Put it in a frame
I recently bought a picture for my living room. It took me awhile to find what I was looking for and once I did, I was excited to get it framed and placed on the wall. The act of framing that picture ended up being more involved than I anticipated. I hadn’t really thought about all of the options that I’d have to consider. Wood or metal frame, matted or not matted, what color, what size?
The exercise got me thinking about the role of framing in engagement. Much like choosing a frame for my picture, there is a lot to consider. To get what is needed out of our engagement its important to focus on what matters most. This isn’t always an easy task because most of our engagement efforts are part of a larger project or initiative, a ‘bigger picture’. However, focusing so broadly can create complexity and be an obstacle to getting the input that will help move things forward.
In his book Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman [1] talks about our tendency towards narrow framing. As humans we are susceptible to ‘what you see is all there is’ (WYSIATI). If we know this then framing why and what we are engaging on becomes very important. Working with our tendency to frame narrowly, we want to be sure to draw attention to the things that are most relevant without losing the big picture Just like when I was choosing a frame for my picture, I needed to think about what in that picture I wanted to draw attention to and why that part was significant. The more detailed the picture, the more important the frame becomes. A simple frame helps focus the viewer by drawing attention to what is significant in the context of the overall image.
Engagement participants come focused on their own particular needs or area of expertise, the WYSIATI. We can’t expect them to know or think about the details of the larger project. While we need to show there is a bigger picture, we also need to break things down to make the most of the tendency to narrowly focus by articulating what is significant and relevant now in the context of the full image.
Bill Richardson, in his paper Communicating on Purpose: the art of framing [2], noted that framing is all about facilitating shared meaning by shaping how people see the ‘bigger picture’ and where to focus. Like choosing a picture frame, it involves selecting and highlighting one to three aspects of a subject or topic while excluding others. This allows the project team and participants to focus on the common goal or objective of the engagement activity while also having shared meaning about its relationship to the rest of the picture.
I appreciated Melissa Raffoni’s Harvard Business School article [3] about framing when she referred to it as bringing ‘clarity to complexity’. She offered some questions to help guide the exercise of framing that I’ve adapted to the engagement context.
What are trying to achieve through this engagement?
What do we need to learn?
What do the participants need to know about our role and the project overall?
What impact will this project have on the participants?
What benefit will participants get by engaging?
What do we want participants to think, feel and/or do through this engagement activity?
What do we know about the participant’s perspectives about this project?
What other factors might be shaping the participants ideas about the project?
These questions are offered as a stimulus for the act of framing engagement activities. I hope they spark some deliberate conversation for considering what is significant and relevant, help create shared meaning and bring clarity to complexity.
[1] Kahneman, D. Thinking Fast and Slow. Published by Anchor Canada 2013.
[2] Richardson, B. (2010). Communicate on purpose—the art of framing. Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2010—North America, Washington, DC. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.
[3] Raffoni, M. (2005). Framing: Position Your Messages for Maximum Impact: How you can focus employees’ attention where you need it to be focused. Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation