alexander

Leadership Process One: Reframing Problems 9
process took about seven months. The Tyrians, of course,
tried to stop this engineering marvel. Their fleet tried to
destroy the work, and it almost succeeded, but Alexander’s
engineers built specialized towers and mobile battlements
that protected the workers while they proceeded. He also
borrowed small fleets to help guard the workers. When the
causeway was complete, he was able to lay siege to the fortified
island as though it were a city on land. It fell
quickly—in about two weeks. The Tyrians were mostly
slaughtered for their ill treatment of Alexander and their
resistance. The Persian fleet was rendered ineffective. Alexander
marched triumphantly on to Egypt.
Inferences and Allegations
Alexander looked at an island and saw, instead, land. He
reconceived his problem so completely as to render pregnable
what was impregnable. He reframed his problem from
one of naval to one of earthly proportions. While such
minds as his are rare, emulating them need not be.
Leading Lessons
As a leader, you are in the problem-reframing business. It
is your job to create the reality to which the organization
will devote its resources. You create this reality by identifying
or creating other problems that are not unsolvable, so
as to avoid deploying resources on problems that have no
solution. In the previous illustration, Alexander immobilized
the Persian fleet by taking away all its sources of fresh