C.36.RP:1 - Problem frame

Use this when changing participants, tools or questions puts a shared way of working out of reach, or when a useful discovery needs to become available to other participants. A team may still receive correct answers while losing the ability to apply the method under changed conditions. A researcher may discover a construction that colleagues cannot yet use. An ensemble may preserve a recording while newcomers cannot vary the phrase.

Begin with the work participants need to perform or develop. Follow one available result back to the contributions that make it usable, and locate the contribution they cannot obtain. Restore access, arrange a capable contributor, support acquisition or develop a better way, according to the difficulty found.

The first result is a means of obtaining and using the missing contribution. When the assignment includes carrying out the change, continue through its use in the receiving work. That use can expose a further difficulty or open a new question.

This pattern concerns the availability and renewal of shared methods. A shared repertoire is the collection of ways participants can obtain and use in their work, including ways learned from predecessors or made accessible through other agents. People, AI agents and collective agents can contribute. Descriptions, examples, tools and working relationships help make those methods available.

Use an already adequate method directly when its means of use remain available. Improving one person’s performance within a stable arrangement can use the relevant development method. Use C.36 for a broader question about cultural transmission, selection or change.