Cracking Complexity: The Breakthrough Formula for Solving Just About Anything Fast

We live in a world that boils and roils with chaos, rapid and exponential change.  We also find that mot of our old linear assumptions no longer work.  For example, we are no longer offered safe predictable stages in a career path working for the same firm in a job for life.  Chances are we are adapting to flexible working styles and building up a portfolio of skills and achievements that will aid that flexibility.Similarly, when managing change in an organisation, old approaches will no longer cut it when dealing with the size and complexity of change today.  For example, getting in external management consultants to drive the change model in a traditional 'hub and spoke' model with the consultants as the hub, or just in general confusing merely complicated problems with complex problems.And so the writers of this work have devised a formula and approach that acknowledges and defines this complexity and then tackles through interdependent stages that drive a cyclical whole.  It is grounded on the assumption that 'only variety destroys variety' and that therefore a group, a cross section of stakeholders, need to be convened to pool their synergistic talents, skills and resources to plan for and then implement recommendations to meet their complex change head on.  This is called the 'requisite variety.'  They then, together, define the question that they have to address, convene an agenda for their time together (3 days), work on where they are now, and then work on ideas on the way forward and come up with recommendations for actions in the remaining sessions.  Built in interaction between groups helps ensure that all benefit from everyone else's ideas, and the quality of the 'collisions' or interactions between different or/and opposing backgrounds and viewpoints is also not left to chance.  The different roles of speaker, observer/recorder and critic  are designed to ensure that these processes stay on track.The writers dive into the applicability of the formula through illustrations through the book with narrations from people who have  been involved in implementing the formula for different sectors, including healthcare, a company for the manufacturing of consumer goods, and a financial partnership.  More ideas for applicability are given at the end of the book.The book is clearly written and engaging for anyone interested in chaos theory, systems thinking and /or business and leadership theory and practice.  More, I quickly found myself analysing and applying its lessons in my role as tutor and mentor for those engaged in complex public service roles, management and leadership.   Its timeliness and relevance can't be denied.

Over the years, I've read my fair share of books touting approaches, tools, and even silver bullets to improve across any number of dimensions (peak performance, problem solving, team engagement, etc.) Some offered real insights, once I slogged through the dense and dry writing. Others were a breeze to consume, but were more like a guilty pleasure - enjoyable, but leaving me no better off having spent time with them.This book manages to avoid both of those pitfalls. It is a very easy read, and yet offers something new to contemplate in every chapter. And while it is ostensibly targeting executive leaders of larger organizations, the principles truly are applicable to any organization, and can translate effectively to addressing complex challenges in our personal lives as well.I suspect that successfully applying this formula is not quite as simple for a neophyte as it seems upon reading, and to be fair, the author's didn't close shop on their business when they wrote this. Still, I am enthusiastically looking for opportunities to try out these principles and apply this formula, knowing full well that my success will likely be far more modest than that case studies referenced throughout the book.If you've ever failed on a complex problem, and wondered why your tried and true past approaches let you down, this book will help you find new ways forward. It is well worth your time.

This doesn’t comletely seem the universal panacea for me, and it seems more focussed at provoking enough despair in a solution to necessitate bringing the authors in as consultants.

Cracking Complexity is right up there with the top business books that I’ve read. What makes Cracking Complexity such a compelling read is the depth of thought and breadth of analysis that David and David have devoted to architecting their approach to solving complex challenges. The results comes shining through in Cracking Complexity, The Breakthrough Formula for Solving just about anything Fast.Aside from offering a comprehensive strategy for addressing complexity, David and David also provide an abundance of insight into the importance of human interaction as it relates to solving complex challenges. While Cracking Complexity offers a comprehensive/systematic framework, it also recognizes that people are at the heart of solving complex challenges.In addition to walking us through the step-by-step “Complexity Formula”, David and David effectively use three “hero” stories (a global financial services, a consumer packaged goods company and a health system). The three stories are interwoven throughout the book and each narrative provides context, via real-life scenarios, as to how the formula was applied for some pretty impressive results.It’s clear that David and David have spent a lot of time thinking about how we tackle complex challenges. Aside from giving us a blueprint for solving complexity, the book also puts David and David at the forefront of thought leadership in the area of complexity.

This book describes a methodology for business transformation aimed at an ELT (Executive Leadership Team). It is a business planning strategy rather than a general solution for cracking complexity.Although I read most of the book (and it was interesting in places), this was not aimed at me, but the issue looks to be intentional (through misdirection) rather than an honest mistake. The book front and back cover never really convey the real target audience, and it feels like this is an attempt to repackage a quite specialized book for a wider audience, despite the fact that a more general audience can't use the process!If you want a solution that doesn't involve getting 10 stakeholders and other affected parties into a room for three days simply to define your problem in one sentence (which is actually one of the steps in the formula), then this book is not for your problem. The book doesn't suggest a formula either. It is a skeleton structure for creating a change strategy, and that is the book's definition of 'complex' - problems large organisations face.Not so say business transformation for a large organisation is not a complex problem; I have seen how transformation projects go, and they require a lot of co-ordination and everyone to be onboard. But still, I felt a little shortchanged by the more universal promise of the title.I also get the impression that this book explains the way *a particular consultancy group* go about advising on transformations, and *they have to be there for the system to work well*. Without them, this book might as well be a 24 slide PowerPoint deck from a 2 day seminar you never attended. That may well also be a succinct summary of most business strategy books though, so I think I'll stop there!