Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's research found that Nobel laureates achieved breakthroughs by finding better ways to frame their problems. The ability to reframe challenges is critical for all kinds of leaders.
Here's a reframing process you can use on your own, with others, or have several groups complete simultaneously:
1. Write your challenge in the form of a question:
How to stop tactical work from crowding out time for more strategic
work?
2. Ask "Why?"
Why do you want time for more more strategic work?
and turn the response into a question.
So the answer "I need to develop a strategic plan in 90 days"
becomes, How to develop a strategic plan in 90 days?
3. Repeat step 2, using the most recent question:
Why do you want to develop a strategic plan in 90 days?
"To have a stronger impact on the business planning process."
Which becomes, How to have a stronger impact on the business
planning process?
4. Working from each successive response, repeat this process until
you've asked "Why?" and turned the last response into a question
five times.
5. Now return to the original challenge statement (Step 1)
How to stop tactical tasks from crowding out time for more strategic
work?
And ask "What's stopping you?"
What's stopping you from stopping tactical tasks from crowding
out time for more strategic work?
And turn the response into a question. So the answer, "The skill set
on my team isn't what it should be," becomes
How to make the skill set on my team what it should be?
6. Repeat step 5, working from each successive response turned into a
question, until you've asked "What's stopping you?" five times.
What's stopping you from making the skill set on your team what
it should be? ....
As you review the questions you (or the different groups) created, which look like a more interesting or promising starting point?
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