According to a study conducted among 10,000 executives who were asked about the most important quality for the success of their organization, 97% of them answered: strategic intelligence. However, due to lack of time, commitment or knowledge, leaders do not always work on their strategic thinking or fail to master it. That is why we invite you to embark on the path of the game to try and identify some useful strategic principles for leaders, as well as for everyone in everyday situations, both professional and personal, to solve difficult problems. To do this, we can take the well-known game as a basis: Sudoku,
A game popularized by the Japanese Maki Kaji, who died in 2021. In the 80s, it was he who helped popularize the game after he discovered it in an American magazine, giving it a Japanese name (his: number and dock: only).
Triple Interdependence Sudoku
The Sudoku principle is as follows: we have a table of 81 cells divided into 9 columns, 9 rows and 9 blocks. We must fill each field with a number from 1 to 9 while respecting the following three restrictions:
- The number must not already be in the same column.
- The number must not already be on the same line.
- The number must not already be in the block.
In a game of the type that confronts us with this triple interdependence, strategic intelligence is essential. We can use five principles to successfully complete a 9 cell grid. These five principles also serve as lessons for the development of strategic intelligence.
Lesson 1
A Sudoku game does not start with an empty board. From the very beginning, you already have filled cells, which are both a resource and a limitation. A resource, because it is knowledge with which you can continue to solve your problem, and a limitation, because it sets a framework and therefore limits your options when it comes to filling in the fields.
So the first step is to take the time to analyze what you already know and what you don’t know. This operation will prove indispensable throughout the game: take the time to determine what you know and what you may not know.
This is an elementary lesson: in the face of complexity, understand the situation, look for available information and knowledge, and be aware of the possible degree of your ignorance, which must be filled in order to solve your problem.
However, there is a difference between the game and reality: the lack of uncertainty. If ignorance requires strategy and learning, uncertainty implies a bet, a risk. There is nothing to bet on in Sudoku, because it is a game in which frames are fixed in advance and the problem can be solved.
If we were to distinguish between the two, we would probably realize that our fears when faced with complex problems in real life are much more likely to arise from our ignorance, to which we are blind, than from real uncertainty, with which knowledge is of little use. can do. .
Lesson 2
This is a very common mistake that sudoku lovers know well: focusing too much on the desire to put a number in a cell, we forget to see simple and obvious solutions!
Also, when we advance in the game, it happens that the desired solution is already in front of our eyes; we want to put 3 on the line when there is already one. In this regard, we can recall the famous formula of the Austrian philosopher and mathematician Ludwig Wittgenstein: “Don’t think, look!”
By focusing too much on complex problems, we may miss out on those that are easy to solve, or worse, look for information or knowledge that is already available. To avoid this, we must make the first lesson a kind of “thinking”: taking time regularly to take stock of what we know and what we may not know.
Lesson 3. Build your strategy based on the information you have
The mistakes mentioned above can sometimes be related to our desire to follow one strategy without questioning it. However, as Edgar Morin pointed out in Methodone of the rays of human intelligence lies in “the ability to enrich, develop and modify strategy on the basis of information received and experience gained.”
Lesson 4
However, you won’t start Sudoku at the highest level. This is the best way to give up and lose the opportunity to learn how to play. In fact, this is a game that requires a lot of humility and knowledge of your level.
Above all, don’t be afraid of making mistakes; rather, be sure that they are the key to your learning and improving your strategies. As the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard reminded us in Formation of scientific spirit“Psychologically, there is no truth without a corrected error.”
In addition, you will see that the higher the difficulty level of a Sudoku game, the less information you will have on the board. This does not mean that initial knowledge is less important. Rather, it shows us that the more you can relatively appreciate the importance of existing knowledge in order to cope with your ignorance, the better you will be able to cope with complex problems.
Lesson 5. Be prudent and strict to avoid escalating mistakes.
Let us add prudence and severity to humility. Sometimes it seems that everything is going well for the player, and then an obstacle appears: he placed two identical numbers on the same line. This fatal mistake, which did not prevent him from moving forward, forces him to reconsider his game or even change everything.
At this point in the game, don’t give up. And in strategic matters, avoid escalating commitment, that is, maintaining the same behavior until a decision is made that leads to failure. It also shows us that the sequence of successes can sometimes be illusory. An obstacle, sometimes too late, may stand in your way of strategy.
Strategy is not just a game of Sudoku
While Sudoku can develop strategic thinking, it goes without saying that life is not a game. Moreover, it is too serious to offer a sufficient analogy with the strategy of organizations.
However, if we had to learn the last lesson, we would simply say: hold on! As Gaston Bachelard brilliantly wrote in conclusion Formation of scientific spirit“The harder the work, the more instructive it is.”
Source: Hiper Textual
