This doctoral study concentrates on the wicked problems that LED organizations have identified and which they will meet through collaborative leadership. Wicked problems are complex problems inside a social group. They cannot be defined or solved as simpler or other kinds of problems (Rittel and Webber, 1973). Why it is essential to better understand wicked problems in education? The world is compassing through globalization and becoming more and more complex. To find a permanent solution or a permanent way to resolve wicked problems is not any more possible in the complex society (Conklin, 2005, Jäppinen & Ciussi, 2013; Tomkinson, 2013, Batie, 2008). In other words, wicked problems cannot be solved singlehanded. Collaboration, distribution, synergy and effective leadership are needed in order to be able to solve these complex problems. Research shows how in the social life of rapid changes the responsive practices can be achieved through collaborative leadership (Jäppinen & Ciussi, 2015). Collaborative practices and shared activities bring about new possibilities into the learning trajectories of participants. And more importantly, understanding which is gained through this collaboration is also useful for the others (Roth & Lee, 2006). Consequently, the aim of this paper is to answer the following research question: What is the special nature of the wicked problems in educational organizations, especially in today’s complex society? To answer this question, this paper exploits six culturally different educational organizations from the LED project. Data analysis of the wicked problems that the organizations stated for themselves was done through thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006; Holloway & Todres, 2003). Thematic analysis is used for identification and analysis of schemes in data as themes with the minimal usage of details unless necessary (Boyatzis, 1998). The data gathered for this study was both visual and written materials placed by the organizations themselves on a virtual sharing point of the LED organizations in different time spans. All pictures, conversations and activities were coded and put into themes to demonstrate the nature of the wicked problems defined and treated through collaborative leadership. The tentative main results indicate that the wicked problems really evolve and change in time. Organizations themselves did not understand this phenomenon from the very beginning but found out it just during the collaborative definition process of their own wicked problem. Moreover, the collaborative leadership also manifested between the organizations and they learned from each other.

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