Georgia O'Keefe was meticulous about the frames surrounding her paintings.
To her, frames helped the "viewers to consider the way the shapes, colors, line, and composition worked, without distractions," Eleanor Cummins writes in the Smithsonian Magazine.
O'Keefe, with the help of George Of, New York City's most famous frame maker, developed eight distinct frames that allowed the viewer the most distraction-free experience she could give them. It was an experience in which the viewer could focus on the content as much as possible.
In doing so, O'Keefe and Of offer us a wonderful lesson in how to frame experiences for our teams, too.
Let's dive a little deeper to pull apart what makes for a strong frame, which we can think of as the first things you'd say before starting an experience with your team or someone you coach.
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How often have you been a participant in a meeting where you aren't clear why you're gathered in the first place or what it is you're supposed to be doing?
I think leaders underleverage framing for their people, and as a result, make their teams' lives a lot harder than they need to be.
I've found that the best frames, just like O'Keefe's frames, remove distraction for the audience by giving them the clarity they need to engage fully, clarity that also helps increase the psychological safety in the audience because no one is guessing what hidden subtext there might be lurking beneath the surface.
Here's the three criteria I see the best team leaders use when framing for their teams:
1) Why -- the facilitator should be able to explain why this matters to the organization or team, why it matters to them, and why it matters right now.
2) What -- additionally, the audience should know what topic they're engaging with, what success will look like, and what constraints or guardrails might exist they need to be aware of.
3) How -- finally, facilitators should explain how they want the team to engage, how much time they'll have to do so, and how the team will return to this information.
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Let's use those questions to workshop a frame a leader is giving their team after losing another employee (I'm guessing you can relate, right?).
Here's the original I see a lot:
"We've lost more team members than usual at this point in the year, and I want us to generate ideas about why. Let's pair up and see how many we can come up with."
And here's a rewrite using the criteria above:
"I've been really disappointed with how many people we've lost recently, in large part because it's led to all of us having to take on extra work that's stretched us thin. I care too much about all of you and how much you've been having to put in extra hours to not try and do something about it collectively. I've realized that you all likely have some ideas I haven't thought about that could help. I also know that I deserve some of the blame here. I'll share some of my reflections at the end about what I can be doing better.
To brainstorm, I've paired you all up, given you a place to capture your notes, and shared one example of what this could look like. You'll have 15 minutes together to see how many ideas you can come up with, a 1-2 sentence description why, and then you'll pair up with another group and compile a final list."
Sure, it's longer, but which team would you rather be on? One that is clear about the why, what, and how or one that is hoping you can just figure that out on your own?
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The best leaders, much like O'Keefe, think intentionally and critically about the experience they want their audience to participate in and then work toward creating the frame that will most likely lead to that outcome.
Doing so will not only help eliminate distractions for your audience, it'll also help you ensure they get the most out of the experience.
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