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Part I

Part I: Discover Your Mad Skills Mindset

Chapter 1: What Does a Winning Case Solution Look Like?

Video: Good to Winning: How to Turn a Solid Case Solution into a Podium-Winning One

One of the most common questions I get when coaching case teams is: What does a winning solution actually look like?

Most teams can build something decent. It is logical. It contains analysis. It has a recommendation. It may even contain some good ideas. But decent does not necessarily win.

Over 20 years of coaching very successful case-solving teams, I have seen that the difference is rarely about having the fanciest idea. Winning teams are better at turning their thinking into a clear, structured, supported, realistic, and implementable solution. That requires a process.

The Winning Solution

A winning solution should be:

  1. Clear: The judges understand the problem, the recommendation, and why you selected it. 
  2. Insightful: You do more than repeat information from the case. You explain what the information means.
  3. Supported: Your recommendation is supported by analysis, evidence, and logic.
  4. Realistic: The organisation could actually pursue your solution.
  5. Feasible: The organisation has, or can reasonably acquire, the capabilities and resources required.
  6. Implementable: You explain how the organisation can make the recommendation happen.
  7. Measurable: You explain how the organisation will know whether it has succeeded.
  8. Persuasively communicated: The team communicates the solution with confidence, energy, and credibility.

Your goal is not simply to answer the case. Your goal is to make the judges think:

“That is the problem. That is the best solution. And I can see how they would actually make it happen.”

The Winning Solution Test

Before you finalise your presentation, ask:

  • Can the judges understand it?

  • Can the judges believe it?

  • Can the organisation execute it?

  • Can the organisation measure it?

If the answer is NO to any of these questions, your solution is not finished.

Chapter 2: Coachability: The Foundation of Your Mad Skills

Video: Feedback as Fuel: The Coachability Mindset That Built 180+ Podium Teams

Case-solving competitions are designed to expose weaknesses.

You will make mistakes. Your analysis will sometimes be wrong. Your recommendation will sometimes have holes. A judge will ask the question you hoped nobody would ask. A coach will tell you that the argument you spent two hours building won’t work. That is not a failure of the process. THAT IS THE PROCESS.

One of the most important characteristics of successful case-solving competitors is coachability. Coachability means being willing to:

  •  be wrong;
  •  hear uncomfortable feedback;
  • consider another perspective;
  •  change your approach;
  •  test the new approach;
  • reflect on what happened; and try again.

PRACTICE à GET FEEDBACK à APPLY THE FEEDBACK à REFLECT à PRACTICE AGAIN

The objective isn’t to avoid mistakes. The objective is to recover from them faster and learn from them better.

Discover Your Mad Skills Principle

Feedback is fuel.

Do not collect feedback to hear it. Use it.

The Four Ps

Coachability becomes much more useful when it becomes operational. My foundation for effective case teams is the Four Ps:

  • Preparation
    • Read and understand the case.
    • Come prepared to contribute.
    • Do your individual thinking before the team discussion whenever possible.
    • Pre-resolve solo, then collide ideas.
  • Participation
    • Every team member should contribute.
    • A team of four with three silent members is not a four-person team.
    • Different perspectives are one of the reasons teams exist.
  • Presence
    • Be fully present.
    • Case solving requires attention. You cannot contribute your best thinking if you are distracted, disengaged, or mentally somewhere else.
  • Promptness
    • Deadlines matter.

In competition, being late can affect the entire team.

Respect the clock.

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