The 4 main types of problems you’ll face in life—and how to solve them

When it comes to problem solving and making tough decisions, people love plans (especially their own), so they do a lot. And because they want the perfect plan, they require more data to help them.

Inevitably, however, this takes more and more time, and instead of the goal being to reach a decision, the decision-making process becomes the goal.

There may be studies, hearings, and arguments, but nothing really comes of it. This could go on for a while, depending on the nature of the decision…all because everyone wants the perfect plan.

Usually, the outcome of a dynamic system cannot be predicted in advance. Therefore, any action is better than no action; It doesn’t matter what you do, what matters is what you do to learn and move forward.

Smart leaders know that to solve any major problem, the goal should be to get quick feedback on whether or not the decision was a good one. If not, then they know how to pivot and look for another path.

Each subsequent informed decision. The path emerges from work.

In 1999, while working at IBM, a guy named Dave Snowden came up with a problem-solving approach to help people know what problems they were having and what solutions they should be looking for.

He calls it the Cynefin framework – cynefin is a Welsh word for “habitat” – because you need to know where you stand.

1. Simple math problem

The first type of problem in Snowden’s framework is homely and clear. It’s solved and there is indeed a best practice that always works.

Once you can determine that a problem is simple, you can apply a known recipe from your bag of tricks. If you are playing poker, never draw cards straight in. A bank should not lend to people with debt level X.

With simple problems, the relationship between cause and effect is not only obvious but obvious.

2. Complicated matter

This is the kind of problem where you have a known unknown. Take the example of a giant oil company: When geologists conduct a seismic survey to find out where they can drill for oil, they know they don’t know the answer, but they know how to find it. out answer.

This is the domain of experts. Once you are sure that the problem is solvable, you can find a solution, even if it becomes complicated. If you are knowledgeable enough, you can find cause and effect.

I always think of this when I bring my car into the shop. It’s making a weird noise and I’m worried. I know I don’t know how to solve this problem, but I know that my mechanic knows, or can figure it out.

3. Complicated matter

The third type of problem is combination, where you can just find out why what happened then. Here you have to take some kind of action to see what happens before you act again.

Most of us struggle with complex problems. Anytime. The answers are not known, and all forces are not known. But we have to do something. And what happens will surprise us.

Consider the story of Twitch, a web service that allows people to stream video games themselves so others can watch them do it. This is not an obvious product except in retrospect. But Twitch is an amazing success story. Amazon acquired it for $970 million in 2014.

This company’s first product idea? Calendar will integrate with Gmail. Of course, then Google launched Google Calendar. So the company decided to go live.

One of the founders will be live streaming his entire life, 24/7. Head camera and a large backpack with computer – constantly working. They built an incredibly fast live streaming service that many people can use at the same time. But as it turns out, no one really wants to watch that live stream.

So they opened up the idea. Maybe people want to go live on their own? It’s really not working on the market, and they’re running out of cash. Then they noticed that a lot of people were watching live streams featuring video game players. Freak.

But they went with that, and it turned out that there was a rabid audience of fans and entertainers who wanted to see the top players in action. People can earn a small amount of money just playing a video game and streaming it for others to see.

It was a prime example of a solution to a need that no one knew existed. But the problems we are facing today in business, politics and society are tough ones. Often we simply don’t know the solution. And sometimes we don’t know how to approach the solution.

So what you need to do is try something and then see what happens. Take the results of that and adjust what you’re doing. Then try again. Refine. And let the solution appear. That’s all – a short series of small experiments to find a solution to a complex problem.

4. The problem of chaos

The final type of problem in the Cynefin framework is chaos. This is essentially a crisis.

Let’s say there’s a tsunami, or an oil rig explodes, or an uprising turns into a revolution, or there’s a stock market crash. The first thing to do is act quickly and start taking steps to encapsulate the problem, define its limits, get it out of the chaos and into the realm of pure complexity.

An example I use to describe a problem of chaos is riot. One night during the Arab Spring, I was in the middle of a crowd that decided to storm the parliament building. This crowd of tens of thousands of people gathered as one towards the parliament gates.

Then screams broke out from one side and the whole crowd became chaotic. People run around without knowing what to do, and they turn from individuals to a crowd. I’m standing in the middle of all this with a young American student I’ve hired because she speaks Arabic. I told her – and I’ll tell you – exactly what to do during a riot.

First, don’t panic. I cannot stress how important that is. Blind fear is what makes people trample and kill. Second, find something hard that can’t be knocked over easily, such as a lamp post. It’s weird – the crowd will split around you like a river around a rock.

What you’ve done is drag chaos into the complex. Takes a minute. Breathe. Find the exits. You have that freedom now. You can’t do anything when you’re just another body being tossed about, but if you can get rid of the noise and fear, you can begin to come up with a plan.

This is a matter of speed. Delaying a decision will only make matters worse. By iterating quickly – trying something, seeing the response, trying again – you can eventually succeed in getting the crisis under control.

This trial-and-error method can feel intimidating in the moment. But it’s also an opportunity. New ways of doing things will emerge as people try to figure out how to work in an environment that didn’t exist back in the day.

JJ Sutherland is the executive director of Scrum Inc.a consulting and training company, author of “Scrum Handbook” and co-author of the bestselling book “Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time.” Previously, he was an award-winning reporter and producer for NPR. Follow JJ on LinkedIn.

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* This is an excerpt adapted from “Scrum Fieldbook,” by JJ Sutherland. Copyright © 2019 by JJ Sutherland. Extracted by permission of Currency. Copyright Registered.

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