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

by David Komlos, David Benjamin

For the first time, David Benjamin and David Komlos of Syntegrity share their cutting-edge, highly engaging step-by-step formula for cracking incredibly knotty and important challenges in mere days, while mobilizing those who must execute. Foreword by Marshall Goldsmith, #1 NY Times bestselling author, Thinkers50 - #1 Executive Coach and the only two-time #1 Leadership Thinker in the World Complexity has met its match! Today, organizations are grappling with ambiguity, volatility and paradox surrounding the challenges they face. This is complexity. But too many leaders approach complexity the wrong way - they push their people harder and harder and tackle problems one at a time over months, sometimes even years, and nearly always in a linear fashion. It's like setting a pot of water on "low" and waiting for it to boil. To solve the seemingly intractable challenges that leaders bang their heads against for months - to get the metaphorical water to boil - you must generate a high amount of heat very quickly. In this book, the authors share their proven formula for dramatically shortening the process and solving an organization's toughest challenges in mere days.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

Published May 7, 2019

Reviews

[Scott Wozniak · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book starts slow and vague, but builds chapter by chapter into some really insightful and practical steps for generating breakthrough ideas. I almost didn't keep reading it after the weak start, but I'm really glad I did. This is a process for getting the right people in the room, prompting the right discussions, and mixing the discussion up long enough to create relationships and project ideas that haven't been done before (or didn't have the right people in the room so they didn't work).

It's a little over-engineered, in my opinion (e.g. they give you the email responses for each reason people say they won't come and they present a mathematical way to measure how much diversity is in the room just for the fun of it) but the fundamental ideas are solid.

Key insights:

Once you get the right people in the room, don't tell them the agenda. Ask them to decide the agenda so we don't miss a critical topic and so they own it.
The ideal schedule is an opening session followed by three rounds of parallel breakout discussions on the agenda topics that they decided.
It usually takes 2 full days, ideally one right after the other.
There are some specific roles, like the listener who can only share at the end of the session and the critic who is the devil's advocate.

[Fran Cormack · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a book about cracking complexity, this book was repetitive and overly complex.

[JennerallySpeaking · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5 - Will need to revisit this book when I work on a complex project and have to come back to evaluate if this works.

[Jon Loftin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably 2.5. Not a breakthrough formula

It is really more like common sense. Get a team together, brainstorm, diverge on ideas and then converge on ideas. The hard part with any complex problem is the implementation. The book is very weak on that and just says you have to have project management to get the problem fixed.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Complexity... speaking of it in the terms in which the Santa Fe Institute defines it...


... to me is the only way we can understand how reality works... probably not all, who in the world will ultimately understand what is a moment and why is the flying polen of a flower making us having hay fever in a realty we barely perceive, less understand (if one or the other thing ARE)...

What I want to say is that we could really give it a try through Complexity and Adaptive Complex Systems...

Well... I don't even know what I'm writing exactly (I do, but the subject is so extensive and awesome)... if you are having problems for a grasp of fresh air because you don't understand WHAT IS GOING ON ON THE WORLD TODAY, doesn't matter if you're a CEO, genius, linguistic, employee, citizen of the world or any nation, want to have a morale (or not), or are looking to understand physics in order to have A SENSE OF SOMETHING IN THIS LIFE... remember this quote:

"Paralysis in this situation is the likely outcome; what always worked is no longer working, and making a major shift midgame feels impossible. Complexity does that to you: you knew what you were doing, but what used to work doesn't anymore" -Cracking Complexity-

Want a real answer on HOW NOT TO BE PARALYZED like a flashed rabbit on coyotes (wolves, bear, climate change, fires, floods, geo political complications) ground... READ THIS BOOK for YOU to take action and not only feeling good you don't contribute to evil (do not make it worse) but to be an actor of change on a Complex Adaptive System... your society, your environment.


You can apply this quote to your personal life, your university, work or any problem in which you cannot see a solution... please READ THIS BOOK... it will help you understand where humanity is going. If you want to know more PLASE read more about Complexity and the concepts developed, and being developed, in the Santa Fe Institute and many others institutes in the world, I guess, but right now I only know this one.


Peace!

[Todd Cheng · Rating 4 out of 5]

Be it city infrastructure, IT service delivery, environment impacts, economic policy, a long term marriage or international relations there is complexity.

I appreciated the definition and concept of complex and complexity. I liked learning how it evolved.

I liked the possible 23 themes across many diverse challenges. I have also tried to map out 23 possible options when faced with challenges decisions. I will add these themes to my toolbox.

The convening method is a good example of ‘The World Cafe’ approach I have partaken in and also read up on. A great way to distill intelligence out of a diverse community on brainstorming possible solutions to hard challenges.

[Marc Schaeffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obveously written for the business community, still, I enjoyed their main theses.
They suggest Increasing surface aria contact between different people representing sectors of the business that are usually separated, which would certainly increase the reactivity of the business to new circumstances, shorten reaction times, but most importantly they posit that getting input from nearly unrelated sectors can result in the cross pollination of concepts from one sector into another, virtually guaranteeing breakthroughs.
Obveously that last benefit would decrease in its potency over time if the people involve remain the same over iterations.

[Jiri · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a business book full of examples, but it has very little to no theory. It is not worth reading when you want to learn about complexity and even the examples have very little to do with complexity. Most of what they talk about is psychology.

[Kristina Irwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically what you would expect from the title. Breaks down steps for following common sense. Works better as a reminder that not all problems are as simple as what is on the surface.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Their process to handle complexity is straightforward. There are a couple areas that need more explanation and overall the he book is well reasoned. Looking forward to giving it a try.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good book, though I wish they had done better on using Systems theory.

[Peter Sandwall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh.

[Юра Крот · Rating 3 out of 5]

Use diversity to crack complexity.
Everyone has a place in the system, and you must use them correctly.

[Andy Harvey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it's missing a few of the details on how the meeting structure could work as well as how to process into next steps but a really great framework for further customized definitions.

[Manuel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Was looking a technical book on complexity and found this useless BS business pamphlet on corporativism. Beware.

[Larissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book talks about how to recognize something as simple vs complex. One vs the other isn't always obvious as something can be difficult without being complex. Complex problems require different methods of solving than simple problems. I didn't find the ideas in this book to be particularly earth shattering - much of it seems kind of common sense.

[Christian · Rating 1 out of 5]

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