It’s the beginning of the week, and you’re trying to address a complex problem in one of your projects.
You’ve simplified the problem in order to find an answer.
But now you’re wondering if you overlooked aspects of the problem by simplifying what you think is important or has high priority.
Would you consider a different approach?
Complex doesn’t equal complicated, says ecologist Eric Berlow in his three-minute Simplifying Complexity TED talk.
A complex problem has a wide variety of issues that can seem overwhelming at first.
But Berlow’s research shows that by stepping back and embracing the complexity of the problem, you can break down those issues into actionable items.
A critical point I want to make here is that simplicity doesn’t just come from taking more and more details into account…
– Eric Berlow
I have to admit, I was overwhelmed by the diagram of the U.S. military strategy he shared in his talk. But his breakdown of what issues to consider seemed clear and practical to me.
Let me know what you think after watching the video.
Check Berlow’s footnotes for notes and citations from his talk. His resource list offers several books about diversity and simplifying complexity.
Shoutout to my friend Martin Hawksey who shared the video on Twitter.
Source: TED
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
