What's Your Problem?: To Solve Your Toughest Problems, Change the Problems You Solve by Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg, ISBN:633697223 - problem solving via re-framing

Excerpts

Part One: Solve the Right Problem

Introduction: What’s Your Problem?

ARE YOU SOLVING THE RIGHT PROBLEMS?

What if we could get better at solving the right problems?

This book is about how to do that. Its purpose is to upgrade the world’s ability to solve problems. It does this by sharing a very specific skill called “reframing the problem,” or “reframing” in short.

THE SLOW ELEVATOR PROBLEM

tenants are complaining about the elevator. It’s old and slow

First of all, notice how this problem isn’t presented to you neutrally. Like most of the problems we encounter in the real world, someone has already framed it for you: the problem is that the elevator is slow.

much more elegant solution: put up mirrors next to the elevator. This simple measure has proved effective in reducing complaints*

A BETTER PROBLEM TO SOLVE

sometimes, to solve a hard problem, you have to stop looking for solutions to it

Combining innovation, problem solving, and asking the right questions, reframing is relevant no matter what you do

through my work, I have come to believe that reframing is the single biggest missing tool in our cognitive toolbox

THE PROBLEM WITH PROBLEM SOLVING

Reframing is a fundamental thinking skill

it frightens me to consider how many mistakes are made every day because smart, talented people keep solving the wrong problems.

The book’s central framework is the rapid reframing method, a simple, proven approach you can use to tackle problems in almost any context

the method is designed to be used quickly, as part of a busy everyday work environment: few of us can afford to take a slow approach to our problems

the book is written for immediate application: as you move through it, chapter by chapter, you can start using the method right away to tackle your own problems

The book’s website, www.howtoreframe.com, also offers a more in-depth research primer, useful if you want to understand the scientific evidence behind reframing

Finally, I want to introduce the reframing canvas. The canvas provides an overview of the method’s key steps*

On the next page, you can see a high-level version of the canvas

Chapter 1. Reframing Explained

BEYOND ANALYSIS

reframing is different from analyzing a problem

Being good at analysis is about being precise, methodical, detail-oriented, and good with numbers.

Reframing, in comparison, is a higher-level activity

Being good at reframing is not necessarily about the details. It is more about seeing the big picture and having the ability to consider situations from multiple perspectives

Reframing is not limited to the start of the process, nor should it be done independent of the work of analyzing and solving the problem

I’ll share one of the most powerful examples I’ve found

AMERICA’S SHELTER DOG PROBLEM

Despite the impressive efforts of shelters and rescue groups, the shortage of pet adopters has persisted for decades

Within the last few years, two small organizations have found new ways to address the issue

One of those is BarkBox, a New York–based startup that I have taught reframing to.

We realized that the adoption issue was partially an access problem. Shelters rely heavily on the internet to showcase their dogs. However, their websites can be hard to find, and because the industry has so little money, the sites are rarely optimized for viewing on mobile devices. That was a problem I thought we could fix fairly easily

The result, modeled on dating apps for humans, was a playful app called BarkBuddy

Launched with the tagline “Find fluffy singles in your area,”

in an important sense, the team was still working within the original framing of the problem: How do we get more dogs adopted?

A DIFFERENT APPROACH: SHELTER INTERVENTION PROGRAMS

Lori Weise is the executive director of Downtown Dog Rescue in Los Angeles and one of the pioneers behind the shelter intervention program.

it works to keep the dogs with their first family so they never enter the shelter system in the first place.

30 percent of the dogs that enter a shelter are “owner surrenders,” dogs deliberately relinquished by their owners

75 percent of owners said that they wanted to keep their dog

“Owner surrenders” is not a people problem. By and large, it is a poverty problem

As Lori found, the intervention program wasn’t just economically viable: it was actually more cost-effective than the group’s other activities

EXPLORING VERSUS BREAKING THE FRAME

The stories also show how there are two different ways of reframing a problem—call it exploring versus breaking the frame

EXPLORING THE FRAME IS WHEN YOU DELVE DEEPER INTO THE ORIGINAL PROBLEM STATEMENT

It is similar to analyzing the problem, but with the added element that you keep an eye out for overlooked aspects of the situation that might make a difference. This is what the BarkBox team did

