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,…
Download this quick reference guide to the four key rules for developing quality situation-complication-question (SCQ) sequence.
Let’s face it, at 45, I’m no spring chicken. More like a summer chicken. And without a single standalone marathon in six years, I was concerned that the 2019 Lausanne Marathon could get me to realize that my last go…
As audiences, we shouldn’t be careful about people who qualify their assurance. On the contrary, we should be careful about people who speak with certainty.
The first time I taught problem solving at Rice, I gave my students a full semester of concepts and tools: questions maps (which I called issue trees, back then), SCQs, decision matrices, etc. They politely listened during the boring lectures,…
Not all types of evidence are equally trustworthy. The higher the level, the more confidence you can have.
You take your seat in attendance, the meeting starts, and our friendly presenter, Bob, projects a “background” slide. It’s filled with information related to the issue at hand. Some of the information is clearly relevant, other appears barely peripheral, and…
I’ve never experienced anything like it: Even when staying at a race hotel, I’ve never been so close to the start line. We just happen to be able to see the start line of the 20k of Lausanne from our…
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…
Over the past five months, two Boeing 737 Max airliners have crashed, killing 346 people. Although the story is still unfolding and the investigation is underway, preliminary evidence suggests that design flaws are the cause of the crashes. Here’s a recap…
If someone starts a phrase with “strategy is about … ,” assume that what comes next is hot air. Because three phrases later, strategy will be about something else. And three phrases after that, it will be about something else….
“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…
‘Nothing avails but perfection’ may be spelt shorter: ‘Paralysis.’ — Winston Churchill Up until recently, my job entailed updating the faculty policy of a research-intensive university. How do you change the rules that regulate the life of some 500 tenured…
Looking for perfection isn’t necessarily desirable because it’s expensive and the end product isn’t even necessarily optimal.
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…
Isomorphic problems are those that have the same underlying structure. Recognizing that that new problem you’re facing is similar to one that has been solved before, or a simpler one, can go a long way in improving your creativity. Meet…
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…
A central aspect of my approach to solving complex problems builds on the widespread agreement that effective problem solvers are T-shaped, with both depth and breadth of knowledge. Develop a breadth of skills & knowledge The breadth of knowledge—what I call strategic thinking—includes having…
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:…
Facing a complex problem, we’re often quick to think of solutions as ways to eliminate it. But that’s not the only way to proceed. At times, you may be better off with an approach that retains the problem but simply…
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.
“The more cheese, the more holes; but the more holes, the less cheese. Therefore the more cheese, the less cheese.” So goes the paradoxe du fromage à trous. Nothing that couldn’t be fixed with a little more accuracy on what we mean….