42 | Frames
A frame is a mental model that helps you understand how things work when you have to make decisions. There are many possible frames for the same situation and choosing the right one is always harder than reusing a frame that is familiar to you.
Think about those tourists who complain about everything when they visit a new country. They act arrogantly because they apply the same frame they use at home automatically, instead of choosing a new frame for the new situation. Frustrated when their everyday routines do not respond to their expectations, they forget they are guests, not hosts. Applying the host frame is easier than choosing a new (and unfamiliar) guest frame. They soon realize that behaving as if they were at home, instead of understanding and absorbing how locals behave, will lead to more frustration, more headaches and poorer decisions.
Choosing a new frame in response to a new context doesn’t happen automatically, like their phone adjusting to the new time zone: they have to choose to do it quite intentionally. The value of this choice is that, by shifting frames, they will increase considerably their chances to make better decisions. Choosing the guest frame instead of applying the host frame is their best chance to transform their experience as tourists.
And so there is value in choosing the right frame in the face of uncertain situations. The business world…
