For most of my career, I saw problems as puzzles waiting to be solved.
If something wasn’t working, my instinct was to find the solution… quickly and efficiently. That mindset was deeply ingrained. After all, it’s what most of us are trained to do: define the issue, identify root causes, implement fixes, measure success.
And for a while, it worked. At least, it appeared to.
But over time, especially as I began diving deeper into complexity science and systems thinking, I realized that some of the most persistent challenges we face, in healthcare, organizations, and society, don’t behave like traditional problems.
They aren’t mechanical. They’re living.
When you intervene in a complex system, the system responds. It adapts. It evolves.
The conditions that made one solution effective today may make it irrelevant tomorrow. And so the “solution mindset”, the belief that once we’ve solved it, it’s done, can actually keep us stuck.
It assumes stability in a world that’s constantly shifting.
From fixing to sensing
In a complex world, the goal isn’t to “solve” the problem. It’s to understand how the system is responding to what we do. To see patterns, feedback loops, and unintended consequences.
Instead of asking “What’s the solution?”, I now ask:
“What’s the smallest next experiment that could help us learn?”
This approach is lighter, humbler, and much more aligned with how real systems behave.
We take a step, observe how the system shifts, then adjust. It’s not failure or indecision… it’s how living systems change.
Complex issues aren’t problems, they’re patterns
Some challenges will never have a final solution because they’re constantly in motion:
- Racism, because it lives within beliefs, structures, and language that evolve as society does.
- Cancer, because the body and disease are in a continuous dance of adaptation.
- Climate change, because human behaviour, policy, and ecosystems are dynamically linked.
- Health system reform, because every improvement effort reshapes the very system it’s trying to fix.
These aren’t problems to be solved once and for all.
They’re systems to be stewarded, nurtured, influenced, and understood.
The practice of letting go
Becoming a “recovering problem solver” has meant letting go of the comfort that comes with clear answers. It’s also meant developing a different kind of confidence — one rooted in curiosity, observation, and collective learning.
We don’t control complex systems. But we can participate in them more wisely.
And maybe that’s what leadership looks like now:
not fixing what’s broken, but learning how to work with what’s alive.
Reflection prompt:
What helps you stay grounded when facing challenges that can’t be “solved”
