To Reframe or To Remain in a lane is the question!

To REFRAME or To REMAIN in my lane?

I have a routine each morning. Rise, Wash, Coffee, Outdoor Reading to feed my soul. I recently finished a read, Feeding The Soul by Tabitha Brown.

The themes in Tabitha’s book RESONATE for everyone, for all ideologies and for beliefs. The messages reverberate, framing my core values that include love for me and humanity. That’s the route to “find our way to joy, love and freedom .“ Tabitha marginalizes judgement. And rightly so.

The chapter titled “More Than One Route to a Destination” narrates my purpose of this blog.

When my business surfaced on-line, my mission swayed by others’ influencing. “Denise, you need to post daily on xxx platform. You have to say blah blah. Hurry up. Slow down.”

Confused? I was. I had to contextualize my thoughts into meaningful words for another action.

No doubt I missed junctures to evolve with the confines of my known parameters. I had become accustomed to structured processes with scientific results. Listen only to this.  Read that. Engage with them.

Once I anchored onto MY purpose, I pushed forward. Results emanated from personal inquiry.

Your lane

Change lanes? Probe into other spaces. Opt for discovery. Lane changes feel awkward, out of sorts. To be honest, I loathed the discomfort. Navigating into unknown pools of ocean water intimidates even the best pool swimmers.

So stay in one lane? I answer with two words,

Both / And.

Stay but wade out. Be mindful of internal growth transforming a consciousness towards innovation like a polliwog prepared for its next stage of life.

Personal Inquiry to Reframe

A shift of consciousness propels a breakthrough for innovation. Behind inquiry to reframe, the mind circulates to become the byproduct of a new brainchild.

Call it awareness. Transformation. Enlightenment. It’s love to love. For me. The otherness. The disagreeable. The reframe.

Transformation progresses with our values. For my development, I relied upon The Hall Tonna Values Map. Four necessary phases of goals describe a person’s shift of consciousness. The phases enable [us] to affect the world (2022, Soto-Torres, pp. 8-10).

That’s bold, right? Affect the world? Yes! Enlightenment sparks the ability to examine ourselves to be the connectors of our tribes.

With personal inquiry, added difficulties and perfection are sure to develop. Emotional maturation comes from both. This is the gateway to reframe. Get angry, hide within one tribe, harden the heart, and be critical. And/ Or, find interdependence, forgiveness, connection, and live in the present.

Preferring perfection over difficulty isn’t an option either. The reframe, however, is ours to pursue.

Personal inquiry creates space in the mind. We bend towards connections outside our tribes to see potential gains for all.

Leaders guide Change To Reframe
The facilitator’s job is to push groups from drowning in their own comfort zones. Surviving discomfort to reframe from inquiry engages another consciousness.

         Definition

Different ways of looking at the same problem.

         Examples

If you spend a minute on social media, you know you can reframe posts.  But, do you? Or, do you walk on by?  Do you leave a smart aleck reply? 

There are two ways of framing responses: A Perceived Problem and the Reframed Problem.

Once someone shows you who they are with an unwillingness to reframe, you may have to walk away (block online but be mindful of your emotional reactions!).

Nowadays people love a fight over figuring out a fresher lens from which to reframe!

A Perceived Problem	Reframed Problem with language to engage
It’s them. (those liberals / conservatives)	It’s all of us.
We need to get input. (Making it up as we go. Mimicking others)	We need to pay attention to the input we’re already getting.
We can’t get along with each other.	We haven’t made the commitment to work through our feelings toward one another ( The word feelings stops us. Does it make you angry or happy? To figure out “feelings” we spiral back to personal inquiry. All because we want to understand other tribes without judgement.)

Leadership Consideration

Personal inquiry before leading isn’t easy work. Perceived or actual insults, uncomfortable silence, physical tensions in the body while talking, or smug commentary push tribes to the edge.

When tribes compartmentalize feelings, they show fear. What they fail to see is interdependence. That connection sustains all when leaders wade into unknown territory.

Leaders commit not only to work through personal feelings but also deal with a group’s feelings towards each other.

Arguing / debating a cause within a comfortable lane is short-sighted because a tribe subsides alone. Sameness elicits a false sense of power.

Reframing welcomes the variable to stimulate thinking. Reframing depends upon human dignity to find what Tabitha suggests as “More than One Route to a Destination.”

Are you willing to see innovation from other lanes? Reframe or Remain to answer the question.

Discovery with ST Consulting works with leaders and facilitators to unpack personal inquiry for group collaboration. DM me to schedule a consultation for your leadership needs.

Photo from CA Management Review Research Article: To Frame or Reframe: Where might design thinking research go next.