CB.16:1 - Problem frame

Use this pattern when a community needs to contribute to a decision that affects its practice, but individual comments do not adequately carry the shared concern. A profession is invited only after consequential design choices have been made. A provider asks a network for its view on a proposed change. Several local groups want to make one request while preserving different interests.

The governed object is a collective contribution to a specified receiving decision: the position, whom it represents, the authority to carry it, and the returned response. This is one branch of collective action. CB.13 constructs the decision mandate when needed; this pattern develops and carries the substantive position within it.

First useful result: participants can identify the receiving decision, the useful contribution they seek, the positions and uncertainties that matter, and who may present which position on whose behalf.

What changes in practice: a spokesperson can offer a grounded, authorised contribution and bring back an actionable answer. Members can distinguish what they asked for, what was agreed and what remains unresolved.

An individual’s sufficiently useful expert answer can remain an individual contribution through CB.5. A community’s internal allocation belongs to its existing decision arrangement. Use this pattern when representation of a shared position and its return from another decision are material to the result.