Tricky problems must be shaped before they can be solved. To start that process, and stimulate novel thinking, leaders should look through multiple lenses. A McKinsey Quarterly Strategy article.

After a complete dry spell of good reads on decision making, here comes another good one.  This McKinsey article discusses using flexible options for generating novel solutions, or “flexons.”   They identify 5 key flexons that come from the social and natural sciences: Networks, Evolutionary, Decision-agent, System-dynamics, and Information flexons. 

Good stuff.  As with so much of the decision research, this approach underscores the importance of following a process that is flexible yet thorough, helps us navigate through the minefield of (bad) instincts and get ourselves out of our own often unrecognized emotionally attachment space.

See on www.mckinseyquarterly.com