Framing the problem is one of the most critical steps in solving a problem. If you don’t think about it in the right way, then you’ll likely end up with the wrong solution. It’s interesting to think of the implications of a recent Stanford study that showed how powerful metaphors are in framing the problem:

They asked 1,482 students to read one of two reports about a crime in a particular city and to suggest solutions. In the first report, crime was described as a “wild beast preying on the city.” The second report was identical, except it described crime as a “virus infecting the city.”

After reading the first report, 75% of participants suggested law enforcement and punishment as the solution, including building more prisons and bringing in the military when necessary. Only 25% suggested social or economic reforms. After reading the second report, 56% suggested enforcement and punishment, and 44% suggested social reforms. Researchers found that if the metaphor appeared early in the report, and thus framed the content, it swayed opinion. Placed at the end, it had no effect.

Oftentimes in business, people use sports metaphors to explain how to accomplish things in a simple way. I wonder what sort of impact different sports metaphors have on decision making since sports have a winner and loser. You can’t think of “win-win” solutions if everything is seen in only a “win-lose” framework. I admit that in a battle for market share it has to be win-lose, but I would try to reject that premise since market share may not be the best measurement of success.

Oftentimes in business, a winner doesn’t mean there is necessarily a loser. Amazon CloudDrive is a new service that benefits music listeners and doesn’t hurt the record labels practically speaking. Facebook may have begun to refer a lot of traffic to websites, but Google is sending more people than ever to websites as well. Escaping the win-lose dynamic, Microsoft saw Facebook’s rise as additive to its search business and crafted a partnership to access the data.

In addition, some problems don’t have to have winners unlike sports games. The need for sustainable, renewable power sources has a lot of people trying to solve the problem but it doesn’t mean someone is going to actually win just because others drop out and lose.

For innovators, entrepreneurs, and category leaders succeeding in business seems less like a competition with others and more about doing your own best. A better set of metaphors may involve high score games and personal best sports — or possibly even comparisons to making movies or books. In these cases, different people have different roles in producing something that gets judged by financial and cultural impact. The products aren’t fighting for market share but rather just trying to be the best they can be on their own. 

There is probably no metaphor more pervasive in business than “thinking outside of the box.” It seems to me that the biggest problem for coming up with the best solutions to most problems is just how that box is framed.