One of the most cru­cial skills for suc­cess and hap­pi­ness is the abil­ity to change our per­spec­tive on cir­cum­stances, peo­ple, sit­u­a­tions, behav­iours etc…

The tech­ni­cal term for this is “refram­ing”.

Refram­ing is about chang­ing the mean­ing OR the con­text of a pre­sent­ing prob­lem or behav­iour. It is used ALL THE TIME. In sell­ing, refram­ing is called han­dling objec­tions! Reframe your­self to regain moti­va­tion, or change per­spec­tive on a chal­leng­ing sit­u­a­tion. Reframe clients in coach­ing. The list is endless.

How Does It Work?

So, how do you reframe, how do you change the mean­ing or con­text in sales, in man­age­ment, edu­ca­tion or in coach­ing in order to change how you or oth­ers under­stand the world around them?

The Polish-American sci­en­tist and philoso­pher Alfred Korzyb­ski coined the phrase “The Map is not the ter­ri­tory”, which indi­cates that all mean­ing is con­text depen­dant. Let me write that again: all mean­ing is con­text depen­dant. If a cer­tain word has a cer­tain mean­ing, the mean­ing depends on the con­text in which it appears.

This is how they make dic­tio­nar­ies! By check­ing in what con­text the word appears in all the books in print. All mean­ing is depen­dant upon the con­text in which is appears.

What does this mean? All con­tent is refram­able by chang­ing the con­text, if we change the struc­ture of what we are talk­ing about, we can reframe vir­tu­ally anything.

By the way, if you are in the busi­ness of advis­ing or coach­ing peo­ple, this  is a fun­da­men­tal truth to keep in mind: what your client tells you (the con­tent) does not mat­ter as much as how they tell you (the struc­ture). Adver­tis­ers and mar­keters have known and utilised this for decades!

In sales, the abil­ity to reframe means mak­ing a dif­fer­ence to your turnover. What’s one of the most com­mon objec­tion in sales? “It’s too expen­sive”. A few years back, l’Oreal cre­ated what has become one of the most famous reframes in the world of mar­ket­ing with the tagline: “Because You’re Worth It”.

Dif­fer­ent Types Of Reframes

There are many ways to reframe, but in this arti­cle, we’re look­ing at 2 major reframes: Con­text and Mean­ing Reframes.

What do we do when we reframe? We shift our think­ing from the level we are at, to a higher log­i­cal level; it is like han­dling a para­dox. You are think­ing out­side of the box the per­son in front of you is think­ing. Your abil­ity to think OUTSIDE OF THE BOX is what is going to make a dif­fer­ence in your results.

Con­text Reframe

It is best used when some­one tells you “I am too …” or “It’s too…” (as in “it’s too expensive”)

You ask your­self “what’s another con­text for this behav­iour where the mean­ing will be dif­fer­ent or the per­son will respond dif­fer­ently to the same behaviour.”

An exam­ple you have prob­a­bly heard before. “I do not like this food!” “Well, some peo­ple do not have any­thing to eat!”

Another exam­ple: “It’s too expen­sive.” “Expen­sive? It’s only $2 per day! Less than the price of a cup of coffee!”

You can shift the con­text by shift­ing
– loca­tion
– time back and forth
– cir­cum­stances of the fam­ily
– shift to busi­ness or rela­tion­ship
– age
– resources, what skills do you have now
– inten­tion of the behav­iour or con­se­quences of the behav­iour
etc…

Ask your­self: What is another con­text for this behav­iour that will shift the mean­ing of this behav­iour?

Mean­ing reframe

Best used when some­one tells you “it makes me feel bad”, or “When­ever X hap­pens, I respond Y”

Here, you want to change the content.

Ask your­self: “what else could this behav­iour mean?” “What is another frame that will change its mean­ing?” You change the mean­ing of the behaviour.

An exam­ple: a few years ago, an ad to sell cheap White Tuna went like this “the only Tuna that will not turn pink.”

Another exam­ple from one of my coach­ing clients: “My boss always comes to me when he wants some­one to deal with this most dif­fi­cult cus­tomer who is also the most impor­tant.” “He must trust you so much!”

Ask your­self: “What else could this behav­iour mean?” “What is another frame that will change its mean­ing?” You change the mean­ing of the behaviour.

So now what?

OK, so not, are you ready? Just for fun:

1. Make a list of the most com­mon objec­tions you get in your line of work,

2. Ask your­self the 2 ques­tions above and jot down some pos­si­ble reframes, write as many as come to you, and at least 2.

3. Go ahead and next time you hear the objec­tion, deliver your reframe and see the effect.

Prac­tice and you’ll become a mas­ter at reframing!

Want to know more?

Check out the next train­ing HERE (or copy and paste http://www.themastermindsgroup.eventbrite.com in your browser).

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