As anyone whose worked in an office or interacted with government knows, complex, wicked problems almost always have a “political” dimension that cannot be ignored. Mike is a specialist at helping clients understand their options and formulate a strategy to deal with the politics head on.

Whether you are dealing with disputes, bid partnering decisions, or the threat of thermonuclear war, you need to understand what everybody is trying to get from the dispute, and see what your options are and what will happen if you can’t agree.

With a background of over 25 years working in analysis and consultancy, Mike has helped individuals, large corporations, universities and the government to understand and form strategies – which can be hard and uncompromising if appropriate, soft, conciliatory and accommodating if appropriate, and imaginative, novel and outside the box if appropriate.

Once formulated, the strategies are tested using a Decision Workshop. This is an intense, interactive, yet fun workshop that forecasts the impact of the strategy using structured role play - the only fully disclosed and evidence based method that can reliably forecast political outcomes.

Mike has worked with Z/Yen on workshops looking at the politics around the Greek debt crisis. He also helped to develop “The Warm Game”, a fun yet insightful look at international co-operation on climate change, played as part of the original London Accord work in 2007 and more recently on Sailing Barge Lady Daphne.

Read more on strategic planning.

Read Mike Young's response to the Confidence Accounting proposal - Making Financial Reform Happen - Confidence Accounting.

Xueyi Jiang came to London in 2010, after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Communication & Electronic Engineering from the University of Northumbria for which she was awarded First Class Honors. Xueyi joined Z/Yen as an intern in June 2011 while studying for an MSc in Financial Computing at University College London. As part of her dissertation, Xueyi has performed a detailed analysis looking at the extent to which ExtZy, Z/Yen’s prediction market game, has proved to be predictive. After graduating from UCL with Distinction, she joined Z/Yen full-time in February 2012.

Growing up in China, Xueyi spent most of her spare time playing the piano and folk dancing. Xueyi’s new hobby is to collect all kinds of mugs while travelling. She hopes to have a shelf full of mugs in the future!