Changing One’s Perspective on a Specific Life Condition: Reframing
The Interlude is not only filled with Awe and Flow. It is also filled with reflective, expository thinking. However, it is important to note that when we are engaged in expository thinking, it is easy to get caught in a specific frame or reference point. This is especially the case when we are anxious and when our Interlude has not fully provided us with safety. A state called “Einstellung” sets in when we are anxious. This is a form of cognition (thinking) that is highly rigid and narrow in scope. As a micro-coach, we can help to “break up” this rigid set through the use of something called Reframing.
First engaged by a group of psychotherapists located in Palo Alto, California, who were strongly influenced by the revolutionary work of Gregory Bateson, by the work on hypnosis by Milton Erikson, and by findings in neuroscience, the processes of reframing come in many different forms (Bandler and Grinder, 1083). Reframing specifically encourages a shift from first to second-order conceptualizations of a problem. It yields valuable insights (second-order learning), creative solutions, or even recognition that a problem does not in fact exist. A leader reframes an issue with the assistance of a coach by taking one of three approaches:
- Defining the goals associated with a specific problem in a new way.
- Describing the current context within which the problem exists in a new way.
- Identifying a new set of strategies for solving the problem.
Each of these approaches can be taken in a Reflective Interlude that is safe and that allows for the mistakes associated with re-thinking, re-conceiving and re-purposing. The Interlude is one that is conducive to one or more of these three reframing approaches.
In one magazine article, organizational coaching is described as a process that helps “managers, entrepreneurs and just plain folks . . . define and achieve their goals—career, personal or, most often, both.” (Hamilton, 1996) While we would suggest that most coaches do much more than this, this statement does identify an important coaching model, namely, reflection on and then planning for the implementation of goals. In many instances, individuals and organizations tend to work hard to accomplish a specific, elusive goal (first order), rather than reconsidering whether or not this goal, in its present form, is actually important or worthwhile. This is where reframing can add new perspectives. Problems inevitably involve a discrepancy between the current and desired states of a system. Many problems can be at least partially solved by reconsidering the importance, relevance, or the very nature of the desired state.
We turn, by way of example, to a personnel problem facing Susan, who served as manager in a medium-sized high-tech firm. She is not satisfied with the work of her subordinate, Ralph. Susan firmly believes that Ralph needs to change his behavior, yet she also knows that she is sometimes perceived as a hard-driving manager who sets goals that are too high for her managers. Is she being accused of pushing too hard because she is a female? Perhaps her hard-driving reputation is nothing more than her commitment to the company. Or is she really setting goals too high? If she is being unrealistic in setting goals, then her problem with Ralph (and perhaps with other managers) might best be solved not by finding new ways of motivating her managers or by introducing new technologies (first-order change), but by helping her managers to re-examine their priorities and potentially re-adjust their production goals according to valid strategic imperatives (second-order change).
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