In life we go around thinking, perceiving and understanding people, places and things completely differently then all of the people around us; we see them through our frames. Frames to me are like points of view and in order to have a clear point of view you need to be open and willing to accept the unexpected and always questioning why? In Wharton on Making Decisions the definition of a frame is a stable, coherent cognitive structure that organizes and simplifies the complex reality that a manager operates in. A lot of frames are developed from experiences, these experiences and or memories develop into mental representations and we use them to distinguish, understand, judge, choose and act. In my lifetime I have been a victim of frame blindness which is the inability to recognize my frame of mind. There are three different traps that can result in frame blindness and they are the illusion of completeness, overconfidence and frame conflict.
The illusion of completeness is where someone believes they are fully aware and has the complete picture; however they are actually unaware of the shadows that are lurking. My husband is a golf course superintendent and he loves his job. When we first got together I was aware of his responsibilities and felt comfortable going forward into our relationship. When we got married he was working 12 days straight with two days off and then 12 days straight again. This type of schedule was tough on us through our first year of marriage. Then he took a position in Orlando at another higher end club that allowed him to be off two days every weekend, but the hours were longer throughout the week. I was overjoyed as we just found out we were expecting our first child. I pictured how our next year would be with a baby and I was ecstatic! It was not until I had the baby and he returned back to work that I realized how much harder life was really going to be. Sean works 50 plus hours not including the three and half hours he spends commuting back and forth. He wakes up at 3:30am everyday and sometimes earlier not to return home until 6:30, 7 or later every night. I do not have to be at work until 8am and I am off every day by 5pm so I am solely responsible to take care of our baby from the time she wakes up, gets dropped off and picked back up to feeding her dinner alone. It’s tough and makes me realize I was not fully aware of the toll his career choice would have on every one of us. We all make sacrifices for success and I realize now that my frame of mind had blinders. I imagined how our lives would be but that picture was not complete as I am experiencing it now.
Overconfidence is the second frame blindness and it is where you overestimate what you know, which can result in a tendency to overvalue one’s own frame and undervalue another person’s frame. I have experienced this type of blindness in my current organization. Working as a Financial Aid Counselor can be a very intense career. There are always lessons to be learned and new regulations to follow so it is a constant challenge to stay up-to-date with what is going on. I started in January 2011 with no experience in financial aid; however after an extensive training process I was fully confident I was 100% ready. I was warned by my fellow counselors how rough the beginning of a new academic year can be, but I sailed through it with flying colors. I felt like I could conquer anything until that next January. January is the beginning of a new semester within the same academic year and enrollment numbers are usually similar to the beginning of the academic year with the exception of new FAFSAs starting to roll in for the following academic year. When my emails, phone calls, tickets, sparks and reports started to pile up I was overwhelmed and freaking out. I had no idea that I could receive over a 100 emails in one day! I was blind and unaware that I was so comfortable in my current frame of mind that I lacked the much needed preparation for the beginning of the January term. It was absolute chaos. Had I listened to my coworkers and developed a plan of action I would have been better prepared and less stressed. The lesson only needed to be taught once. The following year I changed my frame of mind. I emailed all of my campuses prior and gave them a plan of action of how I would assess the student’s accounts and I also started preparing students who were going to be completing their FAFSAs with what they should do. Having a standard response helped me save time and remain in control of my region.
The last frame to avoid is frame conflict. Frame conflict can occur when two or more different confident frames go head to head causing hostility, accusations and questions to formulate. In my opinion this is probably the most difficult frame blindness to avoid for me. I am a passionate person and I tend to believe strongly in my frame or point of view. If I have made a decision it is very tough for me to be open to another person’s frame of mind. I will honestly take their frame into consideration but deep down I know I have my blinders up. An example of my experience with frame conflict was between my sister and I about something I am extremely passionate about and that is breastfeeding. I am a firm believe that mothers should breastfeed their children if they are capable of it. My sister however does not believe in it as strongly as I do because she believes that it’s too hard. One day we were discussing the issue and she started preaching to me that formula was as good if not better than a mother’s milk. I of course became very tense, as I have done a lot of research as well as consulted with different mothers and doctors about the benefits of mother’s milk over formula. Our debate turned hostile and we started to scream at one another. I knew I was right and she thought the same way about her beliefs. After we cooled down a bit we finally were able to discuss the issue at hand like sisters and I tried to hear her out. Her frame of mind was that formula offered the mother freedom, the child nutrients and it was a guarantee the baby would have a meal no matter what because you could always go and buy a can a of formula at the store. After hearing her reasoning I agreed that formula made life easier however that necessity wasn’t as important to me as it was for her. We have sense stopped talking about this topic and I now can respect her opinion as she made some valid points. My inability to even hear her out and acknowledge her frame of mind in the beginning of our conversation created an all out war.
In the future after recognizing the challenges and consequences that can occur with frame blindness I am going to take a second, third and fourth look at my frame of mind more often. Next time I feel close minded or confused I am going to try and identify what frame I am in and then I will work to change it. If I can ask myself why I am looking at it this way? What caused me to feel or see it this way? What are my assumptions? Once I have these answers I can start to change my frame and reorganize my thoughts. Framing is much like critical thinking. In order to be good at it you must continue to do it. Looking at the world with tunnel vision is like seeing in only black and white, once you take the blinders off you start to see the colors and the beauty.
Hoch, S. J., & Kunreuther, H. C. (2005). Wharton on making decisions. (1st edition.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
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