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PROBLEM FRAMING
There are many people who can solve the problems that are given to them. There are many fewer
who can define them in the first place, i.e. spot the most important challenges that they, as leaders, should
be focusing on. One manager of a giant technology company put it this way: there are really two kinds of
leaders. One type makes the tough calls -- the hard choices that come to him. The second type of leader
goes out and determines if these are the real alternatives in the first place. Problem Framing emphasizes
leadership in this second sense of the term.
This is a course on big picture analytics. It shows how to frame complex strategy and
management problems with an action, future oriented outlook. The course does this by teaching
frameworks, concepts, and distinctions used by management consulting firms, think tanks, government,
the military, and leading companies. Scenario methods, environmental scanning, alternative futures, red
teaming, trend analysis, net assessment, multiframing, and business war gaming are applied to real cases.
The likely success of efforts aimed at solving a problem, then, will almost always depend on how
well the problem is framed. Thus the name of the course, Problem Framing. Whether you are thinking
of deciding on a course of action yourself, e.g. for your career, or of managing a team to solve a
problem, the likelihood of a good outcome depends on the way the problem is formulated and how
clearly it is communicated to others.
Problem Framing, MGT 506, is designed to transcend any single function or discipline of
management, to help you imaginatively frame questions and consider multiple perspectiveswhat I
call multiframing. One needs to learn how to approach problems from many perspectives and to
combine various approaches in order to develop innovative solutions.
Students in Problem Framing will learn new conceptual approaches as well as practical skills.
Specifically, you will learn how to:
Readings
Problem Frames can influence every stage of problem solving outside of our awareness
In class exercise demonstrating the impact of problem frames
September 6: Trends
Trends: what they are, secular vs. cyclic, and other distinctions
S-shaped curves
The two biggest mistakes in analyzing trends
Reading
Why Environmental Scanning Works Except When You Need It, HBS BH104
Readings:
"How to Seize the Opportunities When Megatrends Collide," strategy + business, 2015
Case: What Business is Zara In? (HBS W15431) half of the class
Is Tiffanys Losing Its Sparkle? (HBS 316-0405-1) other half of the class
Readings:
Paul Bracken, Assumption Based Planning
Ronald Cohen, The Second Bounce of the Ball, Turning Risk into Opportunity, (London, 2007), pp. 95-
123
Red teaming is the technique of thinking like the enemy. Here, the enemy may be customers, the
bureaucracy, or any of a wide range of other possibilities.
Paul Bracken, How to Build a Warning System Managing Strategic Surprise (Cambridge
University Press)
Readings:
Skim the following two reports (they're quite long) to get a sense of format and scope in using
scenarios:
Politics plays an important role in problem framing, in the large and the small. In the large they bear on
negotiating power, as in the terms the Spanish government could secure compared to, say, Greece. In
the small, it led to sharpening the generational divide and many other social tensions. Spain, again, is a
good example.
Spain: Can the House Resist the Storm? (HBS 9-709-021) the political reaction to the financial crisis
in Spain serves as an introduction to Brexit issues in Europe.
We are all hardwired to focus on certain information and think in certain ways. This class explores the
impact of these tendencies on problem framing.
Reading:
Student teams (UK, Germany, Greece, EU, Poland, ECB, large companies, etc.) will conduct a seminar
game on the Brexit shock)