Art & Science of Effective Problem Solving with Dr. Jackson Nickerson | The Good Leadership Podcast #61

Jackson Nickerson has a long and distinguished career teaching, researching, consulting, administering, and entrepreneuring. Starting out as an assistant professor in 1996, he became the Frahm Family Professor of Organization and Strategy at Olin Business School, Washington University in St. Louis.  

As the Associate Dean and Director of Brookings Executive Education from 2009 to 2017, he led many innovations including one of the first Executive Master of Science in Leadership degrees in the nation, doubled executive enrollment, and increased revenue by 75%. He was the first ever senior fellow at the Grameen Foundation. He is a Visiting Professor of Corporate Governance at Insper in Sao Paulo Brazil and a frequent collaborator with Center for Homeland Defense and Security at the Naval Post Graduate School. 

He is the founder/co-founder of five companies. Of note is NFORMD, which produced a first-of-its-kind online sexual assault prevention program used by colleges and the U.S. Army. A consultant for scores of companies and government agencies, he advises on strategy development, inclusion and diversity, and processes to ensure that leaders solve the right problem the first time. Jackson is the chief social scientist for EPC Learning Labs LLC.

Jackson holds a Ph.D. in Business and Public Policy, an M.B.A., and an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, all from the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.  Before entering academia, he was a control systems engineer with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Dr. Jackson Nickerson's Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Nickerson

Dr. Jackson Nickerson's Books: https://www.amazon.com/Jackson-A-Nickerson/e/B003Y1L9X4/

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Chapters:

(00:00) Introduction

(00:53) Dr. Nickerson’s background

(01:35) Why is problem solving hard?

(02:56) Teams often solve the wrong problem

(04:45) Common problems in leaders

(05:10) Tool: Strategies to stop bias

(07:10) Tool: Strategies to minimize confirmation bias effects

(08:59) Tool: Framing effect

(10:49) Thinking traps

(14:05) Enhancing critical strategic thinking

(18:21) Conclusion