How do you guide your choices with frameworks and models?

A framework or model is fundamentally a 'map of the territory', not the territory itself. And like a map, they enable us to navigate and make sense of situations that occur complex, complicated and uncertain to us. When choosing a decision-making framework, look for one congruent with the circumstances and outcome of the decision.

Decision models also provide a helpful vehicle to support collaboration in decision making - the dynamic of a group of stakeholders participating in a decision shifts from 'each person against the other' (a competition or conflict social process) to 'us working together on the model' (a co-operative social process). The model can become a representation of the common purpose

An example of a model to simply a complex issue is clear hold build. Clear : simply dealing with the issues presenting now and tackling them to allow you move to Hold : This where the changes made in clear are consolidated this could be resources , processes or new frameworks. This leads to build. Build : The opportunity to grow, evolve and progress forward having cleared the major issues and consolidated new practice. It’s a widely adopted model by military and law enforcement because of its simplicity in language for wide understanding by workforce.

While frameworks and models help simplify the problem at hand, they can also hide the nuances of the problems, and by blindingly following them, the solution might fail to recognize all the scenarios, especially the boundary conditions. For example, most problems would never fall cleanly into one of the four quadrants of any 2x2 framework. If one only focuses on one quadrant and proceeds with a "prescription", there is a risk of ignoring other corner conditions. Secondly, all models have limitations, and a practitioner must understand them before applying them blindly. I always encourage distilling the problem into first principles rather than somehow trying to force-fit it into a framework.

When choosing a decision framework or model, follow the Decision Thinking principle 'Process before Content' and align on the framework before moving into other aspects of the decision. Pick a framework/s that is requisite (sufficient in form and function) to the decision to ensure conservation of resources and reduction of risk.

In any problem-solving, the aim should be to solve the problem at hand, and not somehow apply a given framework because it is a new management fad, or it looks cool! To that end, it should be seen more like a carpenter's toolbox than a blind belief in a given framework, come what may! One should know these models, but be very thoughtful about which one to apply and when.