The Way We Frame an Issue Determines Our Solutions

We all tell stories and build narratives to explain what’s happening around us

These choices frame the issues, determining our understanding of the problem and potential solutions.

The resulting mental models become both essential and dangerous. These shortcuts shape how people and systems operate every day, becoming embedded in our structures and cultures. They also help create common ground.

But if we make the wrong assumptions, they can lead quickly to the wrong solutions.

So how do we root out the assumptions that are creating inequities?

The foundation of any story or narrative must begin by harnessing our universal drive for wellbeing. That means identifying what’s working, challenging narratives of deviance and difference that drive us apart, and actively addressing the elements that are holding problems in place.

To root out assumptions that are creating inequities, we first have to see people’s whole selves. Here are some common assumptions that we often hear – assumptions that look vastly different when you take a wellbeing-oriented point of view:

ASSUMPTION
People coping with significant challenges are different – even deviant.

REFRAME
We’re more alike than we are different.

ASSUMPTION
Everyone has equal access to opportunity.

REFRAME
Our circumstances are varied, and there are structural forces that block or undermine progress for some people more than others.

ASSUMPTION
Change is positive and additive; sustaining change is about willpower.

REFRAME
Change brings gains and losses. All change, even positive change, comes at a cost.

ASSUMPTION
Issues and problems are discrete.

REFRAME
Life is messy. Sometimes the people and things that are helping us also harm us. “Positive change” may sometimes harm our overall wellbeing.

ASSUMPTION
People with challenges are pathologies wrapped in skin, and services fix them.

REFRAME
There is always something working. It is just as important to examine what is working and why, as well as what is not working.

ASSUMPTION
Change happens at the level of the individual.

REFRAME
Individual change is tied to family change, which is tied to community and social change.

Identifying narratives about poverty

There are many common narratives about poverty – why it happens, who’s to blame, what should be done about it. This report from our colleagues at the FrameWorks Institute examines the assumptions we make about people living in poverty alongside new perspectives to reframe our approach.

Watch this video to learn more about how assumptions like these can undermine wellbeing:

Deepen your knowledge

Curious to explore what narratives, stories, and mental models might be operating in your work – and how to change the ones that are perpetuating inequities?

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How you can leverage framing and narratives to redesign your approach

Here’s how we can adjust our sails to reframe issues and harness our universal drive for wellbeing:

Shift from “What’s the matter with you?” to “What matters to you?” When confronted with someone in a life crisis or whose decisions scream difference, many of us are quick to judge what they’ve done wrong. But when we approach each other asking, “What matters to you?” we see each other through a new lens.
Cultivate environments — family, community, agency, system, workplace — grounded in a set of beliefs about people, communities and institutions that reflect that we are all deeply driven to meet our needs for wellbeing, and that change is only worth it to us, and is only durable, when it doesn’t deeply undermine our wellbeing.
Learn about the power of narratives and framing by exploring the websites of the Frameworks Institute, Narrative Initiative and ReFrame – and then read this story of Chicago youth setting the record straight with the news media.
Explore how it’s possible to unlearn behaviors, even though it can take a long time and effort, through the viral YouTube video The Backwards Brain Bicycle.
Recognize and celebrate the expertise of people in community.

Explore the next core concept

The way we frame an issue determines our solutions

We all tell stories and build narratives to explain what’s happening around us

So how do we root out the assumptions that are creating inequities?

Identifying narratives about poverty

Deepen your knowledge

How do survivors of domestic violence define success?

Mindset shifts: what are they and how do they happen? (Frameworks Institute)

What makes narrative change so hard? (Stanford Social Innovation Review)

Curious to explore what narratives, stories, and mental models might be operating in your work – and how to change the ones that are perpetuating inequities?

How you can leverage framing and narratives to redesign your approach

Effective solutions come from a community-centered, asset-based approach