This is the Highest Leverage Activity for Leaders

Don’t think of an elephant!!

Did you think of an elephant? Did you think of how an elephant looks like? Did you see an image of an elephant? Did you think of a large animal? Did you think of black or a trunk or a sound or anything else that we can relate to an elephant?

If you are like the most of us, when asked not to think of an elephant, we automatically think of something that is relates to an elephant. This is instinctual. This is what is called framing. In this example we activated the frame of an elephant.

All out thinking happens within our frames. In an organisation, we operate in common frames. This could be an industry (automotive) or a country (Indian or Chinese or American) or an identity frame (challenger, leader, etc) or for that matter any other frame.

Usually, breakthrough thinking happens when we are able to change these frames. The origin of almost every breakthrough idea can be traced back to this simple concept. Everyone who operate in a given frame usually face similar challenges, have similar ideas and similar constraints.

As leaders, when we operate within a frame, we need to focus on continuous improvements and efficiency.

As leaders, when we want to have breakthroughs (good or bad), we would do really well to understand how to frame or rather reframe our world-views. Usually, when we are working to reframe, we are going after breakthrough innovation and focused on effectiveness.

Some example of frames and how they can be changed are as below:

Global Warming vs Climate change!

One of these frames is urgent and ominous, while the other is innocuous!

Depending upon which frame you believe in, the actions you take and the urgency of the situation is vastly different.

In conclusion, I strongly believe that finding the right frame for the work that we and our teams do is probably the highest impact activity that we can engage in as leaders. When done right, the impact of this activity can be outsized to the effort.

If you want to learn more about framing, I strongly recommend that you read the book titled “Don’t think of an elephant” by George Lakeoff.