Here’s a real-life example of these five steps in action that took place recently between our friend Mary, a woman in her mid-fifties, and her financial planner, Cheryl. Mary told Cheryl she wanted her retirement savings to be 100% secure. No matter what happened, she wanted a guarantee that her investments would not lose money if the stock market tanked or bonds devalued. Cheryl didn’t like this but was unable to convince Mary with charts and graphs. Whenever Cheryl mentioned any degree of risk, Mary would exclaim that risk was what she didn’t want. So Cheryl listened, and ultimately helped her find some 100% secure government bonds (step 1).
A year later, Mary complained to Cheryl about how poorly her investments had done in a time of skyrocketing stock markets. Cheryl saw that Mary actually had other frames at work than simply avoiding all risk. She used this opportunity to open up the possibility of reframing how Mary could choose to invest differently. Cheryl explained that no risk means no reward. In fact, she said, one thing that was certain was that taking zero risk meant Mary’s savings would inevitably lose money due to low interest rates and inflation. Cheryl asked, “Do you want the certainty of losing about 1% of your total value every year?” (step 2).
In the discussion that followed, she asked Mary to consider the “what if” result if Mary kept her current strategy in place in the years after she stopped work and was no longer contributing to her retirement fund. The certainty of loss, compounded over 20 years, was a “what if” scenario Mary definitely did not want (step 3).
When faced with this stark choice, Mary was confused. She was surprised to discover for the first time that maybe sometimes some risk was acceptable. Suddenly she had a barrage of questions for Cheryl about different kinds of investments – questions that up until her reframing began were of no interest to her at all (step 4).
To Cheryl’s credit, she thoroughly answered Mary’s questions without any attitude, or any hint of “I told you so” (step 5). Mary now enjoys a well-balanced portfolio as she moved from a frame of “no risk equals security” to a frame of “some risk brings rewards.”
Four Ways to Reframe
There are doubtless many different ways of reframing, but psychological researchers have defined four distinct categories which are useful to keep in mind if you are helping someone reframe an issue. You can use the acronym ABET, to remember the four ways to abet someone in the reframing process:
1. Amplify (or Magnify)
2. Bridge (or Connect)
3. Extend
4. Transform
1. Frame amplification/magnification refers to the activation and invigoration of an existing frame of reference so that it overwhelms and replaces the other person’s current frame of reference.
Technique: Substitution. This is the easiest technique for reframing. Use it when your audience seems stuck in one frame of reference regarding the issue at hand, but they have another existing frame of reference that could help them better grasp the issue. Your task is to activate this other frame of reference, then help them “turn up the volume” so that this second frame becomes the dominant one in their mind. It’s like turning up the music speakers in your home to drown out the annoying music that your neighbors might be playing in their backyard.
Example: Don’t Mess with Texas. The government of Texas had a hard time getting its citizens not to litter on the highways. They tried a “Keep Texas Beautiful” campaign that failed abysmally, because of the hyper-individualistic, tough-guy frame that many Texans held about themselves. This gave them the attitude “Nobody tells me what to do!” which was actually triggered by attempts to get them to stop littering! The meme “Don’t Mess with Texas” flipped this attitude around, so that littering was about other people messing with your homeland. This activated the “Proud to be a Texan” frame which already existed in many Texans, but just wasn’t being activated around littering. The government brought the message home with a series of ads showing famous tough Texans like Chuck Norris taking on litterers who dared defile the Lone Star State. One ad showed actor Matthew McConaughey in camouflage gear in a Texas park, armed with a blow gun, shooting a tranquilizer dart into the neck of a littering tourist. The final scene shows a truckload of littering tourists in the back of a pickup truck being dumped across the state line. Littering is thus reframed as disrespectful behavior that only non-Texans would do – and when Texans catch them, well, nobody messes with Texas! This frame, now applied to littering, successfully overpowers the old “Nobody tells me what to do!” frame.
2. Bridging involves connecting two or more congruent but structurally unconnected frames. For example, a concern about protecting the environment, and a concern about citizens’ health and safety.
Technique: Making the Connection. The task here is to reveal to the other person that two of their separate frames in fact overlap. When people realize this, there is often a burst of attention and energy. Why? Because when our frames are better aligned, this creates a sense of integrity. It’s like atomic fusion. When two things you are passionate about fuse, it’s as if you are able to double your enthusiasm for each. Imagine if your favorite actor were to appear in a movie adaptation of your favorite book. You would really want to see it, right? The principle is the same.
