With our thoughts we make the
world.” --Buddha
What is the problem frame you are
always turning to? Think about how you
or your group are doing mental and emotional work on your problems. You may not be going far enough to reexamine
the problem territory or the solutions that are hiding there. Moving beyond the first-order solution takes
a thinking leap to levels above where the problem can then be transformed into
something more solvable. This means
trying on other frames to open up new ways of thinking for new outcomes.
The future by reframing
This is the process that
invention has followed for millennia – from the Ur-invention of fire to the
space program. It is part of the definition
of culture to build on its own past – but then to depart in novel ways from
that mindset to nonlinear breakthroughs that couldn’t be arrived at by moving
in a straight line from the present to the future. This is the main contribution of creativity
to disrupt mainstream cultural ways of thinking to open up new fields of
thought by means of innovative concepts.
However, these mind leaps don’t occur outside the culture itself, but
must have a sizeable overlap with the ways and means of culture, the way life
is lived and the values that drive it.
This is why transition from idea
to execution is a difficult struggle, and why so few make the journey to become
part of the cultural record.
Those that stray too far off-base
fall into the category of ideas that might have worked—except that they had
some feature that disqualified them from general acceptance. An example is the Segway, which works fine on
factory or post office floors, but fails the test of being an extension of the
home that cars fulfill. Rather than
replacing walking, it fills a dedicated niche more as a tool than as a
disruptive technology.
Two problem types
Problems in business or personal life alike seem to have a double
nature: Most are what we’re used to, the
straight-line, incremental problem: It’s
often phrased as a need question rather than as a challenge: We need more visitors, more profits, more
trade, more leverage against competitors, more media exposure, better
reputation-building or brand enhancement.
The matching solutions then become quite obvious, taking the form of
higher sales and profits, better networking, which will grow reputation and market
share. Improve expansion and exposure. Increase
range and opportunity, which will then circle back to “more sales.” If only it were that simple. Hanging out at this first level of challenge
can’t be a creative response to the need to grow and prosper. It seems obvious. But few companies show the ability to move
beyond this low-level problem statement.
The other kind is the Breakthrough, transformed problem—the second-order
solution.
On the personal level, a
high-school-level question posed by a 15-year-old, it might be phrased as “I need
to somehow become more popular in order to be happier.” Remember thinking this
way? Would adults think this way beyond
high school? Maybe. First, what does “popular” mean, and how can
we unpack this profitably to engender answers that can be acted on? If it means attracting like-minded people you
feel kindred bonds with, then like attracts like and this shouldn’t be a
permanent problem. Is there a
communication block or gap? That’s a
different problem, isn’t it? Or does
popular denote having currency with people unlike yourself – a different
challenge – which calls for approach by that point of view, not your own. OK, that’s doable – but is that what you’re
after? Maybe you just need a single link
into a group – analyze that to see who and how it can be achieved. Or are you just less than happy for other
reasons? Returning to the defining term, “popular” contains a wealth of
potentials for your life that you can begin to discover immediately. And they extend far beyond your peer group
approval. The second-order question
might be reconstructed as “In what ways can I discover the breadth and
greatness of my potential?”
Try another logic
These examples introduce the Breakthrough
Idea, using transformation of the problem into a different equation, using a
logic different from the original problem logic. Most first-order problem statements are far
from ideal: labor-intensive: without any
outcome guarantee – “on spec” solutions (If we build it, they will come – and
if we build it bigger, even more will come).
But what is usually needed are high-concept, low-labor, high-return
ideas that leverage existing scarce resources for limited manpower able to
execute with whatever small time-spans can be spared from regular routines.
Here are some examples of
second-order problem framing:
1. Longitude:
John Harrison was the 18th-century genius who made longitude
measurable by inventing a watch that kept precise time at sea. The three clocks he spent decades perfecting
suddenly took a technology leap on the fourth.
This final iteration become The Watch for navigation to establish
longitude—a centuries-old problem.
Solving that problem with Harrison’s mechanical answer suddenly
increased the scope of seagoing travel and Earth exploration. This man’s motto
might have been “Stop improving, start innovating.”
2. Specialty
drinks: The original sports drink Gatorade
decided to expand their business not with additional products as extensions of
the brand, but to move in greater depth for serious athletes as the core clientele. This strategy focused development in a
smaller innovation footprint, saving development costs, but also managing
marketing within a tighter, well-known user base.
3. Security:
A major supermarket chain in the Northeast increased the penalty for shoplifting,
with a marked reduction in in-store crime.
Rather than the first-order, straight-line solution to “improve
surveillance in stores,” using creative problem-solving facilitation, they hit
upon criminal trespass arrests as the second-order solution. When this reputation quickly circulated among
shoplifters, less security was actually required.*
4. El
Al: TSA in the US could take a lesson
from the Israeli air security force.
They focus on detecting terrorists, not weapons (or anything that could
conceivably be construed as a weapon, like a cheese knife). The Israelis’ record of success indicates
that this problem frame works far better in prechecking passenger backgrounds,
not weapons searchers. Aren’t we trying
to stop bombers, not just detect bombs?
5. Education: The Los Angeles Library System recently
redefined library not as “a place that collects books to be read and checked
out” but as a GED High-School diploma academy for many thousands who never
graduated. Locating this service within
the libraries underused spaces halted county cost-cutting, because the system
libraries became measureable producers of graduation numbers that city funders could
claim credit for. By looking at
production, then translating to education goals, a new identity was created to
preserve the traditional book value as well.
6. Bag
time: Houston Airport had baggage
delivery time lags resulting in passengers having to spend too many minutes
hanging out at the carousel. Airport
management initially went for the first-order question, “How to accelerate bag
delivery,” which would be the logical shortcut to a solution. But after studying the unloading and
loading-up picture, they reserved the question in an intriguing and effective
way, by asking not “How can we speed up delivery,” but “How can we slow down the
passengers” walking from arrival terminals.
The solution implementation involved moving terminals further out,
increasing walking time to bagging six times, which then resulted in on-time
delivery.
Reframing is a powerful tool to
begin to see problems in an entirely new way—one that invites for consideration
a totally new set of ideas.
__
*Supermarkets General case from
Steve Grossman, www.CruisingtoAha.com
