The Four Workarounds
Strategies from the World's Scrappiest Organizations for Tackling Complex Problems
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
FINANCIAL TIMES' BEST SUMMER BOOKS OF 2023
"Groundbreaking" —Next Big Idea Club
"This book helps us live happier, successful, and more fulfilling lives." —Jenn Lim, CEO and cofounder of Delivering Happiness, and bestselling author of Beyond Happiness
We constantly encounter complex problems at home, in our places of work, and in society at large. Even if we had all the time and money in the world, sometimes no good solution can be found. So, what should we do, especially when we can’t wait? The answer: a workaround.
For ages, global corporations have been lecturing small organizations and not-for-profits on how to get things done. As it turns out, it should have been the other way around. In this groundbreaking book, award-winning researcher Paulo Savaget shows how the most valuable lessons about problem-solving can be learned from the scrappiest groups.
Savaget draws most of his examples from small organizations dedicated to social action that have made an art form out of subverting the status quo and have proved themselves adept at achieving massive wins with minimal resources. Through his research, Savaget identified the four workarounds that these groups commonly employ: the piggyback, the loophole, the roundabout, and the next best. With vivid and fascinating examples from his life and travels, he demonstrates how each one works and how to know which one to use when.
The Four Workarounds shows how seemingly intractable problems—from public urination to the challenges of delivering lifesaving medicine to remote communities—were addressed using unconventional tactics. Some of the world’s biggest and most admired companies are already using Savaget’s research to transform the ways they do business. And these same lessons can also revolutionize the ways we approach the challenges we all encounter every day of our lives.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
