Frames Or How To Keep Focus

Coaches, consultants, and business people (amongst others) can make good use of what, in NLP, we call ‘Frames’.

Frames are a convenient way to keep yourself on track with your purpose when you interact with people. With frames, you are putting the focus on one particular aspect of your communication.

There is an almost infinite number of frames, the 5 most useful to keep track of our focus are the following: Evidence, backtrack, relevancy, contrast, ecology, as if.

I’ll go through them one by one, then you will learn the question that corresponds to for each frame.

Evidence:

The evidence frame has to do with knowing that you are getting what you want.  therefore, it is one of the most fundamental when setting goals. It’s also useful in sales to link people’s need to your product.

There’s more to coaching than the evidence frame, but I promise you that some successful coaches have made their name specialising in the evidence frame (although they call it by another name). In sales, can help to define the need of your customer.

The question you ask is: “How will you know when you have it?” “What will you accept as evidence?” Think about it! You want to be successful, how do you know when you are successful? There has to be some quantifiable measurement of you being successful. Can be used to direct attention to a representation of a desired state/completion.

Backtrack:

This is used when someone is wandering, to bring them back on track. Great in meetings, negotiations, coaching etc…

The question is: “So let me make sure that I understand well. You just said … [wait for them to fill in the blank]?” It reviews the information presented. Sometimes it’s useful for people themselves to go back to what they say.

Relevancy:

Have you ever been in a meeting that lasted much longer then needed? Don’t say no! I know you have! 🙂 This frame is used to check whether the conversation or action-steps have a direct relationship to your outcome.

The question to ask is: “How does___________ relate to the outcome agreed upon?” It’s used to keep things on track.

Contrast:

When two things are compared: “Do you prefer this… or that?” Here, depending on the intervention and context, you can use a going away from type motivation (i.e. motivate people away from what they don’t want) vs. going toward (I.e. motivate people toward what they want). Allows displacement of resistance onto something else.

Ecology:

Ecology means that you want to make sure that the choices and new behaviours installed in the person benefit 1. The person, 2. His/her environment, 3. The planet in general (i.e. is it good for me>you>all).

There is no specific question to ask, you want to make sure you maintain the integrity of the system, don’t leave any unfilled holes, etc… The question to ask yourself: is the circuit complete? Don’t leave a hole in the system. Makes sure it is win/win for all concerned.

As if:

This is used to develop options. It opens up possibilities restricted by prevailing conditions (state). Some people will absolutely not be able to take action without this. Also it allows to create a very clear picture of them having achieved their goal. So it’s great to deal with sceptics, or in a meeting, with the pessimist, or people who are stuck.

The question to ask is “What will happen if …?” “What will not happen if…?”

Want to learn how to use this and more?
NLP Foundation: learn the basics of NLP in ONE day (April 24, 2010)
NLP Foundation: learn the basics of NLP in ONE day (June 12, 2010)

NLP Practitioner & Coach Certification (September 2010)


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