How to Approach Complex Problems in 6 Steps

Point of View on How to Approach Complex Problems
Organizational culture assessments find that most of today’s most critical business challenges aren’t created from broken processes or isolated decisions. They are wicked and complex problems. Complex problems don’t live neatly in a single function, team, or leader’s remit. They evolve as you work on them. And they can’t be “solved” once and for all.

Traditional problem-solving approaches struggle here. More analysis doesn’t create clarity. More alignment meetings don’t generate commitment. More change initiatives don’t build momentum.

What works is taking a different approach, treating leadership, collaboration, and decision-making as core to the solution, not as byproducts.

How to Solve Wicked Problems
Leadership simulation assessment and change management simulation data tell us that wicked and complex problems require:

• System-level clarity, not local optimization.
• Shared understanding, not forced agreement.
• Leadership activation, not delegation to a project team.
• Progress over perfection, grounded in real work.

For complex problems, a change leader’s role is not to deliver answers. It is to help teams see the system clearly, make better decisions together, and move the work forward with confidence and commitment.  That’s where real transformation begins, and where solutions become sustainable.

Methodology: How to Approach Complex Problems

The below methodology is designed for complex, high-stakes environments where clarity, trust, and execution matter as much as insight. While every situation faces its own market realities, the following high-level six steps help to move the needle.

1. Discover the Reality
   Before problems can be framed, they must be understood. We begin with disciplined discovery to surface what’s really happening, not just what’s being reported or assumed.  This includes:
   • • Listening across levels, roles, and perspectives.
     • Examining how work actually flows (not how it’s meant to).
     • Surfacing key tensions, contradictions, and blind spots.
     • Gathering qualitative and quantitative signals from the system.

The Payoff
Leaders gain a shared, grounded understanding of the current reality, which creates credibility and trust from the start.

2. Frame the Real Problem
   With discovery as the foundation, the next step is to help leaders define the problem that actually matters and be clear about “why now.”  This includes:
   • Clarifying the decision or outcome at stake.
   • Making trade-offs and constraints explicit.
   • Aligning on scope, success criteria, and timing.

The Payoff
Energy shifts from activity to intent. Teams stop working around the problem and start working on the right one.

3. See the System
   Wicked problems don’t live in silos. To solve them, you must make the system visible.  This includes:
   • Mapping customer, leader, and internal experiences end-to-end.
   • Engaging cross-functional experts closest to the work.
   • Identifying patterns, friction points, and second-order impacts.

The Payoff
Leaders see how the system behaves and where leverage actually exists.

4. Make Sense Together
   Insight only matters if it’s owned. You must turn data, experience, and perspective into shared clarity. This includes:
   • Synthesizing signals into a small number of meaningful themes.
   • Creating space for healthy debate, not consensus theater.
   • Distinguishing between noise, symptoms, and root causes.

The Payoff
Alignment becomes real because people understand why, not just what.

5. Decide and Design Forward
   The next step is to move from insight to action without oversimplifying complexity.  This includes:
   • Prioritizing opportunities based on impact, feasibility, and coherence.
   • Designing solutions that balance near-term delivery with long-term organizational health.
   • Clarifying ownership, decision rights, and next moves.

The Payoff
Decisions stick. Momentum builds. Teams know what matters and how to move.

6. Activate the Leadership System
   Wicked problems don’t resolve through a single decision. You must help leaders embed new ways of leading and working together to sustain progress.  This includes:
   • Establishing new operating rhythms, business practices, and expectations.
   • Supporting leaders as they model the shift they expect from others.
   • Creating feedback loops to learn and adapt in real time.

The Payoff
Change becomes durable because it’s woven into how leaders lead and how work gets done.

The Bottom Line
The quality of the outcomes an organization produces is directly tied to the quality of the leadership, decisions, and collaboration that produce them. If you want to know how to approach complex problems, follow these six steps — they will help you “go slow to go fast.”

To learn more about how to approach complex problems, download 5 Science-Backed Lenses of Successful Change Leadership

by Tristam Brown: CEO

Tristam Brown is an executive business consultant and organizational development expert with more than three decades of experience helping organizations accelerate performance, build high-impact teams, and turn strategy into execution. As CEO of LSA Global, he works with leaders to get and stay aligned™ through research-backed strategy, culture, and talent solutions that produce measurable, business-critical results. See full bio.