---
id: "framework-enc-questions"
type: "framework"
source_timestamps: ["§ The Framework"]
source_url: "https://hbr.org/2026/05/what-are-your-companys-ai-nightmares"
source_title: "What Are Your Company's AI Nightmares?"
tags: ["risk-management", "agile", "questions"]
related: ["concept-ethical-nightmare-challenge", "action-run-enc-pilot"]
steps: ["What are the ethical nightmares of your organization (or department/project) as they pertain to AI?", "What resources will you build to avoid those nightmares?", "How will you train your people to use those resources effectively?"]
sources: ["governance"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-governance"
originDay: 7
articleStem: "hbr-cl-82-ai-nightmares"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/05/what-are-your-companys-ai-nightmares"
sourceTitle: "What Are Your Company’s AI Nightmares?"
---
# The Ethical Nightmare Challenge Framework (Three Questions)

A highly portable, **three-question** framework designed to rapidly identify and mitigate AI risks at *any* level of an organization — board, C-suite, department, or individual project. It replaces the values-to-policy pipeline of [[framework-standard-rai-model]] with an outcome-oriented, resource-building approach.

**The three questions:**
1. **What are the ethical nightmares** of your organization (or department / project) as they pertain to AI?
2. **What resources will you build** to avoid those nightmares?
3. **How will you train your people** to use those resources effectively?

The portability is the design win: the same three questions scale from enterprise strategy down to a single project. Executed by [[concept-enc-teams]] via the rapid pilot in [[action-run-enc-pilot]]; grounds the concept [[concept-ethical-nightmare-challenge]].

**Open thread:** Question 2's "resources" is left deliberately abstract in the source — see [[question-resource-building-mechanics]].

**Enrichment note:** *Strongly supported.* Virtue Consultants' public ENC page lists these exact three questions, and Blackman's LinkedIn post uses the same framing, underscoring simplicity and immediate actionability. In the DataCamp podcast he adds that ENC teams work through a *seven-step method* underneath these three questions, and that the questions can be posed at any organizational level.