Tag: Solving complex problems

Leadership

Unintended Consequences

When we are leading a team in an environment that is complex and full of uncertainty, it is important to understand that every decision we make will always have unintended and unpredictable consequences. As leaders, we need to not only expect that but go looking for it to ensure that the unintended consequence is not something that can have a significant negative impact on what we set out to achieve. In the early years of the last century, Hanoi had a rat problem. The French colonial government wanted to solve this persistent problem. After trying to exterminate the rodent by […]

Leadership, Strategy

Progress Doesn’t Always Follow a Straight Line

In an interesting blog post for Strategy+Business, Adam Kahane shares his perspective about solving tough problems. Tough problems or wicked problems are difficult to solve precisely because there is no one right answer and there are multiple root causes and motivations at play. It is wicked for the precise reason that there are seemingly contradicting interests at play, which makes it difficult to solve these problems permanently.  In the post, Adam talks about the fact that trying to solve a complex or a wicked problem as if it were a simple problem will always lead to making the problem even […]

Ideas, Innovation, Strategy

Feeling Stuck When Solving a Complex Problem?

When we are working on a complex problem and are stuck, one the best ways to find inspiration to unstuck ourselves is to move away from our regular environment where we got stuck to a different novel environment. Here is a great post from IDEO university that talks about an activity that could help us find inspiration outside our context – https://www.ideou.com/blogs/inspiration/an-activity-to-help-you-find-inspiration-outside-your-context. The post talks about a three-step process: Step 1: Start with Emotions Step 2: Identify Analogous Experiences Step 3: Reflect and Connect This is one way to find inspiration. We could also find inspiration to solve a complex problem […]

Podcast

PBTO5: Innovation, Design Thinking and Solving Complex Problems

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In this episode, we host Lakshman, who heads the innovation practice for the consulting division of SAP, based in India and also a visiting faculty at the Hasso Plattner Institute, Potsdam, Germany.  In this conversation, we talk about the importance of defining the right problem to solve, as the first step in any innovation practice. Lucky also shares his views on how to build a practice capable of being able to innovate on a consistent basis. We also talk about Design Thinking, its history, the key components of this philosophy and how we can use this to solve complex problems. […]