Framing - A Critical Business and Life Skill

Introduction

This week’s MSLD632 Blog centers on the Shoemaker and Russo discussion of “frame blindness” (Hoch & Kunreuther, 2001, p. 139) and avoiding “frame traps”. Before diving into this discussion it would be prudent to understand the context of the word frame as used in the text. Hoch & Kunreuther, 2001 define frame as “a stable, coherent cognitive structure that organizes and simplifies the complex reality that a manager operates in.” (p. 134). In short, a manager’s perspective of reality. So when Shoemaker and Russo define frame blindness as being unaware of our own frames, failure to recognize other people’s frames, use outdated frames or use inappropriate frames a mental image is provided of a picture in a frame. Three recent examples of personal frame blindness will be addressed and what was done to mitigate this blindness.

Understanding the Frames of Others

                     “The process of examining the frames of different stakeholders should make you more aware of frame over-lap and conflict” (Hoch & Kunreuther, 2001, p. 142).  A perfect example of this occurred in early 2014 when the Earned Value Measurement (EVM) database was presented to us by our Finance Department as a tool to help us manage our projects. What we failed to see initially was that our frame of how the EVM database could help and Finances frame of how it would help were very different. Over time it was evident that the EVM database was not going to make our jobs easier, but instead make Finance’s job easier. Easier for them to see exactly were the budgeted funds were being spent in a project, if the project was on track and meeting deadlines, where the risks were and what the mitigation plan would be if the risks came into fruition.

                  Because we didn’t understand Finance’s frame when we were given the EVM database, we populated the database with too much information – so much so that it crippled our agility and made updating the database too time consuming. All that can be said about our first experience with EVM is ‘lessoned learned’. The next aircraft project is getting underway soon and our databases will be populated at a much more ‘zoomed-out’ level to avoid the pitfalls of the first experience.

Appreciate Emerging Frames

          “Frames do not stay the same. Every field experiences innovation.” ” (Hoch & Kunreuther, 2001, p. 146). One innovation that has taken my field by storm (the technical writing field) is a specification called S1000D. The truth of the matter is this specification is very complicated and if you were to print the specification out it would be well over 3,000 pages. Unfortunately we did not have anyone with significant S1000D experience in our department and there was no money in the budget to hire a consulting firm to provide a frame for us to compare against. Instead, we had to muddle our way through thousands of pages of the specification and attempt to frame the specification in a way we believed it should be framed. 

           Had a we hired some people with S1000D experience or hired a consulting firm that could have framed the specification in a manner that would have saved a lot of our time. What should have taken three months took over twelve and put us behind in development. Fortunately the rules of S1000D when examined on an individual basis are very simple. It is the mass quantity of rules (most of which are optional) that can quickly overwhelm and individual.

           

Look for Ways to Align Frames

                     A perfect example of this opportunity is taking our S1000D frame that we just became familiar with and aligning it to another emerging technology, the interactive fault isolation manual (Spotlight®). Spotlight® is owned by a company in Canada, Casebank, and when they unveiled their database and authoring tools to us they might as well have been speaking French. The database and authoring tools used for S1000D when compared to Spotlight’s database and authoring tools have a much different look and feel. We just spent 12 months getting acclimated to S1000D and now we are getting hit with finding a way to import the data we author in S1000D and importing it into Spotlight®. So it appeared we were being asked to take apples and make orange juice.

We struggled for months, having a small breakthrough every now and then until just recently when the proverbial lightbulb came on. Suddenly the relationships between S1000D and Spotlight® became clear and the frames aligned. Now as we author in S1000D it is easy to visualize how and where the S1000D pieces align in Spotlight. Not sure we could have done anything different to get to this result sooner. We are however creating a S1000D to Spotlight® authoring style guide so that we will be able to share how to author in S1000D so the frames between S1000D and Spotlight® align and the pieces between both are easy to identify.

Summary

         Lessons learned about framing and how to avoid the framing traps have been a valuable experience that will have a lasting effect. The effort to recognize the frames of others and to align those frames will build relationships that can have significantly positive impact in our organization. This week has really been an eye-opening experience!

Reference:

Hoch, S. J., & Kunreuther, H. C. (2001). Wharton on making decisions. (1st edition.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc.