Steal my formula for understanding complex problems at work. I live and breathe complexities so I know what I am talking about. Hahahaha I call it MAPS. Four things to look for whenever you’re trying to understand a project, make sense of a technical discussion, or explain an issue to someone else: M - Metrics What do the numbers tell you? Look at the size, the movement and the comparison. Up or down? By how much? Compared with last quarter, last year or the target? A - Assumptions and drivers What’s behind the numbers? What caused the change? What are we taking for granted? What needs to be true for the conclusion to hold? P - Patterns I solved a complex technical question today just by looking at the pattern. All I did was just to throw a challenge on the pattern and it self-resolved. Have we seen this before? Is it a one-off, a recurring issue or part of a bigger trend? What happened last time, and what’s different now? S - Simplify Can you reduce it to one clear sentence, a simple formula or a diagram without losing the meaning? I use at least a table or a chart to drive home points. What’s the relationship between the moving parts? How would you explain it to a colleague who wasn’t in the room? As a leader, you can also use this to challenge your team on critical matters.