Oleg Braginsky: Troubleshooting Is A Solution To Unsolvable Problems

2023 Author: Amber Richards | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-22 00:24

Off-gender question

MC: Among your clients are Sela, the W hotel chain, the Food Retail Group holding, which includes Bibliotek and Dve Palochki restaurants. It is clear that they already know what troubleshooting is. Tell us what is the essence of this new profession for the market

Oleg Braginsky: In short, this is a solution to unsolvable problems. It sounds a little strange, but it is. The name "Trouble Shooter" appeared by accident. I never called myself that, but I always had different nick names. The Germans nicknamed me "maestro" because I was blindly typing on the keyboard. The Chinese have come up with the nickname "cobra" (my mail starts with obra). And the Americans began to call me a troubleshooter, for whom I wrote several antiviruses. In my case, everything grew out of IT, because I started out as a programmer.

From your experience: who is more effective in troubleshooting?

Gender doesn't matter. More important is how we use our brain. Women have better intuition, they are very creative. After all, intuition is a tool that turns on when you cannot accurately understand the entire path of solving a problem. There is a leap in consciousness, you jump over several steps. The most unexpected and interesting decisions are born when analytics connects with emotions. Women are traditionally strong not only in emotions, but also in diplomacy and peacemaking. When men's battles come into a clinch, a calm, balanced lady will not succumb to infection and will withstand whims, manipulations and threats. Those women who were able to master the basics of analytical approaches have no equal. They are capable of solving problems of any complexity.

Women who have mastered the basics of analytical approaches are second to none

Why can't ordinary specialists cope with these problems?

Many of my clients are surrounded by the coolest experts: the head of the security service, logistician, PR specialist, GR and HR specialists. During meetings, they exchange information, complementing each other. Now imagine that all these people are already sitting in your head. For 20 years I have changed 13 professions. If you have worked in the place of each person on the board, you can quickly see the problem from different angles. And this is what makes the troubleshooter different.

That is, it solves multilevel tasks?

Not necessary at all. On average, a troubleshooter makes 100 projects a year, in which serious concepts are born for the world's largest corporations. And when some kid with a turnover of 10 million dollars turns to you, you, based on the accumulated experience, can already offhand determine what is worth paying attention to.

200 Important Skills

In what areas are troubleshooters most often needed?

It all depends on your role. Actor Anatoly Papanov once said: “The damned wolf from“Well, wait!” gnawed at my creative biography. " Since I am a programmer myself, I am often called to solve problems in the field of Big Data. Generally speaking, 40% are IT problems. Another 40% are managerial tasks. The remaining 20% are very different.

What management problems does the troubleshooter solve?

For example, a company has spent a lot of time and money developing new technology. And kept it all a secret. Suddenly, a similar competitor's product appears on sale. An urgent decision is needed, because the technique enters the market later and is inferior in a number of parameters. Trouble shooter will find a way to cope with this difficulty without leaving the table. Or another situation. The company is on the verge of bankruptcy. They need $ 100 million to restore, but no bank will give them that kind of money. The question is: how to get these funds out of your business? During the meeting, the troubleshooter will offer a non-standard option that will help you find money.

Is it possible to learn how to troubleshoot?

Of course. A year ago we launched a school of troubleshooters (braginsky.gorodnewyork.ru). We identified 200 skills that we want to develop in students. Every week, I describe the skills in an article that I post online.

And what are the main skills you develop in school?

System skills: speed reading and touch typing (you need to be able to type quickly), etiquette and style, business games, competency assessment, leadership and motivation. And professional skills: business valuation, negotiations and debates, strategy and crisis management. Speed reading is an essential skill. I read at least one book every day. The Trouble Shooter needs more information and should receive it as quickly as possible. The ability to quickly calculate in the head is an equally important skill. Most people cannot multiply two two-digit numbers. But after ten hours of training with us, they are already operating with seven-digit numbers. A smartphone cannot do this, it will not have enough characters on the screen. And people can.

Why multiply seven-digit numbers in your head?

Trouble shooters are sought after by wealthy companies with serious budgets. They invite you to solve very difficult problems in the shortest possible time. Recently I encountered a situation in which I had to multiply several parameters in my head over nine dimensions, where there were real estate objects with control points, people, qualifications, etc. It turned out to be a table with ten billion values. At first they did not believe me, but when they counted it, it happened. In five minutes I recalculated the dimension, found the coefficients that could be changed, and proposed a solution. Often people cannot solve a problem because they do not see the dimension and do not understand the complexity. A quick count allows you to estimate the approximate final result.

Speed reading is an essential skill. I read at least one book every day.

Fear of tough decisions

How often do your tips fail?

In two cases out of three. And this happens for the following reasons. First, they don't tell me everything, and there are political, technological or psychological reasons for that. Secondly, the decision is so tough that they are afraid to implement it.

Is it a must to study at your school to master troubleshooting skills?

This can be done remotely. Many people learn from our webinars. Every Tuesday we post podcasts on YouTube - half an hour of videos. You can read articles on the Internet, and then come to our practice.

Where should you start?

Trouble shooting is a story that there is a difficult task, but there is no need to despair. Everyone who has gone to a psychologist knows that these specialists immediately try to formalize our problems. As soon as we formalize the problem, we often already know the answer ourselves. Therefore, my first advice is to learn how to formalize the problem. Second, you cannot become an expert in all areas. We must master them gradually. It's hard to be the best IT guy among techies, but among lawyers, you can.

And the last thing: you need to learn to feel people, understand whether they will implement your ideas or not. Most of us hesitate. You have to be able to instill confidence in people. Show how to do it. If you need to build a call center, be the first operator. Your client is selling electronics - become an in-store consultant. Less theory, more practice.

Photo: from the archive of the press services