What Can the Election Teach Us About Framing?

"If there's one thing this election has shown us, it's that this country lacks leadership."

A big call from a friend of mine earlier this week.

But there's merit in his argument. Former Prime Minister Sir John Key reflected that Labour "didn't give voters much of a vision" and that "philosophically, the campaign felt like there were two leaders of the opposition".

I think his assessment is worth more than two cents. And it has everything to do with the power of framing.

What is framing?

It's one of the four key skills I teach people in my Leading by Facilitation workshops.

Think of a jigsaw puzzle. What do you do first? You turn the pieces over, find the four corners, and complete the outside.

Everything else depends on the outside being complete.

It constrains our field of view and gives us a defined focus. The other pieces of the puzzle only start making sense once the outside is in place.

That's framing.

"Why are we here"?

When I teach people how to frame, I first teach them this simple question. "Why are we here?"

It sounds easy, but people struggle to answer it.

You can simply use that one question to help you frame. Or you can dive a layer deeper; each word of the question has a meaning:

Why - Purpose (Why this?)

Are - Presence - (Why now?)

We - People (Who's here and why?)

Here? - Place (Why here?)

Framing is never finished

Many leaders and managers forget to frame. Does that sound like you? I suspect you may be thinking you don't have enough time or that the frame is already understood.

Often, as leaders, you're immersed in the world of vision and strategy. This means you suffer from what economists call the "curse of knowledge". You know the answer to "Why are we here?" so deeply that you forget that others haven't seen, heard or experienced the same things as you.

But framing is never finished.

We must do it continually. Every discussion. Every meeting. Every phone call.

As my mentor Matt Church says "Forget to frame, and you'll feel the pain." The Labour Party is certainly feeling the pain this week.