To Solve a Tough Problem, Reframe It

Weekly Business Insights from Top Ten Business Magazines | Week 332

Extractive summaries and key takeaways from the articles curated from TOP TEN BUSINESS MAGAZINES to promote informed business decision-making | Since September 2017 | Week 332 | January 19-25, 2024

Strategy & Business Model | 1

To Solve a Tough Problem, Reframe It

By Julia Binder and Michael D. Watkins | Harvard Business Review Magazine | January–February 2024 Issue

Extractive Summary of the Article | Listen

When business leaders confront complex problems, there’s a powerful impulse to dive right into “solving” mode: You gather a team and then identify potential solutions. That’s fine for challenges you’ve faced before or when proven methods yield good results. But what happens when a new type of problem arises or aspects of a familiar one shift substantially? Or if you’re not exactly sure what the problem is?

When the authors work with organizations and teams, they encourage them to spend more time up front on problem-framing, a process for understanding and defining a problem. Exploring frames is like looking at a scene through various camera lenses while adjusting your angle, aperture, and focus. A wide-angle lens will give you a very different photo from that taken with a telephoto lens, and shifting your angle and depth of focus yields distinct images. Effective problem-framing is similar: Looking at a problem from a variety of perspectives lets you uncover new insights and generate fresh ideas.

As with all essential processes, it helps to have a methodology and a road map. This article introduces the E5 approach to problem-framing—expand, examine, empathize, elevate, and envision—and offers tools that enable leaders to fully explore the problem space.

Phase 1: Expand.  In the first phase, set aside preconceptions and open your mind. The authors recommend using a tool called frame-storming, which encourages a comprehensive exploration of an issue and its nuances. It is a neglected precursor to brainstorming, which typically focuses on generating many different answers for an already framed challenge. Frame-storming helps teams identify assumptions and blind spots, mitigating the risk of pursuing inadequate or biased solutions. The goal is to spark innovation and creativity as people dig into.  A good way to prompt the team to consider alternative scenarios is by asking “What if…?” and “How might we…?” questions.

Phase 2: Examine.  If the expand phase is about identifying all the facets of a problem, this one is about diving deep to identify root causes. The team investigates the issue thoroughly, peeling back the layers to understand underlying drivers and systemic contributors.  A useful tool for doing this is the iceberg model, which guides the team through layers of causation: surface-level events, the behavioral patterns that drive them, underlying systematic structures, and established mental models.

Phase 3: Empathize.  In this phase, the focus is on the stakeholders—employees, customers, clients, investors, supply chain partners, and other parties—who are most central to and affected by the problem under investigation. The core objective is to understand how they perceive the issue: what they think and feel, how they’re acting, and what they want.  The symbolic frame highlights the importance of symbols, rituals, stories, and shared values in shaping group identity and culture.

Phase 5: Envision.  In this phase, you transition from framing the problem to actively imagining and designing solutions. This involves synthesizing the insights gained from earlier phases and crafting a shared vision of the desired future state.  Here the authors recommend using a technique known as backcasting. First, clearly define your desired goal.  Next, reverse engineer the path to achieving your goal. Outline key milestones required over both the short term and the long term. For each one, pinpoint specific interventions, strategies, and initiatives that will propel you closer to your goal. These may encompass changes in processes, policies, technologies, and behaviors. Synthesize the activities into a sequenced, chronological, prioritized road map or action plan, and allocate the resources, including time, budget, and personnel, necessary to implement your plan. Finally, monitor progress toward your goal and be prepared to adjust the plan in response to outcomes, feedback, or changing circumstances. 

3 key takeaways from the article

1. When business leaders confront complex problems, there’s a powerful impulse to dive right into “solving” mode.  That’s fine for challenges you’ve faced before or when proven methods yield good results. But what happens when a new type of problem arises or aspects of a familiar one shift substantially? Or if you’re not exactly sure what the problem is?
2. A better way is spend more time up front on problem-framing, a process for understanding and defining a problem. Exploring frames is like looking at a scene through various camera lenses while adjusting your angle, aperture, and focus. A wide-angle lens will give you a very different photo from that taken with a telephoto lens, and shifting your angle and depth of focus yields distinct images. Effective problem-framing is similar: Looking at a problem from a variety of perspectives lets you uncover new insights and generate fresh ideas.
3. As with all essential processes, it helps to have a methodology and a road map. The authors introduce the E5 approach to problem-framing—expand, examine, empathize, elevate, and envision—and offers tools that enable leaders to fully explore the problem space.

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Topics:  Strategy, Decision-making, Problem Solving