This short video explains how the course is structured and offers suggestions for how you might approach your learning to get the most out of it.

In this module we'll explore why a growing number of people and organisations are citing complex problem solving as a necessary, if not the most-needed, skillset for the 21st Century.

This lesson explores what we actually mean when we describe something as complex. We’ll delve into the world of complexity science and think about the implications of complexity for our work.

Yes! I think this is true. Not all of us, not always, but often. This module explores why our traditional methods of problem-solving are no longer up for the job, and what needs to change.

Until now complex problem solving hasn’t been associated with any particular approach or model for ‘how to do it’ (that we’ve come across anyway). This is where we’ll introduce one.

Here we explore what we mean by ‘higher-order’, or ‘higher-level’ thinking, and why these thinking skills are essential for complementing our discipline-based knowledge and areas of expertise.

This lesson explores what we mean by the words ‘strategy’, ‘policy’ and ‘strategic thinking’ and we’ll delve into contemporary thinking about what effective strategy and strategic thinking entail.

Systems thinking is a useful way to think about and understand complex things. This lesson introduces some fundamental systems concepts that we will use throughout the course.

Design Thinking is one of the buzziest buzz words of recent times, but there is some misunderstanding about what ‘design thinking’ and ‘design’ are, so we’ll explain them here.

Many challenges we encounter we haven’t come across before, so we need new and useful ideas for dealing with them. We'll explore things we can do to nurture creativity and spark creative ideas.

Counter-balancing thinking ‘outside-the-box’ is a need to make sense of our world. Structured and analytical thinking help us to organise information in order to deepen our understanding of things.

Futures thinking helps us recognise that we don’t know what the future holds, and to pre-empt what might happen so our work is more resilient to threats, and more ready for opportunities.

Increasingly in this post-truth world of alternative facts and fake news, critical thinking is regarded as being essential. Here we explore what critical thinking means, and useful tips for how to do it.

There is a pattern to the things we need to think about, in order to grapple effectively with complex challenges. The 20 Questions capture this pattern. Here we explain how they can be used.

Here we explore why building a deeper understanding of the situation you’re grappling with is essential for generating useful insights about what to do. It is literally like turning on a lightbulb!

Framing the problem and desired outcome(s) well, is one of the most important things you can do to foster innovation. Yet people often overlook this critical early step and jump straight to solutions.

Rarely do we start designing a solution or strategy from a ‘blank page’. There are usually important context, constraints, and requirements that need to be satisfied or considered.

People tend to form judgements and make decisions based on the information they have, which is almost always, incomplete information. Here we explore how we can manage unknowns.

Whenever we come across new information, it is an opportunity to learn something. There are three questions we can ask habitually of ourselves and others to help us learn things and gain insight.

Often when we try to explain why something is happening we defer to dichotomies of simple cause-and-effect relationships, but this is an oversimplification. Here we explore a technique for understanding why complex things occur.

‘Design’ is often overlooked when solutions for complex challenges are developed. Here we’ll explore what it means to design (or re-design) a system, and how to think your ideas through.

Here we’ll explore the differences between a ‘strategy’ and a ‘system’, why they are both required to bring a different outcome about, how they are intertwined, and how to design them.

Great ideas need analytical rigour, but often they have a creative beginning. We’ll explore practical techniques for thinking about problems and solutions from different angles to form creative ideas.

We use goals, targets, KPIs or objectives to measure progress and to judge performance. Here we'll explore why goals are so powerful but why it is so important to design them well, and how to do this.

Common reasons why a strategy fails to deliver the outcome are – the conditions that need to be in place for it to work have not been considered, and, assumptions have not been tested.

Behavioural insights are factors that influence what people think and do. They provide a way of understanding, and (ethically) encouraging or discouraging certain behaviours.

In this highly interconnected world, all actions have flow-on effects. The more we pre-empt them, the more we can mitigate the negative consequences and amplify the positive ones.

When designing strategies or solutions there are usually competing factors to consider. Here we explore the factors that need to be balanced, and practical ways to help make the trade-offs.

Here we’ll explore why the risks of ‘poor implementation’ are greatly reduced when implementation is treated as an integral part of strategy design rather than as a separate process after design.

What does 'evidence-based' mean? Here we’ll explore a simple and versatile model for taking an evidence-based approach in the context of problem-solving and decision-making.

Some say there is nothing more important for a strategy than an understanding of how it will work. Here we explore how to explain how the things you plan to do will lead to the changes you want.

Having reasons for our judgments and decisions allows us to defend our ideas and persuade others. We’ll explore how to develop a strong argument and how to evaluate other people's arguments.

The role of information and data has never been more significant. This module is a reminder of what to be on the look-out for when using data to inform and justify ideas and decisions.

For complex challenges there is uncertainty in many aspects and while we will never remove uncertainty, there are two things we can do to work with uncertainty more effectively.

What works and what doesn’t (and why) is the most difficult question with the most valuable answer. This module explores some fundamental concepts for doing evaluation well.

Taking a purposeful approach to managing risk and fostering agility, resilience and innovation are critical for working effectively with uncertainty. We’ll look at tips for doing each of these well.

We can’t do the first four complex problem solving activities well without doing this one well. We’ll see why engaging others is so important for informing, testing and building support for our ideas.

Considering interdisciplinary perspectives is critical for success with complex challenges. We’ll explore why this is, and practical ideas for listening and having purposeful conversations.

In this lesson we’ll explore practical techniques for communicating compellingly so that our ideas are understood by, and resonate with others.

This is where we pull all the ideas together to see how they might be applied over the course of a project. We also explore a couple of complex case studies.

Well done! This is the final module in the Navigate Complexity course. Here we make some concluding remarks about complex problem solving.