Example: Wildlife Crime. Elephant ivory smuggling in Africa is not just a poaching issue. In the past decade, it has become a lucrative business for organized crime and terrorists, as African warlords kill elephants to finance their armies through sales to Asian crime syndicates. As this atrocity has become widespread across the continent, governments are finding that combatting wildlife crime is also a way of combatting terrorists and organized crime. As a result, the issue has received the attention of global leaders as different as Hillary Clinton and Vladimir Putin who might not have been so committed to a wildlife issue alone.
3. Frame extension involves extending the boundaries of an existing frame to incorporate new elements so that the whole frame evolves and expands, like an amoeba engulfing another organism. The challenge with extension is overcoming resistance to incorporating something new. Also one has to deal with skepticism that the revised frame may become diluted, tainted or otherwise weakened by bringing a new element into it. If successful, an extended frame can draw more adherents and create new opportunities, such as political parties that adopt a “Big Tent” approach by reaching out to and including new groups.
Technique: “Absorb and Grow.” Those who attempt this kind of reframing must be able to show the benefits of absorbing the new element, or the dire consequences of refusing to change. To make the extension seem as safe as possible, it is helpful to proceed in a way that can be reversed if it doesn’t work. You can also demonstrate how similar extensions succeeded in the past.
Example: A decade ago the World Bank extended its frame as a development bank to become a “knowledge bank.” The bank’s old business was lending money for development projects; as a knowledge bank, the organization reframed itself as a development partner with expertise and experience in what works and what doesn’t in international development. This allows it to continue to provide valuable advice even as countries such as China, Turkey and Brazil no longer really need its financing.
4. Frame transformation becomes necessary when the existing frames cease to resonate with the person or group’s overall perception of reality (that is, their other frames of reference). In other words, when the old framework appears to be crumbling. Revolutions are perhaps the best example of this. The old regime loses control of the people, rebellion succeeds and a new order is established. The challenge here is that as old frames are crumbling, those most invested in the status quo will either cling to it passionately, or else jump recklessly to any new frame of reference (driven more by desperation than reason). The French Revolution comes to mind as a bad example in politics; Quantum Physics, however, serves as a good example of how a new frame can come to dominate a science.
Technique: Plan for the Revolution. The best time to help someon
e engage in transformational reframing is when major change is unavoidable. If you can help them see clearly what is coming, then they can plan ahead (they will be more capable of reason, less prone to crisis-driven emotion). If you are facilitating transformational reframing, help the others envision “what if” scenarios that are both negative (no change) and positive (with a new frame). It is also important that the new frame being created be congruent with other existing frames, and with the larger belief structures of the audience.
Example: Reframing Africa as the “Third Pole of Global Growth.” One of our clients, the African Development Bank, is working hard to reframe the typical Western mindset that Africa is a continent of poverty, crisis and chaos. Africa is also a land rich in natural resources and human potential, and in the twenty-first century it has the possibility of emerging as a powerful economic force. The Western post-colonial “poor Africa” frame is actually part of what is holding Africa back. The truth is, new opportunity alone is often not enough to make people willing to let go of old frames. However, the global economic crisis of 2008 turned into an extended slump that brought several European nations to the brink of collapse. In desperate conditions like this, people from wealthy Western nations are more willing to forego their old frames and look for a new kind of engagement with Africa. Some investors have looked at the remarkable return on investment ratios that are possible on the continent, and are jumping in. Of course, what this example reveals is that transformational reframing often takes a long time, and a lot of hard work.
In summary, framing and reframing are indispensable concepts for master communicators. Only when you understand framing are you capable of helping someone else to let go of stagnant ideas, create a better mental map of the world, and find a path to a more desirable future.
Part VI
Leadership Communications
Chapter 14
Cueing
Cueing is a signal that directs someone, as in an actor taking her cue for an entrance. As a communications tool, the technique of cueing is similar to how yoga teachers or personal trainers work. They use the word “cueing” to mean the verbal and non-verbal ways to communicate to students what move they will perform next, and how to do it correctly. For example, “Now you’re going to breathe in, hold it, while you relax your neck muscles and lift your torso just a few inches off the mat…” That’s what you want to do for anyone you are speaking to. Cueing is a way of directing and focusing your listeners’ attention and telling them how to listen to you.
So for example, before a presentation, you may want to cue your audience like this: “What I am going to share with you will give you a new perspective on an issue we’re all passionate about, a perspective that will open your minds to new, creative ways of doing things.” By using the words “new”, “open,” and “creative,” you are cueing their brains to be open to new, creative ideas during your talk.
If you’re about to chair a meeting, you want to say something like: “The purpose of this meeting is to be collaborative, and I know you will all want to participate and have something to share.” You are cueing your audience that you are making a space for everyone to talk, and that they should think about something to say.
