Complex Questions

Complex questions surround all of the most important issues facing the world's decision makers. These questions are resistant to every attempt at resolution. Finding the right answers to these complex questions is essential to improving the security, prosperity and equity of our world.

Complex questions are startlingly difficult to answer because they are characterized by:

  • Ambitious, multiple and often competing objectives
  • High numbers of heterogeneous subordinate elements
  • Resource and time constraints that severely limit the range of solutions
  • Opacity, except to the most experienced and knowledgeable
  • Unpredictability due to inherent unknowability and social factors

Complex questions are challenges to both conception and resolution. Indeed, asking exactly the right question is the first hurdle in addressing any complex problem. Even if the question is well-conceived, an actionable resolution is often elusive.

At Group W, we believe that complex questions are best addressed by:

  • Visionary clients who demand constructive engagement
  • Exceptional people who are both highly skilled and passionately dedicated to the search for answers
  • A fusion of science and art that combines practical, critical thinking with an imaginative synthesis of the most appropriate methods
  • An unconventional culture that regards the right answer as its most important goal

“The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.”