Frame Blindness

 

            Frame Blindness, this most likely occurs a lot more often than most people would believe. To have frame blindness means that you are most likely not seeing yourself or your organization how others are viewing you. This can lead to catastrophic failure, to not see what you are doing wrong with your organization is the true meaning behind frame blindness. When an executive thinks that there work is complete and is overconfident with their work this can lead to an organizations growth stalling.

            What I am taking from this week’s reading is that according to the “Wharton” text we need to continue to understand that our organization always has room for growth and it can sometimes be good to never feel like you work is complete. I have seen it all too often in my life when people who are over confident usually end up losing because they cannot see their flaws or they lack the ability to ask for someone else’s opinion.

            Fortunately for us; Wharton’s text on making decisions comes with a solution to this problem which we call “frame blindness”. There is a way of managing these frames to avoid the “traps” of frame blindness, for us to manage these frames we need to take a step back and understand that we must analyze our own work from time to time. To avoid these traps one step which we must take as leaders is to see the frame by conducting a frame audit. As I mentioned before this is when we take a step back and create a picture to see our frame, I see it as a critical thinking session on paper.

If we can surface our frames than we can understand the elements, the important features and the optional features of our frame. Taking the time to create an illustration of our frame will put our ideas and our work into perspective. I recall a time when I was a lot younger and I was going through an intense air traffic control school in the military. I had eight hours a day of air traffic control being crammed into my brain for ten straight weeks, it was a very tough school with a test each week which decided rather or not you would be able to advance each week. I knew that I needed to create a strategy so I made a chart that would surface my frames and present my different challenges visually. Creating this chart helped me organize my thoughts, find what was important for me and then put my plan into action.

Creating this frame audit helped me in many different ways, this frame audit also helped me Identify and change inadequate frames. Not only did presenting my work see what I was doing right, it also helped me see what I was doing wrong; by seeing what I am doing wrong I am avoiding the trap of running into overconfidence and the illusion of completeness. I feel that many times I am lucky in life, I feel this way because it is easy for me to see and admit to my mistakes. This has not been an issue with me I can remember many times in life where I have been put in charge of a situation and I still ask for the opinions of my subordinates. At my job I am in a unique situation because my title has given me the opportunity to be in charge of people that might have been working for the company since I was in diapers. I do understand that I am in charge but I am also able to lower my pride and ask the opinion who has been working in the field for a much longer time than me. If we can identify and change inadequate frames than we are avoiding many of the traps which people in charge can fall into.

The most important step to avoiding frame traps in my opinion is to master techniques for reframing. When I left for boot camp at the age of eighteen I was thrown into a world which I did not understand; I know that the first couple of weeks of boot camp are meant to break me down. After boot camp was done I then understood that I was broken down to the core and the remolded to become the person that I am today. This is what we need to do when reframing, we need to find the good and the bad in the work which we are doing and then master the technique of reframing ourselves and our work.

When I think about what this exercise has taught me about myself I think about what has made me who I am. As I mentioned before I am not the type of person who is not overconfident or blind to my mistakes. I usually am the first one to admit when I have done something wrong and I am always looking to hear the opinions of others. Some might see this as a weakness but I see it as a strength, I am constantly challenging myself and trying to improve myself as a person and a leader. Every year I have improved myself and my goal is to never have the illusion of feeling like my work is complete.

 

Reference

Hooch, S., & Keunruther, H. (2001). Reflective Versus Expedient Decision Making: Views From East and West. In Making Decesions (1 st ed., Vol. 1, p. 109). Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons.