by Kim Goff-Crews

Most leaders will tell you that you must know yourself well to understand your strengths and challenges in leadership, which is certainly true. But by far, the hardest part of being a leader is understanding what you are facing that negatively impacts your vision of success, the exact nature of the issue, and plotting how to move forward.

When the responsibility for a situation ultimately lands on your shoulders as a leader or decision-maker, the gnarly, multi-faceted, unknowable can come out of nowhere and totally change your priorities. Imagine you are the head of an athletics organization suddenly managing a doping scandal. A mayor responding to police brutality in your community. A CEO facing allegations of sexual harassment within your company. All these situations have emergent qualities with many different stakeholders who are likely on opposing sides and several facts yet unknown.

Even in situations that aren’t emergent but are ongoing priorities and challenges within your culture, competing points of view and the effort to acquire and share trusted information are difficult. Right now, I am working through the issue of continuing to diversify the workforce amid the Great Resignation and changing attitudes about the work environment. But whatever issue you are facing, accepting and leveraging emergent or unknowable challenges to your vision is an essential component of bringing that vision to life. You won’t have the answers right away, but you must keep moving forward.

When faced with looming issues that seem unknowable and intractable, these five steps help me keep that forward momentum.

1. Name the issue and determine its complexity: First, I try to understand whether these harder issues require a straightforward or complex approach and solution. This requires lots of conversation, observation, and a bit of intuition; but early reflection informs how I plan to move forward. Simple issues are ones where a process or protocol has not been followed consistently or simply does not work. Here, an expert (internal or external) can diagnose the situation and provide options you can choose from to reach resolution. For example, a gap in reporting may indicate a problem with the reporting system itself, inadequate training for those responsible for that task, or it may point to a larger, more complex issue. A problem is much more complex when it involves multiple variables (and more people) to name it and solve it, rather than a single variable that you can correct and resolve.
   Complex problems or issues often require a complete re-evaluation and negotiation of underlying assumptions and principles. If an issue erupts, creating chaos and temporary paralysis of all kinds—much like the coronavirus or the death of George Floyd—moving forward to resolve anything will be difficult. It’s best to calm the waters and then move on to new ways of addressing these challenges. As I said, I do this initial analysis intuitively, understanding that the shape of the problem will change. But I consider it my first responsibility to address any temporary paralysis before naming the issue and identifying its scope. It is easier for people to take the first steps to face what they can name. There is a framework called Cynefin, developed by David J. Snowden in 1999, that I learned about. Check out this video for a description that may help you determine the scope of the problem.
2. Create the right team: A leader may be the point person addressing the issue, but they cannot do it alone. I find it helpful to identify a group of colleagues who can help observe and analyze in the moment as well as imagine solutions for the future. I like to keep this core group small–usually eight to ten people. And while I look for people with relevant expertise and perspective, I also seek what I call the “unusual suspects,” people who bring divergent perspectives, parallel experiences in other arenas, and expansive thinking. Everyone in this core group needs to have a can-do spirit and embrace the problem-solving process. Importantly, each also must have the ability to operate in the grey space where we don’t have an answer yet and don’t seem close to getting one soon. Together, we spend a lot of time identifying the strategic questions, crafting agendas to get at the work, and tracking the questions and ideas that emerge as this group processes new perspectives and information. That focus keeps us on track and helps me absorb what I am hearing and learning.
3. Feed strategic intuition: Complex problems, by their very nature, defy easy and immediate answers. They require you to be open to new ways of seeing old issues and vulnerable to what you don’t and can’t know—yet. In moments like these, I recognize that I must be open to answers emerging over time and then start to feed my strategic intuition. Strategic intuition, a term coined by William Duggan, draws on a variety of information, learnings, and ideas that are not immediately related and combines them in such a way that you come up with a new perspective on the situation. While strategic intuition happens in what feels like a flash of insight, this occurs only after considerable time is spent pondering, discussing, and learning about the issue. Duggan wrote an excellent book titled Strategic Intuition: The Creative Spark in Human Achievement, which outlines how this process works. When I read his initial description of the four steps of strategic intuition, I realized that it is the best description of how I deal with complex issues, although I have adapted some of this process over time. He has since reframed the steps for the business context in Creative Strategy: A Guide for Innovation.

