Stuck on a Problem? Try Switching Up Your Approach

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Marketing, Business, Business/management, Management, Business/marketing, Business/entrepreneurship, Innovation, Hbr, Strategy, Economics, Finance, Teams, Harvard

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2024

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Many leaders confidently go about tackling challenges. After all, relying on their experience got them to where they are. But taking the same approach over and over again can actually hold you back. Sometimes you need to switch up your tactics to break through to the next level. Decision-making expert Cheryl Strauss Einhorn says the first step is to understand your personal problem-solving style. Then she explains a framework to assess the situation and select the best approach. Einhorn is founder and CEO of Decisive. She also wrote the book Problem Solver: Maximizing Your Strengths to Make Better Decisions and the HBR article “When Your Go-To Problem-Solving Approach Fails.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	Curious how cutting-edge research is addressing complex issues, then check out if then, the new
0:07.6	podcast where Stanford Graduate School of Business Professors share the innovations they're most excited about, from AI to
0:15.2	sustainability and power.
0:17.2	Listen to If Then, wherever you get your podcast. cast. Welcome to the HBRIDIA cast from Harvard Business Review. I'm Kurt Nickish. At this stage in your career,
0:50.8	whether you realize it or not not you probably lean on the same
0:54.5	framework to make decisions. Call it a habit or a pattern whether it's
0:59.1	unconscious or deliberate, like it or not you have developed your own tried and true decision-making style.
1:06.3	But is it really the best way?
1:09.2	Often the model that you turn to to solve problems and make decisions is the one you've grown
1:14.1	comfortable with but it's not necessarily the most effective one for that
1:18.5	situation. Even the best leaders sometimes need a refresh, and that's especially true when your default
1:25.8	doesn't seem to be working in a new scenario.
1:29.1	Our guest today studies the behaviors and psychology behind making decisions.
1:33.8	In fact, she has identified five different archetypes.
1:36.7	She says that the key to solving the latest challenge you face
1:40.3	might be in understanding your own style and knowing when to switch up your approach.
1:46.0	Cheryl Strauss-Einhorn is the founder and CEO of Decisive, a Decision Sciences consultancy.
1:52.0	She also wrote the book Problem Solver and the
1:55.3	HBR article when your go-to problem solving approach fails. Cheryl, thanks for
2:01.2	joining. Thank you so much for having me.
2:04.0	So we're going to talk about the
2:08.0	main
	...

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