Reframing

Reframing came from family therapy and was developed in NLP and cognitive approaches

Paul Watzlawick, John Weakland and Richard Fisch described reframing in their 1974 book Change, written from their work at the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto. Their insight was that people often stay stuck because of how they define a problem, not because of the problem itself.

Richard Bandler and John Grinder developed the technique further in NLP, in their book Reframing. Cognitive approaches use a related idea, cognitive restructuring. In coaching, these traditions meet in a simple aim: helping someone see more options than their first frame allowed.

Three kinds of reframe leaders use most

• ✦Meaning reframe. Same event, different interpretation. "My manager rewrote my report" becomes "my manager is showing me what the board needs to see."
• ✦Context reframe. A trait that causes trouble here is a strength elsewhere. "I am too cautious" becomes "my caution is exactly what a compliance review needs."
• ✦Perspective reframe. The view from someone else's seat. "How would this look to the customer, or to the person who has to implement it?"

Reframing in a coaching conversation: a hypothetical example

Imagine a newly appointed HR director in a family-owned group who says, "The founder never listens to me." A coach does not argue with that. Instead, the coach might ask: "When has he listened? What was different about that conversation?"

The director realises the founder listened when she brought a short story from the shop floor, not a slide deck. The frame shifts from "he does not listen" to "he listens to a certain kind of evidence." That opens a practical next step, explored further in the guide on how to influence senior stakeholders.

The coach did not supply the reframe. This is why executive coaches rarely give advice: a reframe you find yourself is one you believe. As an NLP Master Practitioner, I use these questions often in NLP coaching.

A reframe is not spin

A good reframe must still be true. If it ignores the facts, people sense it immediately and trust falls. Leaders who reframe their team's bad news too quickly ("look at the opportunity!") can sound as though they are dismissing real concerns.

Reframing also should not be used to avoid accountability. "It was a learning experience" is only a reframe if the learning actually changes what happens next. When a frame comes from a thinking trap, such as catastrophising, it helps to test the thought first; the entry on cognitive distortions explains how.