In surveys of 106 C-suite executives representing 91 private- and
public-sector companies from 17 countries, the author found that a full
85% agreed that their organizations were bad at problem diagnosis, and
87% agreed that this flaw carried significant costs. Fewer than one in
10 said they were unaffected by the issue. What they struggle with, it
turns out, is not solving problems but figuring out what the problems
are. And creative solutions nearly always come from an alternative
explanation for—or a reframing of—your problem. The point of reframing
is not to find the “real” problem but, rather, to see if there is a
better problem to solve. The author outlines seven practices for
effective reframing: (1) Establish legitimacy. (2) Bring outsiders into
the discussion. (3) Get people’s definitions in writing. (4) Ask what’s
missing. (5) Consider multiple categories. (6) Analyze positive
exceptions. (7) Question the objective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]