Picasso's The Bull

Image Credit: https://www.slideshare.net/a-mesto/the-bull-42690014

When faced with a complex problem to solve, it helps to draw inspiration from Pablo Picasso's The Bull - a series of eleven lithographs with each image abstracting away the details of the bull.

The final image depicts the bull in its essence - it is barebones but as recognizable as the first image. Apple's iMac and Magic Mouse designs are classic examples of this principle.

Simplifying a problem to its essence allows us to work on the elements of a problem that have the highest impact. It forces us to separate the noise from the signals and ensures that our highest quality efforts are directed toward what matters the most.

Let’s say that you are brought in as a leader to lead a gnarly cross-functional project. You have been warned that your predecessors have tried but failed. You have been told that the teams involved in the project are entrenched in their ways and don’t want to collaborate. You have also been updated that it is a high-visibility project but with minimal resources. As a leader, you can easily get overwhelmed by the complexities. There is the problem itself, then there is the career impact of failure, high expectations from stakeholders, lack of self-confidence, and probably the lack of enthusiasm to solve the problem. That is similar to the first image of the bull. You see elements of the problem but are quickly distracted by the non-essential features. Do you really need to see the color of the bull’s skin to know it’s a bull? However, if you step back and try to break down the problem through multiple iterations, you may find that the root cause of the issue is a misunderstanding of responsibilities. Now you are looking at the last image of the bull. You not only have clarity on what to fix but also how to fix them.

So, the next time you have a problem to solve, make an effort to find out what is really important. Ask yourself - Am I looking at just the bull or much more than that?