Embrace complexity!!! What?!!
How to solve complex problems the blurry way
Some problems are simple, others are complex.
A mechanical clock consists of a thousand parts, but there is only one way they fit together. Even worse, the parts must be assembled in a specific order. There is one solution, and one solution only. Either the watch works or not.
Most challenges are not like that, especially when they involve other humans. There will be many solutions, some of them will work better than others. Over time we will learn, develop methods, processes and tools that helps us achieve a better and better result.
But what about complex challenges we have not encountered before, where we have no prior knowledge to build on. Or situations where existing knowledge and methods doesn’t produce the desired result and you need to come up with new and better methods?
This article is about how to handle complex challenges the blurry way.
A web of Dependencies
In an earlier article about creativity and innovation I wrote:
If something feels complicated then we are probably doing it the wrong way.
Whenever you hear that little voice in your head saying “there must be a better way” there probably is. It is a signal that there is an opportunity to innovate, to make things better.
But some problems are not easily reduced or simplified, they are complex. They consist of several parts that affect each other, it is hard to see where to start or predict how a change in one place will affect the whole.
Everything depends on everything else
If we want to get philosophical we could say that everything in life depends on everything else. The reason why I wasn’t able to deliver on time was that I slept really badly the last couple of nights, or that my parents didn’t have the right genetic source code, or that Trump won the election. Everything depends on everything else.
Boom. That is the sound a human mind makes when it really tries to encompass all that complexity. Actually, the goal of this post is to be able to do just that without going “boom”.
Ostrich or Silo, two sub-optimal strategies
So when reality is too complex there are two main strategies. Either we bury our head in the sand and just try to ignore the whole thing. Or we try to split everything up in parts and handle them as if there are no dependencies.
Let’s take an example from the world of marketing. Getting the creative agency, the social team, the media agency, the film production company, the digital team and some more to talk to each other seems totally impossible.
Instead everyone is working in their own silos, reinventing the wheel, missing out on creative, communication and production synergies. The client doesn’t notice since they work in the same way themselves. Inefficient is a word that comes to mind. Sub-optimal might also pop up, probably because it is in the headline to this section. Still true though.
Don’t panic!
Reality can be totally overwhelming. It is kind of natural when you think about it. Reality is way bigger than both you and me, Reality doesn’t even notice us, we could easily be that smashed insect on the windshield when Reality drives the highway.
Add some urgency, a deadline, to an already overwheliming reality and you have a perfect reason to go into full panic mode. Can we skip that stage without going Ostrich or Silo?
It is actually just a matter of perspective. Even the biggest problems seem small with some distance. I mean, who cares about global warming in the SagDEG galaxy? Or the lack of social security when building the pyramids? Time and distance makes all the difference.
It is a bit more tricky when you are in the middle of it. There is simply too much information to handle at once, and almost impossible to discern the important from the noisy.
A need to un-focus
When you focus on something you can see all the details, which become bigger and seem more important. They start to drown the signals from everything else. Sometimes that is exactly what you need to do, but for complex problem solving we need to be able to un-focus so that we can see the big picture.
We need to develop a blurry sense of mind.
If you are to solve complex problems you need to have a lot of things in your head at the same time. You cannot focus on only one of them, you need to look at the big picture. When you un-focus only the most prominent details on each part stand out, and it is possible to see patterns and connections that was drowned out in the noise.
So having the ability to switch between focused to un-focused is an essential part of all the following steps.
Untangling reality into nice boxes
Ok so let’s assume that you have this huuuuge set of problems in your head or on a list or whatever. Time to start untangling. I am sure there are some obvious task that doesn’t really depend on anything else. Let’s put each of those in their own little box and forget about them for now.
Then continue with the stuff where two things depend on each other and put them in their own box, then three things, four things and so on.
Don’t strain to simplify! If 16 things seem to depend on each other, so be it!
In the box they go.
Sorting the boxes
Now when you have all your problems in their own separate box, some simple, some complex, then you should sort them according to priority. If a box is someone else’s problem, just send it off, it feels goooood!
With all complexity nicely sorted in boxes, I am sure it feels better already. Now let’s look at what we have in the boxes! Starting with the one that makes you head hurt, the mother lode of complexity!
