Recently, the World Economic Forum produced a report that predicts what the employment landscape will look like in 2020 after talking to chief human resources and strategy officers from leading global employers. The top 10 skills in 2020 will be:
1. Complex problem solving.
2. Critical thinking.
3. Creativity.
4. People management.
5. Coordinating with others.
6. Emotional intelligence.
7. Judgement and decision-making.
8. Service orientation.
9. Negotiation.
10. Cognitive flexibility.
You'll notice a few changes when you compare the list to the top skills in 2015 below, but the most in-demand skill does not change:
1. Complex problem solving.
2. Coordinating with others.
3. People management.
4. Critical thinking.
5. Negotiation.
6. Quality control.
7. Service orientation.
8. Judgement and decision-making.
9. Active listening.
10. Creativity.
What's driving the change? The WEF says it's the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which by 2020 will have brought us more advanced robotics and autonomous transport, artificial intelligence and machine learning, advanced materials, biotechnology and genomics.
Since complex problem solving is at the top of both lists, let's explore how successful leaders solve complex problem.
There are two broad approaches most leaders take: they solve problems by themselves individually; or help others solve them as a team.
If you're intellectually gifted, have all the information and possess diverse perspectives, you choose the first approach. From my experience, there are few leaders in this category these days. The majority of leaders need their teams to engage in complex problem solving, and leading such teams is a skill in itself.
There are four phases of solving a complex problem: planning, engaging, executing and adjusting. Let's look at each one:
Planning: First, you must identify the problem. This is not as easy as it seems. In A More Beautiful Question, author Warren Berger recalled Albert Einstein's approach: "If he had an hour to solve a problem and his life depended on it, he'd spend the first fifty-five minutes making sure he was answering the right question."
Basically, if you identify the wrong problem you will not be able to solve it. What if the leader identifies the wrong problem? You will not be able to solve the problem but might simply create more problems.
The ability to identify the right problem is a quality of a good leader. It's a judgement call. If you're not good at it, you won't last long in the leader's seat.
Second, you need to identify the people involved. Complex problems require people from diverse backgrounds, with diverse information and perspectives. Here are some guidelines to identify who you will need:
1. Who has the information related to the problem?
2. Who has experienced a similar problem before?
3. Who has good critical thinking?
4. Who has good judgement?
5. Who will be involved in executing the solution?
6. Who are the stakeholders that will be affected by the solution?
7. Who has the ability to encourage others?
Once you know who will be on your team, you can move to the next step.
Engaging: Usually, a complex problem requires several team meetings. Hence, setting meeting norms will be critical. The leader should discuss and come up with agreements on the following approaches:
1. How will you make decisions? A majority in what case? A consensus in what case?
2. How will your meetings start and end? (How do you feel about promptness?)
3. What about performing other tasks during meetings?
4. Who should be at each meeting? How long should each person attend (the whole meeting or only the part that directly involves him or her)?
5. How does the agenda get built?
6. What roles will team members take during meetings?
7. How will you handle conflict in the team?
8. How frequently should the team review team norms?
Executing: Once you have a potential solution, you need to execute it. Here are some things to consider beforehand:
1. What could go wrong?
2. How will we prevent potential problems?
3. What will be the contingent actions?
4. What will be the triggers?
Adjusting: Every plan needs an adjustment. Things will not go as planned. Hence, timely adjustment is the key.
1. How do we know adjustment is needed?
2. Who will we need to communicate with?
3. How will we communicate?
4. Who will be in charge of the adjustment?
5. How do we modify the plan?
6. How do we ensure the adjustments work?
The above steps are general guidelines. Each company has a unique situation, so you need to adapt and modify the approaches to suit your needs. In the end, though, the more you solve complex problems, the better your skills will be.
Kriengsak Niratpattanasai provides executive coaching in leadership and diversity management under the brand TheCoach. He can be reached at