Reframing Mindsets
How to Be Direct and Explicit When Reframing Others
(2) CommentsIn this series, I’ve been describing the skills required (there are five of them) to reframe a person’s mindset during a change initiative. In this post, I’ll talk about the final skill.
Reframing Skill #5: The Willingness to Confront
For many change facilitators, this final skill is the most difficult part of the reframing process. Being direct and explicit with other people by challenging their way of looking at the world is risky, both personally and professionally. People can become trapped in their existing perspectives and lose their ability to adapt to important changes. Most people tend to believe only what they see, but see only what they believe exists.
Sometimes, the only way to effect movement from the status quo is to “confront” people more
ChangeThinking.net
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Danger? Opportunity? You Decide.
In this series, I’ve been talking about the importance of being able to reframe a person’s mindset during a change initiative to shift how he or she sees and interprets certain things. There are five key reframing skills:
1. Address the “context” as well as the “content” of interpersonal communications.
2. Redefine the other person’s frame of reference (FOR) in a way that sheds positive light on the successful implementation of the change at hand.
3. Reset the person’s priorities.
4. Respond effectively when the other person reacts to the reframing attempt.
5. Confront the person with the real price it takes to achieve success.
I’ll focus on the fourth skill in this post.
Reframing Skill #4: The Ability to Respond Appropriately Based on the Person’s Reaction
The disruptive nature of major change produces a crisis in the sense that the status quo is no longer viable. The Chinese express the concept of crisis with two symbols.
The top symbol represents potential danger, the lower, hidden opportunity. By combining the two, the Chinese position change as a paradox. Observing how people respond to the stress produced by the crisis of change reveals two basic orientations that reflect similar characteristics. more
ChangeThinking.net
©2011 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
How to Redefine a Person’s Frame of Reference and Reset Priorities
In this series, I’m exploring the importance of being able to reframe a person’s mindset during a change initiative to shift how he or she sees and interprets certain things. There are five reframing skills. I will address skills 2 and 3 in this post, and skills 4 and 5 in subsequent posts.
Reframing Skill #2: The Ability to Redefine the Other Person’s Frame of Reference
A person’s frame of reference (FOR) is made up of six components. You can foster a shift in someone’s FOR by applying one or more of them. more
ChangeThinking.net
©2011 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
3 Steps to Communicating a Reframing Message
In my last post, I described the two elements—frame of reference (FOR) and priorities—that make up a person’s mindset. I also listed five skills that practitioners can use to “reframe” a person’s FOR and priorities to shift how that person sees and interprets certain things. Here, and in the next three posts, I’ll describe these skills in more detail.
Reframing Skill #1: Use 3-Step Communication Effectively
Communication between people always occurs at two levels:
- Content Level—The message one person is attempting to convey to another (think of this as a “coded transmission”)
- Context Level—The FOR used by the sender to interpret the message (think of this as “the code book”)
When one person attempts to communicate with another, it is often done without knowing more
ChangeThinking.net
©2011 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
Changing Someone’s Mind—The Basics of Reframing
(3) Comments“The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday’s logic.” — Peter Drucker
An important part of successful change facilitation is the ability to influence others (especially sponsors). Sometimes we only need to explain to them what needs to be done. Much of the time, however, their behaviors and/or mindsets must be carefully reshaped for an initiative to be fully realized.
There is a close interdependency between a person’s mindset and his or her behavior. Each reflects an important component to the change process, yet many practitioners are better prepared to address the behavioral dynamics than the mindset implications. Although successful change facilitators attend to both when attempting to redirect a person’s natural reaction to a situation, this series will focus only on how to encourage new mindsets that support an initiative’s desired outcome. more
ChangeThinking.net
©2011 Conner Partners, Inc.
www.connerpartners.com
