Are You Solving the Right Strategic Problem?

REGISTRATION IS CLOSED 

SPECIAL BENEFIT FOR MEMBERS- BRING A GUEST AT MEMBER RATE

One of the benefits of being a member of the STL-ODN is the opportunity to invite one non-member guest to a designated program at the member rate.  Our August program has been designated for this special member benefit and it is a great opportunity to share the experience of the STL-ODN with a colleague or business partner.   Members, please ask your non-member guest to register in advance so that we can have an accurate count for refreshments and space. When registering at our website, guests should select the "Member Guest" option.  They will be asked for their name as well as the name of the member that invited them.

DESCRIPTION:

Are you Solving the Right Strategic Problem?

Successful leaders choose and solve the “right” strategic problems.  Yet research shows that even among top executive teams leaders solve the wrong problem 75% of the time.  Solving the wrong problem consumes time, wastes resources, requires leaders to circle back to reformulate the problem, leads to cynicism, and can devastate a culture.

Our August program, “Are you solving the right strategic problem?”, will be presented by Jackson Nickerson, Frahm Family Professor of Organization and Strategy at the Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis.  He also is the Associate Dean of Brookings Executive Education, where he has implemented a competency-based curriculum for government executives based on the cornerstone of critical thinking and problem formulation.  Jackson will describe why leaders often solve the wrong problem.  A common set of biases, he will argue, causes people to skip over comprehensively formulating a challenge before solving it.  The resulting rush to solution locks in emotional commitments that invite more biases and internal politics that ultimately undermine vital leadership competencies.

Jackson will introduce a training and development approach to overcome these biases, which helps leaders solve the right problem the first time.  He will not only describe how to advance the critical thinking skills of executives but also will provide you with tips and techniques that you can apply immediately to improve your own thinking skills.

CONTRIBUTOR:

Jackson Nickerson, Ph.D.

In addition to his other appointments, Jackson is a Senior non-resident Scholar in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and was the Grameen Foundation’s first Senior Scholar.

Jackson joined the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, in 1996.  He teaches strategic management courses on innovation, management of life science, organizational strategy, vision and leading change, and critical thinking.  His research focuses on leadership issues around why firms choose different organizational processes and structures and the performance implications of these choices, with a special emphasis on knowledge, innovation, and problem solving.  He has received numerous teaching awards from undergraduates and executives alike and received the 2003 State of Missouri Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. 

Jackson has engaged and impacted numerous organizations through Olin’s custom executive education programs, Olin’s Partners Program, and consulting for firms in industries as widespread as architecture and art, chemicals, education, finance, health care, and pharmaceuticals.  He is the author of Leading Change in a Web 2.1 World, a book published in the fall of 2010, and presently finishing a new book, Leading from the Middle:  A practical guide to building extraordinary capabilities.  Jackson is a director of the publicly listed company CleanTech Biofuels and of NFORMD.NET, a privately held new media company.  He also led the development of Critical Thinking@Olin, a high-impact initiative that recently won the MBA Roundtable’s Innovator Award.

REGISTRATION DEADLINE: Aug. 6th at 5:00 p.m.