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How to tackle a complex topic?
Dieter Weisshaar • May 19, 2023
Foto von John Barkiple auf Unsplash
Get to the bottom of the topic you want to solve
You receive a new project and on the first view it looks complex - you need to get your arms around it. How can you structure a complex situation to discover
various perspectives and approaches. At C-Level you may not even have all the information or expertise to resolve it on your own but you need to get to a plan. Some ideas that worked for me.
Typically you start with information gathering
and discovery, followed by structuring
a topic from different angles and finally come up with ideas on how to proceed. It may well be that you need to go back to drawing board if you discover new aspects and start all over again, that is part of the process and not an issue - be self-confident to do so.
Information gathering
Collect as much valuable information and data
as you can. Mostly hard facts
help a lot. You may discover that some of the information is not available at your finger tips but if it's important make the effort to get this collected.
Talk to people
which deal with the situation or topic every day, the people impacted from a process or involved in production, the service. You can do this by phone or web conference which is great. But you need to go where the things happen into the 'machine room' and get your hands dirty
how I would describe it. During a lecture at London Business School, they called it 'the smell of the place'. If it is really important you learn a lot from being present locally and it is much more than you learn from polished mid management presentations.
You will discover new things
and factors that influences your topic hence you can ask more questions and gather more information and data.
Talk with your network
and experts
inside and outside your company if you can. Good M&A processes do like 10 to 20 structured expert interviews to evaluate the market, target company and product. If this is done properly, you gain much more reliable information, opinions, insights and predictions. It is a kind of swarm intelligence and reduces failure.
Structure the topic
There are quite some techniques to structure your topic such as Mind Mapping
which actually is quite powerful if you have a complex problem to structure or visualize. If you have a business to reorganize it may be helpful to use a business canvas
to cover all aspects. If you have a group to engage in working on the topic MetaPlan Techniques
may work for you.
It is important that you discover the value or key drivers for your topic you want to resolve by importance and impact.
It is great if you discover 99 influencers on your topic but I bet you will have like 5-10 maximum that make 90% of the impact (Pareto Optimum
applies). At some point in time, adding further details will not drive better results just effort. You need to prioritize and discover
where the value will be generated.
Keep an eye on the risk side
as well, if you look at key drivers, there may be risk attached if you choose the one or other way.
How to proceed
It is very valuable for you, your stakeholders and later on for communication purposes if you summarize your findings, e.g. in a presentation: the topic, the goals, the data, the analysis and conclusions, the drivers and finally your proposal on how top tackle the topic. That goes from the high level goals down to an action plan
with measurable results
(OKR
may help). Name the involved functions or people and the responsible action owner
with clear time plan
at the end of your project analysis to take ideas to action.
You should outline alternatives or scenarios
and risk analysis
if possible to make thoughtful decisions or convincing presentations for your stakeholders.
Let me know what worked for you.
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