BREAKING THE FRAME IS WHEN YOU STEP AWAY COMPLETELY FROM THE INITIAL FRAMING OF THE PROBLEM. Lori’s program broke the frame*

breaking the frame is more important, because if you don’t master it, you will get trapped by the initial framing of the problem

TECHNICAL VERSUS MENTAL BREAKTHROUGHS

There is a second, more subtle difference between the two stories. The BarkBuddy story reads like a typical Silicon Valley tale

Dartmouth professor Ron Adner calls this “the wide lens,” meaning that for an innovation to succeed, a supporting ecosystem of technology and collaboration partners must already be in place.*

Lori’s invention had absolutely nothing to do with new technology, nor did it depend on having a large population previously trained in a new behavior

What was stopping us from coming up with the two solutions earlier than we did? BarkBuddy couldn’t have been built much before it was.

But Lori’s shelter intervention program? Theoretically, we could have come up with that twenty or perhaps even forty years ago

solving tough problems is not always about the details, or about being a particularly systematic thinker. It can equally be about interpretation and sense-making; about seeing what is already there but rethinking what it means

here are five specific benefits you’ll gain from reading this book

1. YOU WILL AVOID SOLVING THE WRONG PROBLEMS

Action bias is generally a good thing: you don’t want to get stuck in endless deliberation. But it carries the danger that people will charge ahead without fully understanding the problem they are trying to solve, or without considering whether they’re taking aim at the right problem in the first place

2. YOU WILL FIND INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS

Specifically, many people approach problem diagnosis by asking: What is the real problem? Guided by that question, they dig deep into the details, looking to find the “root cause” of the problem.

the very idea that a single “root cause” exists can be misleading. Problems typically have multiple causes and can be addressed in many ways.

Reframing is not about finding the real problem; it’s about finding a better problem to solve

3. YOU WILL MAKE BETTER DECISIONS

Research has shown that one of the most powerful things you can do when solving problems is to generate multiple options to choose from. The Ohio State University professor Paul C. Nutt, a leading scholar in the field, found that people make bad decisions more than half the time when they consider only one real option:* Should I do an MBA or not?* Should we invest in this project or not?*

there is a catch: the options you consider have to be genuinely different

4. YOU WILL BROADEN YOUR CAREER OPTIONS

5. YOU WILL HELP CREATE A HEALTHIER SOCIETY

Solving conflicts in a sustainable way requires people to find common ground with their adversaries—and that often starts by figuring out what problems people are trying to solve, rather than fighting over solutions.

Part Two: How to Reframe

Chapter 2. Getting Ready to Reframe

THE PROCESS

People with real jobs generally don’t have that luxury. When pressed for time, most of us opt to charge ahead, hoping that we’ll be capable of cleaning up any resulting messes later

we create more problems for ourselves down the road, which in turn makes time even more scarce

Here’s a better way to think about problem framing.

Reframing is a loop off this path: a brief, deliberate redirection that temporarily shifts people’s focus to the higher-level question of how the problem is framed.

This reframing loop is repeated throughout the problem-solving journey, with multiple breaks during your forward movement

STEP 1—FRAME

STEP 2—REFRAME

The five nested strategies can help you find these alternative framings of the problem. Depending on the situation, you may explore some, all, or none of these: Look outside the frame. What are we missing?* Rethink the goal. Is there a better objective to pursue?* Examine bright spots. Where is the problem not?* Look in the mirror. What is my/our role in creating this problem?* Take their perspective. What is their problem?*

STEP 3—MOVE FORWARD

This closes the loop and switches you back into action mode

validate the framing of your problem through real-world testing

WHAT TOOLS DO I NEED FOR REFRAMING?

WHO SHOULD BE INVOLVED?

usually you should get other people involved as quickly as possible. Sharing your problem with others—especially people who are different from you—provides an extremely powerful shortcut to new perspectives

If you start small, I recommend working in groups of three rather than two. A three-person group allows one person to listen and observe while the other two talk.

WHEN SHOULD I USE THE PROCESS?

modify the reframing process to fit the size of the problem

At one end of the reframing spectrum, there’s what you might call improvised reframing.