   
   Below is a guide for tapping into strategic intuition inspired by my own experience and his work:
   

   • Input information and ideas: A complex issue by nature has many variables, and it is best to understand them and look to the past for initial examples of what could work. Duggan originally described this step as looking to the precedents of history in his original work. Setting up focus groups of relevant constituents can be one of the first steps to getting under the hood. Members of your core group can conduct the focus groups, or someone particularly adept can do it and provide feedback to you and your colleagues. Scanning your business environment for best practices will also provide promising ideas, although best practices are simply current practices that may need to be adapted or abandoned depending on the new circumstances you are facing. I also actively look to other industries that may have faced a similar problem and to peer institutions in other countries—I talk to senior leaders in those settings to understand how they have dealt with the issue. I want to know how they approached the issue, the different subject matter experts or perspectives that were valuable in their deliberations, the knowledge gaps they discovered whose perspectives needed to be added to the discussion, the new information that changed their course of action, the false starts or missteps they wish they had done differently, and possible solutions or signs of success. Because I am in academia, I make sure the core team identifies any relevant research and often talk to the researchers themselves to understand how to convert theory to practice.
   • Set up concentric circles for feedback: One could argue that receiving feedback on your initial understandings and ideas is part of the first step, but I cannot stress enough the need to create feedback loops for your initial take on what you are learning individually and with the core team. The people who provide feedback may be senior leaders, peers, experts, customers—whoever touches the problem or may see it with a unique perspective. They can help you make initial connections and identify gaps that are not obvious to you—a key feature of complex problems. The more opportunities for feedback you have, the more possibilities for practical solutions you can leverage in Duggan’s subsequent phases of the process.
   • Percolate and process: On a regular basis, step back and allow yourself to process what you are learning without any effort to make decisions. Duggan refers to this as “beginner’s mind,” and it is rooted in Asian philosophy. To my colleagues, I simply say that I am “percolating and processing.” This is necessary, but often difficult to do because of my own desire to find a solution and everyone else’s desire to have certainty as quickly as possible. Don’t rush! First, you need to fully process what groups are asking for and why the community responses are what they are. Sometimes I read a bit, write down ideas on Post-It notes, place them on the wall, then listen to my voice memos where I have recorded any inklings I may have had. And the second part of my process is to do something relaxing and completely unrelated to the work to feed my imagination and energy and give myself a break. The data is percolating in my head while I work on a different project, spend time with friends and family, hike, watch a sci-fi movie, or go to the museum. Make sure that your core team takes similar breaks as well.
   • Capture key flash(es) of insights: The flash of insight Duggan talks about is the sudden full realization of the solution to your challenge: a byproduct of iterative creative combination. I find that in my more complex challenges, the flashes often come in bite-size pieces, or small resolutions to parts of the whole before the puzzle fits together. I make a point of capturing flashes (my own, the team’s or others) throughout the process, adapting Duggan’s “insight matrix,” and welcome that final moment of fitting the pieces together.
4. Create an action plan: Create an iterative and holistic action plan for complex problems. The plan should name the problem, identify goals and markers of progress, designate accountable parties, and express a willingness to iterate. In many cases, sharing this action plan and inviting members of your organization or community to contribute to it, provide feedback, or stay informed of progress is critical to the goals you are pursuing. For example, providing regular progress updates as an initiative advances and easily accessible opportunities to both give and receive anonymous or attributed feedback demonstrates your continued commitment to listening. Sharing back how their ideas have shaped the plan moving forward amplifies this.
5. Communicate: Communicate where you are in every part of the process to your team and to the larger organization. Even if the end solution is not apparent, people will appreciate knowing what you are learning and will have some context for understanding the action plan when it is announced. A key part of the communications should include the goal, metrics, and other accountability measures.

While frameworks like this one can prevent you from getting stuck, it is by no means the final answer for complex problems. Part of the complexity of our work is pursuing ideas and solutions, finding they don’t work, and starting over (or halfway over) again. But that willingness to continue listening, absorbing new information, learning from new perspectives, and iterating forward are marks of a good leader in a world beyond any one person’s control.