Earlier this year the Harvard Business Review published an essay arguing that companies are too quick to problem-solve.  A better approach, the authors suggest, is to step back and first look at the problem from various angles.  Doing so can lead to a better set of questions, or a redefinition of the problem itself.  This is the process of problem-framing rather than problem-solving.  They write:

Exploring frames is like looking at a scene through various camera lenses while adjusting your angle, aperture, and focus. A wide-angle lens will give you a very different photo from that taken with a telephoto lens, and shifting your angle and depth of focus yields distinct images. Effective problem-framing is similar: Looking at a problem from a variety of perspectives lets you uncover new insights and generate fresh ideas.

My favorite phrase they propose is “frame-storming,” which they juxtapose to brainstorming.  Brainstorming can produce lots of ideas to solve a problem.  Frame-storming encourages lots of ways to identify the underlying challenges. 

An example from church life could be around the perennial challenge of recruiting volunteers.  A brainstorming session among leaders might produce a few new ways of filling existing program slots.  A frame-storming session would ask deeper questions about why people aren’t drawn to give their energy toward a current program and how underlying goals of spiritual formation and transformation could happen in new forms.  I think CMC does a pretty good job of frame-storming, but it’s helpful to have the language and, um, framework to better name what we’re doing.

Frame-storming is a good reminder that getting too caught up in solving a problem can be part of the problem.  It can apply well beyond the congregation and boardroom.

Joel