At the other end of the spectrum is structured reframing, situations in which you can apply the process methodically

HOW LONG SHOULD IT TAKE?

Once you’ve gotten some practice, spending just five to fifteen minutes on the middle part (the actual reframing) often will be sufficient

The MIT professor Hal Gregersen, a fellow problem-solving scholar, advocates for an exercise called “question bursts,” in which he gives people a total of two minutes to explain their problem, followed by four minutes of group questioning

I generally recommend multiple short rounds of reframing rather than prolonged sessions

DOES THE ORDER OF THE STRATEGIES MATTER?

The big problem with starting with the stakeholder analysis is that you can get trapped in trying to take the perspective of the wrong group of people.

innovation often comes not from studying your customers but from studying people who aren’t your customers

Dive into the stakeholders only once you are fairly sure you are looking at the right people

when it comes to reframing, I have become cautious of relying too much on formulaic questions

Ultimately, questioning is important because it reflects a spirit of curiosity

Adhere too rigidly to a standard way of asking questions, and you risk missing out on the power of that mindset

AN INVITATION getting ready to reframe*

I recommend trying to apply the method as you go

HOW TO SELECT YOUR PROBLEMS

so I suggest the following approach

Pick two problems

Pick problems from different areas

Pick problems that aren’t too basic

Instead, I suggest you pick people-related problems

I also suggest picking problems that you feel less comfortable with, or that you might even hesitate to face.

Situations you don’t handle well

Difficult relationships

Managing yourself

Chapter 3. Frame the Problem

FIRST, FRAME THE PROBLEM

What problem are we trying to solve?

Create a short problem statement, ideally by writing down the problem as a full sentence: “The problem is that …”

Draw up a stakeholder map next to the statement that lists the people who are involved in the problem

Write it down fast.  The problem statement isn’t intended to be a perfect description of the issue

Use full sentences.

WHAT’S YOUR PROBLEM TYPE?

In the 1960s, about a decade after the field of creativity research was founded, the influential educator Jacob Getzels made a key observation. He noted that the problems we’re trained on in school are often quite different from the ones we encounter in real life.*

presented problems

In the first jobs we get, presented problems are common

problems increasingly appear in three other forms, each of which presents special challenges: * An ill-defined mess or pain point* A goal we don’t know how to reach* A solution someone fell in love with*

To master the art of problem diagnosis—Getzels talked about the idea of problem finding—it’s helpful to understand the three types in more depth

PROBLEM TYPE 1: AN ILL-DEFINED MESS OR PAIN POINT

Often, the cause of the pain is unclear

The phenomenon occurs with workplace problems too. For example, when people say “Our culture is the problem,” it can reliably be interpreted as “We have no clue what the problem is.”

Pain points often cause people to jump to solutions without pausing to consider what’s going on

PROBLEM TYPE 2: A GOAL WE DON’T KNOW HOW TO REACH

A classic business example is the so-called growth gap: the leadership team has set a target of twenty million in revenue, but regular sales will get us only to seventeen million. How on earth do we generate another three million in revenue?

When you are facing a pain point, you at least have some kind of starting point to explore. Goals don’t necessarily have that

In a problem-solving context, goal-driven problems are first and foremost characterized by a need for opportunity identification.

PROBLEM TYPE 3: SOMEONE FELL IN LOVE WITH A SOLUTION

Once you start looking, you’ll find that the solution-first dynamic is everywhere

Those scenarios can be particularly problematic, because a bad solution can do more than just waste time and money. It can also do active harm.

In another popular variation, the solution is disguised as a problem

REVIEW THE PROBLEM

Before applying any specific reframing strategies, it’s a good practice to start with a general review of the problem statement

Below, I have outlined some questions that can help you do that

1. IS THE STATEMENT TRUE?

Is the elevator actually slow?

2. ARE THERE SIMPLE SELF-IMPOSED LIMITATIONS?

who said the money had to come from TV2’s coffers? He really just needed a bit of cash to start the project. Could that be found elsewhere?

3. IS A SOLUTION “BAKED INTO” THE PROBLEM FRAMING?

4. IS THE PROBLEM CLEAR?

This statement is not actually a problem. It’s a goal written as a problem

A “problem” statement like this typically means that the team has to shift their perspective from their problem to identifying a problem that clients care about—such as, what makes it attractive for new clients to sign up?

