Rooted in Adam Smith (The Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1759) and Edmund Burke's phrase (Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790), and developed by Mark Johnson (Moral Imagination, 1993) and, for managers, Patricia Werhane (Moral Imagination and Management Decision-Making, 1999).
Pictures the specific people a decision touches, other framings, and consequences nobody planned for, so ethical issues hidden by a numbers-only view come into sight.
When to reach for it
When a decision looks purely financial or operational but will change people's lives, as with layoffs, product changes, or new policies.
How it runs
- Name the dominant frame of the decision.
- Replace abstractions with specific people affected.
- Imagine each person's day before and after.
- Reframe the decision from their position.
- List the consequences and options this surfaces.
Where it sits in SOLVE eX
Go to the source
- The Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1759
- Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790
- Moral Imagination: Implications of Cognitive Science for Ethics, University of Chicago Press, 1993
- Moral Imagination and Management Decision-Making, Oxford University Press, 1999