The Four Workarounds: Strategies from the World’s Scrappiest Organizations for Tackling Complex Problems

Savaget, a professor at Oxford University’s Engineering Sciences Department, debuts with a smart guide to finding creative solutions for a variety of difficulties. “Even if we had all the time and money in the world, sometimes no good solution can be found,” he contends, suggesting that in such situations readers should use one of the four “workarounds”: “piggyback, loophole, roundabout, and next best.” Case studies show the workarounds in action: Savaget tells how a British couple in Zambia distributed hard-to-come-by diarrhea medicine by having it placed in cases of Coca-Cola, “piggybacking” off the soft drink’s supply chain network, which reached remote areas where medical resources were scarce. Other examples examine how gay couples in Russia use a legal loophole to earn limited recognition of their marital status in defiance of Russia’s gay marriage ban, and the “roundabout” practice in India of discouraging public urination by posting images of deities on outdoor walls. To come up with workarounds, Savaget recommends “recognizing the limits of your knowledge,” viewing a problem from different angles, and “thinking like an outsider.” The clever case studies enlighten, and business readers will appreciate the suggestions on how to make one’s workplace “workaround friendly” (embrace collaboration and stay flexible). Wise and levelheaded, this delivers. (Mar.)