Reframing

Purpose

This is a technique to help your coachee see things from a different perspective.

Resources

This technique requires 10 “60 minutes, depending on the complexity of the situation that you are discussing.

It requires no equipment.

Notes to coach

It is drawn from NLP and further information on reframing can be gathered by reading about NLP techniques or attending a training programme.

A frame is the way we view a certain situation, activity, event or object. Each person has a different set of frames through which they look at the world. For example, a bride on her wedding day will view the prediction of rain very differently from a farmer who has just planted seedlings or a water company that has been experiencing a drought.

Reframing is seeing things through a different ˜frame of reference . It can be used with your coachee to help him or her take on different viewpoints and look for other reasons behind things and therefore to feel and behave differently if the same situation arises in the future. Use the activity when your coachee comes to you with a situation that he or she finds challenging. It can be used in conjunction with ˜what if. . . ? questions or Edward de Bono s Six Thinking Hats .

Instructions

In this exercise, coachees are first asked to describe the situation to you “ the facts of the situation, as they perceive them, the feelings that they are experiencing, the thoughts they have about the situation and the reactions of any others who are involved.

Then coachees are asked to think about the reasons behind their thoughts and feelings. The aim of this part of the activity is to help coachees identify the frame through which they are viewing the situation.

Having helped the coachees to identify their current frame, ask them to think about other frames that could be used. If coachees finds the situation frustrating, ask them what frame could be used to make it exciting. If coachees find the situation threatening , ask them to consider how to find opportunities within it.

Having found another frame to use, discuss with coachees what they would need to do to put this frame in place and how they will know when it is, ie what thought patterns will the coachees need to change and what parts of their behaviour might be different if they were to reframe the situation.

These statements of required changes can then feed into the action plan.