Do you get overwhelmed with complex challenges?

Even though you may thrive on complexity, the fact is, no one likes complexity of any kind.

It's “tiring” to grasp and understand, and it requires time and effort to comprehend complexity.

Your default mode does not intuitively align with “consuming” complex challenges.

There are many moving parts, all interconnected, with each part having a specific task to deliver and a goal to achieve. Almost everything works in this matter.

Complexity is a network of people, technology, data, processes, tools, services, and products. They interact with each other dynamically.

You get “stressed,” when you face a business challenge in a complex environment.

And anxious, despite years of experience and expertise. The complexity alone seems technical—like approaching the mechanical room of a giant ship.

What adds insult to injury, is when you try to tackle complexity “inside” your head while having limited capability to visualize all the details at once.

A complex business challenge is a problem with many parts, uncertainty, and constant interactions. Making it hard to predict outcomes or find simple solutions.

There is no framework—I have never looked for one. My approach, and my favorite every time, is to start on a plain digital board, such as Miro or Mural.

Instead of pen and paper, these tools offer an infinite board and a great amount of flexibility.

How to approach complex challenges

First, you need to understand the high-level process. For example, if there is a problem with costing and promotion, this area will have many layers contributing to the end goal.

Whether you know the layers or not, you have to map the high-level process.

With that, you will understand the main character here—the stakeholders involved. Who does the process start and end with? This is called framing the system. Think of it like drawing borders.

Remember, the company is one large system. It's important to map “the borders” of your challenge within the larger system.

When you map the high-level process for the challenge you are working on, you learn which teams or business functions are involved and in what order. This highlights the mini-system that becomes the area of focus.

Now, what you do is start breaking it down into chunks. Think of it like a car—you divide it into “pieces,” with each part separate from the others.

Let's say you have four stakeholders involved. You meet with each group, book a time, and start mapping each one's process in detail.

Map the main steps of their process:

1. What tasks does each step entail?

2. What pains, struggles, and feelings do they have at each step?

3. What tools and technology do they use at each step?

4. Who else simultaneously supports them in each step?

5. Understand their desires at each step.

6. Understand their priorities and risks at each step.

Do this for each group: analyze, uncover insights, and illustrate priority needs, pains, desires, and risks for each group on the main process you mapped.

Meet with the stakeholders, share the map and your findings. Align with everyone to be on the same page in terms of key problems, priorities, risks, and opportunities. Get feedback, iterate where possible, and finalize the roadmap to execute the solution.

You find it overloading when you first approach it, and it's hard if you try to understand and solve the complexity in your head.

All it requires is a digital board for infinite space, work, effort, will, and joy. Break down everything into small pieces to make things easy to grasp.

Stop clogging your mind trying to wrap things inside your head. Start unloading everything you collect into maps, not paragraphs.

Do complex things make you “feel” incompetent?

Thanks for reading, we will talk in the next letter.

Ahmed

By the way, here is:

1. A fun way to connect with people that leads to opportunities Toilet Mind

2. A new way to innovate and solve business challenges Neo Strateje