Framing: identifying and solving problems
“Ideas come from wherever they come from.” Andy Hines
Before launching yourself into a future-changing effort, frame it. Make sure you’re working on the
right problem: solving the wrong problem solves nothing. And make sure that it can be handled: do
you and the organization have the capacity to change it?
The time you invest in framing pays off with huge returns: you will know your audience and you will
solve the right problem. The process is:
1. Adjust attitudes so that your people have positive expectations about the future. Know your
biases and recognize that self-delusion and wishful thinking are barriers to strategic
forecasting. Use whole-brain processes that embrace complexity in addition to linear
thinking. Recognize that different changes occur at different rates and will have different
impacts at different times.
2. Know the audience. Learn as much as possible about the organization. Find out what’s
keeping its people awake at night.
3. Understand the rationale and purpose. Explore the future to influence the present. Seek to
improve the mental model of the decision makers. Balance exploration (longer term) and
exploitation (now). Explore whether the problem as presented is really the problem to be
solved: sometimes the stated problem (“Improve the furniture supply system.”) is actually
another problem (“Make the warehouse the store.”).
4. Set objectives, and define them in terms that can be measured. Focus on outcomes, not
outputs. Work in multiple time horizons that consider different perspectives and viewpoints,
including evolution over time. Weave “inside and now” with “outside and then;” i.e., look at
the present as well as the future.
5. Select the team and make strategic foresight as immersive and interactive as possible. As a
source of new learning, include people who do not agree.
6. Create a strategic work environment that is conducive to open and uninhibited thinking.
Encourage experiments and prototypes to get a sense for all of the options.
Your audience includes anyone who will be affected by the effort, but pay special attention to those
who will be directly involved in it. What is their approach to work and the future? Are they likely to
support or push against the change effort?