Framing the Mind

Many things that we do in life are influenced by the frames that we have in our mind. The choices we make, our judgments, our decisions, the conclusions we draw in our day-to-day life and such depend on the frame of our mind. In the rush of daily life, most of the people are not aware or conscious about the frames of their minds. If people become conscious of their mental frames, then there is a possibility that they would think of seeking alternative frames. And, that is what ‘framing the mind’ is all about.

Let’s understand what a Frame is. Frame is something that has boundaries. There are some things that can fall inside those boundaries and some that can be outside. So, our frames help us to focus on certain things while leaving other things out. The analogy of a window frame nicely illustrates this point. Architects choose where to put windows in a building to give a desired view. But, no single window can give the entire panorama.

So, what are those things that set our frames? First and the most important, it could be our paradigms. Paradigm is a set of rules, it is our belief system. We have many paradigms for many things. Second, it could our perceptions. The way we ask questions a given situation can create a frame in our mind regarding that situation.

Put yourself in the following situation A: You have decided to watch a movie in PVR and bought a ticket for Rs180. As you enter the theatre, you discover that you have lost the ticket. Now, would you pay Rs180 for another ticket to watch the movie (assuming you still have enough cash)?
Try to decide whether you would pay Rs180 for another ticket.

Now put yourself in situation B: You have decided to watch a movie in PVR and the ticket costs Rs180. You are yet to purchase the ticket. As you enter Forum mall, you discover that you have lost Rs180 from your wallet. Now, would you still pay Rs180 for a ticket to watch the movie (assuming you have enough cash left)?
What would you choose to do? Try and decide.

Daniel Kahnemann of the University of California at Berkeley and Amos Tversky of Stanford University developed the above exercise in the US context to demonstrate how boundaries affect our decisions. These situations - Situation A (the lost ticket) and Situation B (the lost cash) - were posed to over 100 people separately, each of whom were given only one of the above two situations.

While, 38% of the people posed with ‘lost ticket’ situation were unwilling to buy another ticket, only 17% of the people posed with ‘lost cash’ situation were unwilling to buy a ticket. Why this difference, when in both cases the loss is same?

People decide differently, because they frame differently. Many people who were told the ticket is lost felt that buying another would be equivalent to spending Rs360 to see the movie. In contrast, for many people in the situation B, the cash lost had little connection to the movie.
It worked in this way. When people put this question to themselves “Should I spend money to buy a ticket?” they created a boundary in their mind. And the ‘lost cash’ is outside that boundary while the ‘lost ticket’ is inside it.

Though frames are useful (because they help us to focus), they create a tunnel vision. Like a race horse (that is wearing blinkers), we tend to see only one way. The six Indian blind men and the Elephant is a good example where each felt only a part of the elephant and drew conclusion on the whole elephant. The elephant was like a pillar, snake, fan, rope, wall, or rock to each of the blind men depending on which part of the elephant each one was touching and feeling.

The right approach is to first recognize that the current frame of our mind is not the only one available. After that we can take some of the following actions to generate alternative frames:
1. Challenging the actions you normally take on an issue.
2. Imagining you are in the shoes of another person in a given situation. How would he or she deal with it?
3. Seeking someone to play the devil’s advocate.
4. Trying to include people with different thinking styles, when you want to discuss something.
5. Getting involved in brainstorms where members are allowed to call out suggestions but no one is allowed to criticize.

Let’s all lead a life of awareness, where we are conscious of our present frame of mind and endeavor to generate alternative frames before we make our decisions or choices in life.

Becoming a Leader - First Steps

‘Becoming a Leader – First Steps’ is about some simple steps that a person can take to start the process of becoming a leader. The purpose of this article would be to explore some of the fundamental behaviors that would be handy for a leader. Personally, I feel exhibiting these behaviors would be desirable in a leader.

People can live in the past, present or future. When they are doing an activity with focus and concentration they tend to live in the present. When they are thinking, they are living in the past or the future. If you don’t believe this, try thinking about the present. You would find yourself thinking about something that has already happened in the past or speculating about the future of something. But, it is simply not possible to think about the present.

Apart from living in the past, present or future through work i.e. either through action or reflection, human beings have to deal with other fellow human beings and situations. How a person does all these depends a lot on his or her character. Also, it is important to strike a balance in life, wherever possible. Thus, more or less life is about the following four parameters:

1) Time – Past, Present, Future
2) Work – Action, reflection
3) Dealings – People, tasks/situations
4) Character – firm-minded, fair, empathetic, decisive, spontaneous, flexible, options, adaptable, planned, organized, following processes/procedures, principles, values, etc.

