Ministry and Wicked Environments

The importance of range

In his exceptionally insightful book, Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, David Epstein cites the work of psychologist Robin Hogarth who distinguishes between “kind” and “wicked” learning environments. Kind environments are those where process and repetitive patterns allow for mastery over time. Think golfers, chess masters, or firefighters, examples Epstein cites. Progress is easily measured and experience can produce impressive achievement—think Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hour practice rule for becoming an outlier.

Other environments, however, are not kind. They are not predictable, amenable to repetition and process. In fact, in these environments experience may be a hindrance, our learned through repetition skill set can make things worse and not better. Hogarth labels these “wicked environments.” In these environments the rules don’t apply or are incomplete and ambiguous. Repetitive patterns can’t be sussed out like chess moves and feedback lags if it exists at all.

The problem with much contemporary learning, according to Epstein is that we teach specialization which assumes kind environments. We live, however, in world where wicked environments are more the norm. For these environments, specialization is of little use. Wicked environments require knowledge from several domains and the ability to integrate larger conceptual schemes. The thesis of Range is that specialization is not nearly so valuable as being able to think conceptually across domains. The book is full of supporting studies and stories.

In terms of higher ed, studies have shown that specialization is the telos of most majors, taught by professors whose academic interests have narrowed the higher they go, the result being that their students show little capacity for conceptualizing beyond their learning domain. They are all kind environments. According to one major study Epstein cites, “Almost none of the students in any major showed a consistent understanding of how to apply methods of evaluating they had learned in their own disciplines to other majors.” My favorite result of this study was “business majors performed very poorly across the board, including in economics” (48-49).

To be clear, there are some kind environments where specialization should be the goal of learning. But students who are equipped to think analogically across domains are better problem solvers, more creative, and better innovators than specialists. Specialists may get jobs more quickly and initially earn better salaries, but over time generalists lap them and its not even close, according to Epstein.

Ministry is a wicked environment. It is not an environment of rules and predictable patterns. No two weeks are the same and the number of different scenarios faced is endless. Ask any minister about the fit between their seminary education and the actual work of ministry, and they’ll likely say that they were trained for kind environments, not wicked.

Look, I’m thankful for my seminary education, but few generalists taught the required courses. We were taught by specialists and almost always the work of integration was left to the student. Even “ministry” courses were full of principles and pattern recognition and didn’t work back much into the biblical and theological concepts we were learning—kind environments.

As a professor, I remember being asked by a Dean to teach a course on the mission of the church. However, I was instructed to farm out any biblical or theological teaching in the course to the specialists. As a generalist, I was simply not competent. Don’t get me started. What was left for a ministry prof to teach? Processes and patterns. There was little sense that the wicked environments of mission might be generative for fresh and creative biblical and theological insights. (In my experience, “fresh and creative” are not always valued by specialists).

All of this has me reflecting on the work I’ve done in training leaders over the past fifteen years in the master’s program I directed. In some ways, Epstein’s book has been confirmation, and in other ways a challenge. One thing I know, any formal academic training for ministry must view it as a “wicked environment.”