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 audiobook, 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. A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books.
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If you are tired of business books about the secrets of Amazon, prepare to be surprised by great ideas that come from the Amazon. Using a rich library of examples, Paulo Savaget shows how “scrappy” organizations tackle seemingly intractable problems, from illegal logging in Brazil to caste discrimination in India to children diarrhea in sub-Saharan Africa. His distillation of their robust, dynamic and creative methods is an original and inspiring read for anyone interested in nontraditional problem-solving approaches.
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Olivier Sibony, Professor of Strategy at HEC Paris and New York Times bestselling co-author of Noise