One of the first NLP techniques that I teach in our corporate trainings is a technique called ‘REFRAMING’. Although easy to perform, it is a very, I mean VERY powerful technique. So powerful in fact, that sometimes, it is the only technique needed to change a behaviour of even a belief.
What is a “reframe” and when is it useful?
Reframing simply refers to something we do all the time: the process of changing the meaning of a statement or situation.
How is this useful?
This is useful in a myriad of situations:
- In sales: answering objections raised by a prospect (in sales, reframing is called “handling objections“)
- In education: reframing students who lack self confidence (‘I’ll never make it‘)
- In negotiation: reframing both parties so that they come to a solid agreement faster.
- In human resources: improve relationships between people who have different ideas
- In meetings: smoothen out communication
etc…
In the Presuppositions of NLP, “The Map is not the territory” means that all meaning is context dependant. If a certain word has a certain meaning, the meaning depends on the context in which it appears.
There are many different ways to reframe (in fact, during the NLP Master Practitioner & Coach training we look at 20 powerful reframes), but the 2 basic ones are:
– Context reframes
– Content reframes.
What is the difference between “Contexts” and “Content” reframe?
Context Reframe is giving another meaning to a statement by changing the context.
Example: ‘my 6-years old daughter is too head-strong’ ‘won’t you be happy when she grows up that she will be able to end for herself?’ (that’s taken from a real-life example from Milton Erickson).
Content Reframe is giving another meaning to a statement by recovering more content, which changes the focus. It is also called Meaning Reframe.
Example: ‘My boss always comes to me when he wants someone to deal with this most difficult customer who is also the most important.’ ‘He must trust you so much!’
Want to know more? In our trainings, we go deeper into the Art of Reframing. Join The MasterMinds NLP Certification training in March! Click HERE, or email me.