Now, let’s move on to explore the primary steps to becoming a leader.

Primary Steps

1) Present moment awareness:
In other words, it can also be called ‘moment-to-moment awareness’. This is a primary step for leadership. A leader must live in the present. Action-orientation, concentration, focusing on the process, experiencing will-power, prioritizing (Covey’s 3rd habit-Putting first things first), all these come out automatically as a natural consequence of living in the present.
An individual through everyday practice must endeavor to live in the present for as long as possible. Living in the present energizes every cell in the body as your mind is temporarily suspended. You are cut off from the regrets/resentments of the past and worries of the future. After reading a good book (it can be a gripping novel), or watching a movie with rapt attention, you come out exhilarated. “True intelligence arises in the now” says Eckart Tolle in his book ‘The Power of Now’.
Listening can happen only in the present. To practice Active Listening, an individual has to necessarily live in the present. The first key skill according to Peter Quarry in his video on five key ‘listening & understanding’ skills is to show interest and this can be done he says by genuinely attending to the other person when he or she is speaking. Attention can be given in the present.
Richard Boyatzis and Anne Mckie while talking about Mindfulness in their book ‘Resonant Leadership’ acknowledge the benefits of personal attention thus: “Attending to ourselves enables us to be clear about what is important to us; it allows us to engage our passion and build on positive emotional states.” This attending to oneself can be done by cultivating mindfulness i.e. by being in the present and now.

2) Exercising the power to choose a response:
Human beings are endowed with the power to choose a response. The second step for a person to become a leader is to exercise the power given to human beings to choose how to respond to people and to situations. Realizing this power is important. Life is full of choices. Everyone has choices to choose from. But, we usually hear stuff like ‘I didn’t have a choice’, ‘I can’t or I couldn’t’, ‘it depends’, …and each time we use such phrases, we are giving up our control to external circumstances. First thing to do would be to start using phrases like ‘I chose ...’ (instead of being apologetic with ‘I didn’t have a choice’), ‘I won’t or wouldn’t’ … it usually does not depend on circumstances, because still it is you who have made the choice.
According to Viktor Frankl, Austrian psychiatrist and holocaust survivor, a person can always choose the response, irrespective of his surroundings – situations or circumstances or people dealt with.

3) Belief in win-win negotiation:
The third step for a person to become a leader is to believe that there is a win-win situation most of the time, and having an attitude of negotiation. Everything under the sun is negotiable and situations in life are not always zero-sum games. With this belief and attitude, will come automatically empathy towards other human beings, honest communication, assertiveness, sense of fairness and value-based decisions. A person also tends to be flexible and adaptable to different situations and towards different people.
“Everything is seen through Principles” says Covey in Principle-Centered Leadership when people think win-win. ..”As people become principle-centered, they love to share recognition and power…the abundance mentality produces more profit, power, and recognition for everybody”.

4) Endeavor for a Planned & Organized life:
The fourth and the final step towards becoming a leader is trying to lead a planned & organized life. To focus on timely completion of tasks, being proactive, having an idea of the end-result in mind at the time of beginning (Covey’s first & second habits), thoughtfulness and reflecting in a person are a result of that person endeavoring to be planned and organized.
Here in this step, a person puts to use his will power that is generated in the present moment to realize and accomplish things in life. In a sense, a person programs the mind to achieve things in the present moment.
A sense of hope arises in the mind which keeps a person going forward through life. Talking about hope in their book ‘Resonant Leadership’, Richard Boyatzis and Anne Mckie note “In a hopeful state, we have more physiological as well as emotional resiliency, and we are mentally and physically prepared to deal with challenges.”

Summing up, a person who has decided to become a leader and is on his way to becoming a leader should try to cultivate leadership qualities like firm-mindedness, fairness, empathetic, decisive, spontaneous, flexible, options, adaptable, planned, organized, following processes/procedures, principles and value-based decisions and thereby build his character. And, to initiate the cultivation of these qualities, a person can follow these four steps:
1. Living in the present through everyday practice
2. Exercising the human power to choose a response
3. Belief in win-win negotiation
4. Endeavor for a Planned & Organized life