Episode 74: Solve Complex Problems with a "Workaround" Mindset

Sue Bethanis hosts award-winning researcher Paulo Savaget. Paulo is an associate professor at Oxford University’s Engineering Sciences Department and the Saïd Business School. His primary fields of expertise are entrepreneurship, sustainable development, systems change, and innovation management.

The emphasis of his work is on transforming unjust systems through entrepreneurship. He formerly served as Postdoctoral Researcher at the Skoll Centre and as an Assistant Professor at Durham University. Outside academia, he worked as an entrepreneur and as a consultant to large companies, non-profits, and government agencies in Latin America, and the OECD. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge as a Gates Scholar.

Paulo is the author of the new book, The Four Workarounds: Strategies from the World’s Scrappiest Organizations for Tackling Complex Problems, a smart guide that offers a behind-the-scenes look at groups around the world that have mastered the art of subverting the status quo.

Sue and Paulo discuss:

• how ‘workarounds’ can help solve systemic problems
• how to achieve massive wins with minimal resources
• how the business world can learn from the innovative wit and practical ingenuity of scrappy organizations