Framing is your Friend: The Transparency of Intentions
“This is when you might hear me say, "framing is your friend," and part of what I encourage people to do is to be transparent about their intentions behind the request.
Sometimes, this might feel vulnerable, especially if the leader takes ownership of something that hasn't gone well in the past. “
I'm lucky to meet all sorts of people in my work. Right now, about once a month, I get to work with groups across the U.S. who are part of a global beverage company. They're hard workers stocking shelves, driving trucks, and moving hundreds of cases on and off pallets. They work in every possible place: urban areas, little towns, rural country stores. You know, salt of the earth.
In our Leading Through Times of Change classes, we practice skills for helping our teams navigate change, and boy-o, when we thought we were preparing for a merger for this company, instead, we got a global pandemic with change happening just about every hour! Our collaboration was timely. But you don't need a pandemic (or any other huge event) to deal with chronic change: if you've got a new boss, a new product, a new marketing strategy, a new weather condition, a new anything, you're dealing with change.
Amid this change, there are people: messy, funny, annoying, unpredictable, dependable (or not), and always interesting. If you're a team leader or manager, you can always navigate and influence change, no matter what.
In our classes, individual leaders struggle to influence some of their teams and coworkers to adopt a change and buy into something new. Sometimes, they trust you a lot, and sometimes, they have too little trust. We work specifically on skills such as active listening, delivering empathy, and using facilitative questions. These are subtle but powerful, underutilized skills when we feel the pressure of the speed of our businesses. We also learn and practice ways of asking for behavioral change, and we do this in a way that balances our need for both accountability and respect (it's possible!).
As we work through live scenarios, I often listen to someone's strategy and behavior request, and it's missing something. I sense that if they say it the way they are practicing it, chances are the conversation will not go well. They might be clear on the content of the exchange (what they want), but they might not be clear on the context (what's surrounding this situation).
One thing we are trying to do in these conversations is to be direct and specific, with respect, and minimize defensiveness. This is often challenging, especially when people are already stressed, worried, or bothered by the change. And, if the relationship between the two people is new or isn't that great, that makes it even harder.
This is when you might hear me say, "framing is your friend," and part of what I encourage people to do is to be transparent about their intentions behind the request. Sometimes, this might feel vulnerable, especially if the leader takes ownership of something that hasn't gone well in the past. Sometimes, it requires thinking about the win-win or connecting what you ask to the larger organization's mission, vision, or values.
Framing is proactively providing the following types of information and specificity:
Here's why I'm talking to you about this…
Here's why this conversation is essential to me…
Here's my hope or goal for the outcome of this conversation…
Sometimes, it might be evident to you what your intention is, but it's not to the other person. Or, it would be helpful to remind them. In the beverage company, we discussed common goals, created win-win scenarios, and shared why a new change was necessary.
How might you use framing in your next courageous conversation?