5. WITH WHOM IS THE PROBLEM LOCATED?

presence or absence of words like we, me, or they—words that locate the problem

6. ARE THERE STRONG EMOTIONS?

always dig into emotionally charged words. Words like randomly

suggest that you’ll struggle to solve the problem on a logical or factual level alone.

7. ARE THERE FALSE TRADE-OFFS?

Poorly framed trade-offs are classic pitfalls for decision makers. The presence of multiple options creates the illusion of completeness and freedom of choice, even as the options presented may leave out much better alternatives.*

simply assumed to be “natural” either-or trade-offs that everyone is facing. Do you want high quality or low cost?

The problem-solving scholar Roger Martin and others have documented that creative thinkers tend to push back on such trade-offs.

Here’s the story of how one of the most impressive problem solvers I’ve met dealt with a false trade-off.

FEEDING THE HIPSTERS AT THE ROYAL PALMS

start a similar venture, The Royal Palms Shuffleboard Club, in Brooklyn’s hipster-rich Gowanus neighborhood. Right away they faced a difficult choice: Should they serve food on the premises?

we started brainstorming on a different problem: How can we get the benefits of serving food without the hassle that comes with it?

in the right-hand corner of the club, you’ll see something unusual: an opening into an adjacent garage that Ashley and Jonathan had built. In that garage, one of New York’s ubiquitous food trucks is parked every night, feeding the hipsters.

A FINAL NOTE: SAVE THE DETAILS FOR LATER

Chapter 4. Look Outside the Frame

A QUICK CHALLENGE

THE NEW YORK–LE HAVRE PROBLEM

Everything within the frame is carefully scrutinized. Everything outside the frame, however, receives zero attention. In fact, because the framing process is largely subconscious—researchers have used the term “automatic”—we usually aren’t even aware that we’re not seeing the full picture.

To understand why people get it wrong, it’s necessary to realize that there is more at play than the unconscious framing effect. Significantly, with the New York–Le Havre problem, there are also highly “visible” problems to ponder inside the frame

Because there are some evident issues to grapple with inside the frame, we happily jump into thinking about those, while forgetting to ask if there are parts of the problem that we’re not paying attention to at all.

THE STRATEGY: LOOK OUTSIDE THE FRAME BEFORE YOU DIVE IN

mentally “zoom out

expert designers

Doctors

Experts in operations science

systems thinking

1. LOOK BEYOND YOUR OWN EXPERTISE

scientists often framed a problem to match whatever techniques they were most proficient in

LETTING GO OF YOUR HAMMER

2. LOOK TO PRIOR EVENTS

, she explains that she got into a shouting match with her teacher.

Did you remember to eat breakfast this morning?”*

3. LOOK FOR HIDDEN INFLUENCES

Just because two things tend to occur together doesn’t necessarily mean that one actually causes the other. Often, there is a third, underlying factor that’s the real culprit

WHAT DID THE MARSHMALLOW TEST REALLY SHOW?

The result: It wasn’t really about willpower. It was about money.

Pierre was asked to look into the interview process at his company, a major bank

many of the candidates the bank interviewed ultimately chose not to work there

found a hidden factor: the interviews with high rejection rates all took place in the bank’s old office building

4. LOOK FOR NONOBVIOUS ASPECTS OF THE SITUATION

a search for causal factors.

THE LIGHT BULB PROBLEM

There are three light bulbs in the basement of your new house, but for some reason, the switches are located on the ground floor—and they aren’t labeled.

there is also a way to solve it in one trip

feel the two unlit light bulbs. One of them will be warm to the touch

FRAMES ALLOW US TO SEE

AND FRAMES BLIND US

A contributing factor is something called functional fixedness

What objects are involved in the situation? What other properties do they have? Can they be used in nontraditional ways?*

you work as a parking attendant at Disneyland

every week, about four hundred sunbaked families, dazed by the experience and burdened by overstimulated kids in mouse ears, manage to forget where they left their car. How could this problem be solved?

Disney staff simply write down the times that each row of the lot fills up in the morning. As long as customers know when they arrived, Disney staff can find their cars