I was thinking about strategy, and about complexity. An article I read in a technical magazine talked about dealing with complexity, and the need for generalists that can work with many deep understanding specialists to address the increasing complexity of today’s engineered systems. Truly evolving our human capacity to accomplish through teamwork and visionary insights solutions that no one person can understand completely. However we can still see it and experience the benefit of the total system. Additionally they made the point that it is best to observe and understand from a bottom’s up like a biologist, instead of modeling and predicting as a physicist would, looking for elegance that may not exist in complex systems. I have another thought, and that is when looking at complex systems, whether that be engineering, politics, or business, that one needs to look at the holes as much as the observed and expressed complexity. Asking what is missing, or hidden in the system is where insight can be found. A generalist’s view point, looking broadly across the problem set, being content with not having to dive into the specialists realm, but to understand the connections, the coverage, the broad brush strokes that from sufficient distance make a picture come to life.
On Sunday mornings I watch two news/analysis shows, both cover the same political and world news each morning, but one always addresses and talks about exactly what was said on either side, and they do a good job of it. The other, does the same, but also looks for the things not said, the issues not being addressed. Example where in politics is the middle today? Where is the messaging that is not progressive, yet not hard right conservative? The analysis this morning was about the hollowed out center, that’s looking at the complete landscape and seeing what is missing.
In business, it’s sometimes not what we are being told by the customer, employees, or shareholders, but what they are not asking us, or telling us that matters most. I’ve been involved recently in developing a strategy for a business initiative, and the approach we are taking is not just to gather data and survey in detail from the bottom’s up the people that have deep knowledge, we are also looking at what is missing, what they didn’t say, and what are the gaps to close in order to arrive at a more complete picture, a vision, a direction forward.
In engineering, I have found so many times that the insight on the success or failure of a project is really dependent on the generalist’s viewpoint. The ability to see what is missing, what did the team not talk about, what issue or item was assumed to be covered, and really wasn’t.
Think about the holes in order to see the world as it is, to see problem sets more completely, to become a strategist and problem solver.