When I was a teenager, I was lucky enough to learn how to fly gliders. One evening, a friend of my parents—retired Air Force General Philippe Archambeaud—asked me how many hours I had flown. “Thirty,” I said. “Well,” he replied,…
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As some may know, I have a book on strategic thinking in complex problem solving. It uses a story to introduce the problem-solving process and tools: one day, my dog William goes missing, and there’s a pretty good chance that…
Decision making is a critical part of solving complex problems. In theory, it happens after framing the problem and exploring options and criteria, in the form of a climax where the fundamental components of the process—the question you’re answering, the…
“All models are wrong but some are useful.” – George Box As an engineer, I was trained to model the world: take a complex system—say, an oil-well drillstring extending several kilometers underground—make assumptions on what matters (e.g., contact with the…
Many of us first interact with problems in a primary-school mathematics class. If your experience is anything like mine, it might have gone like this: “Édouard has a swimming pool. One pump can fill the pool in two hours; the…
There’s widespread agreements across disciplines that effective problem solvers have both deep and broad knowledge (see references below). Depth of knowledge usually isn’t the problem, because it is the central component of many formal training programs. However, most of us don’t…
Culture eats strategy for breakfast. You can have the best idea in the world, if you can’t implement it, you are not going anywhere. That means that you’ll need to engage key people in your strategic thinking and implementation processes, so let’s talk…
Recently, I had a conversation with a dean of engineering. He was looking for a big idea—one to take his school from here (top 20 in the US) to there—the ultra-nerd stratosphere. I offered that he promoted training his students…
I like biking, and I often take to the roads to commute or to train for one event or another. When I lived in Texas, that made me part of...
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My upcoming book, Strategic Thinking in Complex Problem Solving, is available for pre-order. It will ship on August 3, 2016. The book includes many of the ideas covered on this site with a deeper treatment and references. Here is a brief intro:…
What do movie producers, presidents of football clubs, symphony orchestra directors, university presidents, and managers of rock bands have in common? They are all in charge of highly talented and independent people whose potential, when they work together, amounts to…
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” as Chinese philosopher Laozi said. In corporate jargon, this translates to think big, start small, scale fast. Making quick progress / establishing a positive foundation is important There is…
Some problems require complex solutions. Others don’t. It’s important that you recognize the situation you’re in and find a solution that is as simple as possible. That is, don’t overdesign solutions. To illustrate, let’s make fun of the French like we’re a…
Many of the advanced doctoral students I speak with share one characteristics: they fail to recognize that they have transferrable skills and knowledge. And, as they finally land an interview with a potential employer, they’re selling themselves short. But getting an advanced…
Just a quick note to let you know that the book I’ve been working on, Strategic Thinking in Problem Solving, is now officially under contract with Oxford University Press. More soon.
“Problem solving in medicine is not the same as in military” or so the thinking goes. Of course, there are obvious differences and these differences call for specialized training. But there are also common denominators, and it’s to your benefit to…
Have you ever had a coworker that you felt was a bit of a bully? Maybe a flat out autocrat, or someone that makes you feel that, most of the time, he is just not cooperating. How do you deal…
I’ve heard that the Swedes make fun of the Norwegians by attributing them silly stories. The French, on the other hand, make fun of the Belgians. Here is one of these made-up histoires belges: “To demonstrate their frustration with the European Union,…
We all say we are open to change but in reality, well, it depends.When solving CIDNI problems in organizations, you are challenging the status quo, and this has implications for people who stand to lose something. They might lose tangible…
When solving CIDNI problems, constraints are those factors that can reduce your solution space, such as the money, time, expertise, etc. at your disposal. Too many constraints will reduce your solution space so much that you might not find a…
“Arnaud, are we using you in the right way?” I joined Accenture’s strategy group right out of grad school and was assigned to my first project for a large petrochemical company. It was a huge project, and the engagement team had…
Working for Accenture had its ups and downs, but one great, great up was a simple idea: help others be successful. Thinking about it after so many years, there are a couple of instances that stem out: – In my…
Change is difficult. Yeah, what else is new? Well, change can be even more difficult in some situations. Take universities: the hierarchy is flat; the power is complete distributed. Take boards or C-level executives, same setup. Leading one of these…
One handy tip I picked up at Accenture: If you have a meeting with your boss, a client, or just about anybody else higher than you in the food chain, take a few minutes beforehand to prepare the agenda. In the…
“Have the breadth to see the problems, and the depth to solve them.” — Anonymous (as reported in Tomorrow’s Professor by Richard Reis) Think of problem solving as the combination of divergent and convergent thinking. When answering a ‘how can we do…
If you are in a managerial position, you should be concerned about how to get the best people to your team and how to help them do their job optimally. A recent publication from the National Research Council looked at how…
If 50% of success is showing up, having an effective presentation gets you at least an additional 25%. (And, of course, a good delivery accounts for the other 75%.) When it comes to good slide decks, we can all learn…
If you’re in charge of a team, your ability to get the best out of your people can mean the difference between failure and success. We talked about how you should adapt your leadership style to your team’s skills and confidence. Here…
Whenever you’re facing a new, complex problem to solve, step back and reflect on your general approach from a philosophical point of view: are you aiming at solving it completely straight from the beginning or are you integrating a learning…
No matter what problem you are solving, if it’s in an organization chances are that, at some point, you’ll have to present your recommendations to an audience and build a consensus. When you do, make sure that you pick the…