Understanding Problem Types

As I started working on being a problem solver, I began to recognize patterns: some problems were straightforward, others more complicated requiring extra effort, and some left me completely flummoxed. While experience taught me to quickly identify these patterns, it was in two influential books I read that I found clear definitions for what I knew intuitively.

The first book was The Checklist Manifesto - How to Get Things Right, by Atul Gawande and the second is Team of Teams - New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by General Stanley McChrystal, Tantum Collins, David Silverman, and Chris Fussell. Both address three types of problems we face in life: the simple, the complicated, and the complex. I will use a car analogy to explain.

Simple Problems

This is like a simple maintenance task on a car. Changing the oil, filling with gas, or topping off the windshield cleaner fluid. There are simple steps that when followed in the correct way and sequence has a high rate of success.

Complicated Problems

This is like building a car. There is a lot that goes into it making a new vehicle. Parts for the car must be manufactured and transported to the assembly plant. Those parts must be put together in the correct sequence until the car is finally assembled. It’s complicated, but for the most part is made up of a lot of simple problems like putting tires on rims, putting fabric on seat frames, sealing and painting the frame, etc. But once all the simple problems are addressed, and all of them are properly sequenced, cars can roll off assembly lines with a high rate of success.

Complex Problems

This is like taking a car on a long road trip, Say from Anchorage, Alaska to Miami, Florida. There are simple problems that are part of the trip, refueling or checking fluids. There are some complicated problems like using a map tool to find the correct route and then looking over the route to find gas stations, hotels, restaurant, points of interest, and how to navigate through cities and tangled highway interchanges. But then there are things that make the trip dynamic. Unexpected variables interrupt our solutions to simple and complicated problems and make us deviate from our plans. Unexpected severe weather, traffic jams, some cool landmark a friend told us halfway through our trip that we had to see. Suddenly our plans have to change on the fly. Taking the same approach to complex problems can yield different outcomes. In The Checklist Manifesto, Atul illustrates a complex problem being raising children, use the same parenting techniques on two different kids and you potentially get very different results. What’s more, taking lessons learned from the first two kids does not mean you will produce predicable results on a third child. (To dive into some reasons why, check out Nurture Shock - New Thinking About Children, by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman)

Solving Problems

So how does this relate to those of us tasked with applying technology to the problems faced by individuals and teams? First, we must learn to recognize what kind of problems we are solving. Is it a simple problem like automating an approval process? Is it a complicated problem like improving the flow of work for a project? Is it a complex problem like increasing innovative output to outpace competition and deliver new and relevant products to customers?

Sometimes we like the problems we face to be the kind that can be broken down and addressed with the same approaches. Even if the problem is super complicated, we can proceed with the assurance that it is still a matter of breaking it down to simple problems with simple solutions that need to be orchestrated together. However, complex problems cannot be solved with carefully crafted processes alone. Complexity is dynamic and our solutions must allow, even foster the ability to work dynamically. To address complexity with technology we must move beyond what technology itself offers. We cannot only study network topology, process automation tools, or DLP policies. We must study complexity itself.

This is what I love about The Checklist Manifesto, Team of Teams, and Nurture Shock. They address the approaches needed to solve complex problems in systems and people. Technology is part of the story, but not the main point. I highly recommend reading them whether you are a veteran problem solver or just starting out in your career. Understanding how to address the three different problems is essential and will greatly improve your abilities as a problem-solving Solution Architect.