Lady Gaga gave a classic example of cueing an audience on how to feel and listen to her music, during her 2011 “Monster Ball Tour” as she addressed her fans at Madison Square Garden:
Tonight, I want you to forget all your insecurities. I want you to reject anyone or anything that’s ever made you feel like you don’t belong or don’t fit in or made you feel like you’re not good enough or pretty enough or thin enough or can’t sing well enough or dance well enough or write a song well enough or like you’ll never win a Grammy or you’ll never sell out Madison Square Garden! You just remember that you’re a goddamn superstar and you were born this way!
The audience went wild.
Negative cueing is also quite powerful, and it’s what most people do unintentionally. They tell their listeners what they want them not to think or do. The research on negative cueing is clear: when you tell someone not to do something, you are actually cueing them to do the opposite of what you want. Parents already know that saying “Don’t break that cup!” to a child will only lead to broken crockery. Much better to say, “Careful with that cup.”
Here are some examples of negative cueing we’ve heard from some recent talks:
“I hope I won’t be too boring.”
“I’m sure many of you will disagree with the points I’m going to make.”
“I’m very nervous, I didn’t have much time to prepare, so here goes…”
“I don’t know how interesting some of you may find what I’m about to talk about, it’s a very complicated issue…”
“I’m not as good as the last speaker, and I am positive I won’t be able to do as good a job. But I will try if you bear with me…”
In the examples above, the audience is being primed to be bored or to discount the authority of the information coming next. Before a talk, think about the state you want your audience to be in as they listen to you. What mood do you want to create? What emotions are you hoping to elicit? If you want your audience to be excited, use the word in your introduction: “I am so excited to be here,” or “This is an exciting day for us,” or “I’m excited about the research I’ll be sharing with you today.”
You particularly want to use cueing at the end of your talks to direct your audience towards what you want them to do with your information. It can be something as simple as: “I’m eager to answer the many questions I’m sure you want to ask.” Or as directive as: “Now that you’ve heard the latest facts on this issue, I urge you to approve this legislation now, when the moment is right.”
Here’s an example of cueing at the end of a speech recently given by the president of the African Development Bank, Donald Kaberuka, on implementing a gender strategy in all development projects:
I know everyone in the room agrees with this. We are here not just to reaffirm our attachment to principles. We are here to determine how each of us will implement this new strategy… It can be done. And it is exciting to do. I trust that each of you will play his or her part. I know we all agree: Now is the time for action.
Bill Gates delivered another great example of cueing at the end of his 2007 commencement speech at Harvard:
You graduates are coming of age in an amazing time. As you leave Harvard, you have technology that members of my class never had. You have awareness of global inequity, which we did not have. And with that awareness, you likely also have an informed conscience that will torment you if you abandon these people whose lives you could change with very little effort. You have more than we had; you must start sooner, and carry on longer.
Knowing what you know, how could you not?
And I hope you will come back here to Harvard 30 years from now and reflect on what you have done with your talent and your energy. I hope you will judge yourselves not on your professional accomplishments alone, but also on how well you have addressed the world’s deepest inequities…on how well you treated people a world away who have nothing in common with you but their humanity. Good luck.
Cueing works amazingly well not just in formal communications like presentations and interviews, but also in one-on-one conversations. Most of us go through the day, whether at work or at home, using our words thoughtlessly, and perhaps wondering why we don’t have more impact on others. The technique of cueing asks us to put more awareness on the words we choose to use. This awareness can lead to powerful results.
For example, Teresa says her husband has pointed out that she often cues him by saying things such as: “You are the most generous man I know!” He says this only wants to make him more generous.
When coaching a client before a big speech at Yale, Tim told him, “Imagine there is someone in the audience whose life is going to be changed when they hear your words. And you’re going to speak to that audience as if you are s
peaking just to that one person. Every word you say is going to irrevocably change their life forever. Make your every word be filled with passion and purpose for that one person.” The client told Tim afterwards that it was one of the best talks he ever gave, and that he’d never felt more confident delivering an important speech.
This is the important thing about cueing others: you are cueing them for their own success. You are using the technique of cueing to remind them of resources they possess, and the goals they want to achieve. If a colleague is going to a job interview, instead of saying, “Oh, I hope you get the position!” you could cue them this way: “I know you’re prepared for this, and when you are prepared you are at your very best.”
Cueing Yourself
Not only can you cue others for success; you can also cue yourself. Self-cueing is powerful, and quite different from self-affirmations.
We first realized the power of self-cueing in a recent media expertise course. During our class we use video cameras to record mock interviews, and before each video session one of the participants, a young woman, would consistently say, “Oh I hate this!” Predictably, her interviews were unsatisfactory.
The Master Communicator's Handbook Page 11
