Frames can easily distort a picture of a scenario that we
are faced with. “These distortions can
cause communication problems within a company” and can complicate
situations. (Hoch, Kunreuther, and
Gunther, 2001) These mental traps make
it difficult to see the real picture when trying to determine a decision. Frame blindness is when we do not even
realize what we are doing and the areas we are missing when analyzing a
situation. Each frame can highlight and
hide different aspects of a situation, making it difficult to see the whole
problem at hand. There are several ways
we can avoid frame traps and frame blindness.
The first step is recognizing that there are frames. Conducting a frame audit is the best solution
for seeing these frames. Surfacing your
frames is a method used that presents the frames in a visual manner. Creating a visual representation to bring out
the frames is very similar to brainstorming and 100 mph thinking. By starting with certain characteristics of a
situation and branching out can help you note areas where you may have
overlooked previously. Paying attention
to the way people frame questions can also help you to reveal hidden frames you
may have missed. Listening and analyzing
these frames can help you to rethink previous frames from the past.
The second step is to identify and change inadequate
frames. Once you have revealed the
frames, changing them and reframing them to better fit your questions will
help. It is important to make sure that
your frame is effective. Does this new
frame get the job done, prompt you to ask the right questions, has the frame
been challenged, it is easily understood, etc.
Asking these questions can help to assess the effectiveness of your
frame. It’s also important to question
your own reference points and understand where your ideas are coming from as
well.
The final step is to master techniques for reframing. This step includes incorporating a variety of
methods to help you reframe. Testing out
multiple different frames can help place yourself in a different environment
and offer a different perspective. In my
current job, an example of this would be having the senior management
understand the difficulties of some of their subordinates. This is something that happens often, where a
newer employee makes a mistake and suddenly it turns into an issue where the
senior management thinks the new employees are incompetent. The reality could simply be a
misunderstanding during training. If senior
management decided to place themselves in the position of the new employees,
they may have a better chance of revealing where issues may be occurring during
the new hire training.
My current company and I could greatly benefit from utilizing the framing toolkit. One of our biggest issues is misunderstanding and miscommunication. We have many managers who all have a different approach to managing the same team. The set up of our team is interesting in that we have a hierarchy of managers overlooking 1 team of a constantly flow of newer employees. Each manager frames issues differently, causing conflict amongst the new employees and other managers. I believe that my team would greatly benefit from first recognizing that frames do exist and that we all our framing things differently. Once we are able to recognize this, I think the flow of communication between each other would improve greatly.
There are many ways to reveal frames and reframe these
instances into situations that are better understood. It is important to understand that framing
greatly influences our decisions, so by understand how to read frames, we can
better manage our teams.
Hoch,
Stephen J., Howard Kunreuther, and Robert E. Gunther. Wharton on Making
Decisions. New York: Wiley, 2001. Print.
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