It’s a ball of yarn! Who would have thought!
Start pulling where?
If you have any yarn experience you know that starting the untangling at the right place is key. Pulling hard in the wrong thread could create a knot that is very hard to loosen. Starting with the right thread and the whole mess almost untangles itself.
Same thing with more serious problems. Starting at the right place will untangle the whole thing without much effort, makes the web of dependencies dissolve. Maybe the whole problem gets solved, maybe some new and smaller entanglements become visible, in which case you box them and prioritize as above.
So how do we find the right place to start?
You don’t solve problems by thinking…
You will for sure use your brain in the process, but not the conscious part. I don’t know about your brain but mine just babbles incoherently about anything and everything, I always have to ask it to be quiet, and sometimes it obliges. I am still waiting for it to say something smart and useful.
No, what we want here is our unconscious thought processes, our intuition. There is a lot happening under the hood and that is what we want to tap into. That is where the blurred vision comes in.
Look at the mess starting from one angle, don’t look closer than you have to, just so you get an idea of how it works and how it might fit in, then switch to a new angle.
…nor by NOT thinking either
The human mind is an expert in finding patterns. That is where our creativity and problem solving capabilities come from, great stuff! It is also an expert in seeing patterns where there are none.
Our emotions ALWAYS overrule our logic (a must read link!).
Pre-conceptions, wishful thinking, even experience can tilt our pattern recognition ability in the wrong direction. If you really WANT something to be true, then you can be pretty sure you are fooling yourself. Some healthy skepticism is advised.
Focusing too much on one part too early is the equivalent to pulling the wrong string and creating an unsolvable knot. Instead, pull a little and see what happens, if things are moving in the right direction, maybe pull some more, if not, maybe you should change viewpoint.
It is an iterative process. Go deeper into the parts that you don’t understand or haven’t grasped, but don’t go too deep too early, don’t pull too hard.
When you see it, go for it!
This is the obscure part, even for me. At some point I just “see” how it all fits together. Then there is no doubt and I just go for it. I don’t know how I know. But I know that if I follow the steps above it works. Every time.
So when you see the solution, just go for it!
The moment we decide which solution is the right one, all other possible solutions collapse, like Schrödinger’s cat but with tangled yarn instead. That is neither a good or bad thing, it is a natural consequence of that we cannot run in two directions at the same time.
“Ok, enough with all these stupid metaphors, tell me HOW!”
Someone might ask. There are for sure other ways but here is how I do it.
I use tabbed lists on a digital paper. I write headlines for the top level stuff, remember a detail about one of them, add that one tab in, realize that another headline isn’t really a headline, move it under another item, which turns out to be two so I split them up.
It is an iterative process where the processing happens while I am moving stuff around. The structure gets gradually more complete and detailed and it ends up like the outline for the whole solution. No rocket science really.
So that’s pretty much it!
Here is what you need to do:
- Don’t panic! Important point. Easy to notice if you forget.
- Put the problems in boxes and sort them based on priority.
- Look at the content in the box from different angles. If one angle doesn’t make much sense, change angle.
- If you see a thread, try pulling it and see what happens. You must start pulling somewhere. Problems are not solved without doing.
- there is always at least one thread where the untangling can start, most of the time several. Don’t give up, change perspective, dig a little deeper
- and when you see the solution, just go for it!
If you don’t see any threads, or the ones that you are pulling doesn’t move things in the right direction, then there are two options:
- there is some component of the problem missing that is required for a good solution. Adding components doesn’t necessary complicate the problem, but can open up totally new ways to a solution.
- you are trying to solve the wrong problem. You might see a problem that isn’t even there, or isn’t yours to solve.
And if everything fails, we can always rely on ancient Greek wisdom!
So will this work for you? I have not done any large scale tests on a cross section of the population but I know it works for those who have tried.
I am looking forward to your feedback!
Here is a list of my posts related to creativity so far:
If something feels complicated… - Creating a mindset for problem solving and innovation
5 simple steps that will make you a creative genius - No doodling, inspiration or walks in the woods required
Is “good enough” good enough? — A non-pragmatic approach to quality
Embrace complexity!!! What?!! - How to solve complex problems the blurry way
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