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The Restart Problem: Engineering Hope from Crisis
The #1 Bestseller in Management
Why is turning around a failing system harder than starting from scratch?
When Apollo 13's oxygen tank exploded 200,000 miles from Earth, NASA engineers faced the ultimate restart reverse a cascade of failures with a dying spacecraft, limited resources, and time running out. They couldn't build a new ship; they had to save the one that was rapidly becoming their tomb.
This is the Restart Problem, and it's everywhere.
A struggling business bleeding cash. A career spiraling into burnout. A community watching its best people leave. These aren't startup challenges; they're restart challenges. And they require an entirely different playbook.
In this groundbreaking book, Dr. Jan Niklas Sikorra
• Why decline creates its own momentum and how to break free from its gravitational pull
• The three hidden forces that turn manageable problems into death spirals
• An actionable 5-step framework for engineering turnarounds when failure seems inevitable
• Real-world case Microsoft's stunning revival under Satya Nadella, a burned-out executive's personal transformation, and the rebirth of a dying industrial city
The 5-Step Restart
1. Find Ground Conduct a brutal audit that cuts through denial
2. Jettison the Master strategic abandonment
3. The Ignition Engineer a small, visible win
4. Refuel in Convert momentum into sustainable energy
5. Plot a New Create a vision that pulls you forward
Perfect
• CEOs and leaders facing organizational decline
• Professionals stuck in career quicksand
• Anyone who's tried to change but keeps sliding backward
• Communities and organizations confronting systemic failure
Drawing from physics, psychology, and real-world turnarounds, The Restart Problem provides a systematic approach to reversing decline and engineering recovery. This isn't another book about fresh starts, it's about the messy, difficult, utterly essential art of turning around what's already in motion.
Stop the slide. Reverse the momentum. Engineer your comeback.
When Apollo 13's oxygen tank exploded 200,000 miles from Earth, NASA engineers faced the ultimate restart reverse a cascade of failures with a dying spacecraft, limited resources, and time running out. They couldn't build a new ship; they had to save the one that was rapidly becoming their tomb.
This is the Restart Problem, and it's everywhere.
A struggling business bleeding cash. A career spiraling into burnout. A community watching its best people leave. These aren't startup challenges; they're restart challenges. And they require an entirely different playbook.
In this groundbreaking book, Dr. Jan Niklas Sikorra
• Why decline creates its own momentum and how to break free from its gravitational pull
• The three hidden forces that turn manageable problems into death spirals
• An actionable 5-step framework for engineering turnarounds when failure seems inevitable
• Real-world case Microsoft's stunning revival under Satya Nadella, a burned-out executive's personal transformation, and the rebirth of a dying industrial city
The 5-Step Restart
1. Find Ground Conduct a brutal audit that cuts through denial
2. Jettison the Master strategic abandonment
3. The Ignition Engineer a small, visible win
4. Refuel in Convert momentum into sustainable energy
5. Plot a New Create a vision that pulls you forward
Perfect
• CEOs and leaders facing organizational decline
• Professionals stuck in career quicksand
• Anyone who's tried to change but keeps sliding backward
• Communities and organizations confronting systemic failure
Drawing from physics, psychology, and real-world turnarounds, The Restart Problem provides a systematic approach to reversing decline and engineering recovery. This isn't another book about fresh starts, it's about the messy, difficult, utterly essential art of turning around what's already in motion.
Stop the slide. Reverse the momentum. Engineer your comeback.
358 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 16, 2025
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