is “Which public spaces most need improvement or repair?”
- Which new public spaces would most benefit citizens? Maybe the problem to solve is “Are there specific services which are most needed in our community?”
There are many other potential problems to solve related to choosing how to invest in public property. Each goal has many possible problems we could link to it. Are there other problems linked to these first two goals? Which options come to mind for the other goals?
High-Yield Problems
Sometimes solving one problem helps make progress towards several goals. In this step, we identify these “two-for-the-price-of-one” problems.
Which options will advance more than one goal?
- Improving the public spaces which are most accessible to the community will improve the usability to the most people, could improve environmental efficiency, while having a limited impact on operational costs. However, no new services will be available to citizens, existing inequalities in access to public services will continue, and the initial investment may still be significant.
- Investing in the most underserved part of the community will increase the usability of public spaces to more people and can provide a long list of specific benefits to local citizens. However, introducing new services will require an initial investment and ongoing maintenance, and it may cost more to do so in an environmentally friendly way.
There are many potential solutions that will have varying effects on the set of goals. Which alternatives improve the most important goals? How might the unknown change the right path forward? What other possible solutions are there to address the dilemma?
Problem Selection
Which of the many possible options in the high-yield problem step is the best set to address the dilemma?
- Which solutions make the most sense as a citizen?
- Which solutions will best address the dilemma?
- Which solutions will deliver the best outcome for the least amount of time, effort and money?
Implement, Learn and Adapt
Check continuously that you are still solving the best problem, as new information emerges.
Observe and learn as you go. As new information reveals itself, check continuously that you’re still solving the right problem.