Build a frame
Craft frames that shape how your message is understood.
Imagine you want to influence people in a high-stakes moment. A key debate. A meeting with senior leadership. A presentation to a skeptical audience. An effort to rally support for a cause. In these settings, frame your message so people notice what matters and ignore the clutter. This directs attention, shapes feelings, and influences decisions. Framing helps you communicate persuasively and increase your impact. Don’t overestimate its power. Reality always has the final say, no matter how you present it. Learn more about frames here. Use the questions below to build your own frame.
Building frames is like shaping the glasses you want people to see through.
🤔 Who do you want to persuade?
Identify your audience. Focus on the people you can realistically win over, not those locked into a firm position. Leaders making a call. Voters weighing a policy. Colleagues deciding on a plan. A clear sense of who you need to move helps you shape a frame that lands.
Write one clear sentence naming the specific audience you need to reach and why they matter.
🤔 What do you want to achieve?
Start with the end in mind. Define a concrete outcome. Say what you want, not what you don’t want. Do you want people to change their view, like seeing renewable energy as practical. Or shift a behavior, like following a new company policy. A single, clear objective keeps your frame sharp and guides what you choose to highlight.
Write the single outcome you want. Make it concrete and state what you want people to do or believe.
🤔 What does your audience value or need most?
Look at what matters most to the people you want to influence. What do they care about, worry about, or hope to achieve? Ground your frame in their most important value or need, like safety, health, fairness, belonging, or financial security. A health campaign might stress how a preventative step protects a family. A salesperson might highlight safety features for one buyer and performance for another.
To discover what matters most to them, listen to what people say, observe how they act, consider the pressures around them, and use research when you can. Studies show that progressives often emphasize fairness, helping others, and reducing harm. Conservatives often focus on loyalty, authority, and purity. Connecting to these values shapes how your message lands.
List the top one to three values or needs that matter most to this audience in this context.
🤔 Which facts do you want to highlight?
Choose the facts that matter for your goal and connect with your audience. You don’t need to include everything. Highlight only the information that supports your frame. Skip the rest. The right facts guide attention and make your message believable.
Use vivid examples instead of abstract statistics. Our minds respond to concrete situations, not numbers. A health campaign could show a family staying healthy because of a preventative step. A workplace proposal could show a worker using a new process to save time and prevent errors.
Write the key facts or examples that support your goal and match the audience’s values or needs. Keep them vivid and concrete.
🤔 Which influence strategies can you use?
Look at tools like authority, social proof, reciprocity, scarcity, liking, consistency, and unity. You might highlight expert support, show that peers are already acting, or emphasize benefits that appear only when someone acts now.
Write the strategies you think will make your message more persuasive.
🤔 What associations do you want to spark?
Pick words, mental models, or metaphors that trigger the associations you want. These cues guide interpretation and shape emotion. A tipping point signals urgency, while a safety net signals protection. Words like crisis, burden, opportunity, or safeguard steer people toward a specific meaning.
Write the cues that spark the interpretations and feelings you want your audience to have.
🤔 How do you want to frame the result?
Decide whether to frame the result as a gain or loss, opportunity or threat, morally good or bad. Be consistent, because mixing frames weakens impact. A climate campaign might frame reduced flooding as a gain or increased flooding as a threat. A recycling campaign might frame the act as a contribution to future generations.
If you frame something as a loss, threat, or crisis, always pair it with a clear solution. People freeze when they see danger without a path forward. Give them a next move. Avoid turning your audience into the villains to reduce defensiveness. Show them they can be part of the solution.
Write one sentence that frames the result through the lens you choose.
🤔 Why does this matter now?
Make the issue immediate. People act on what feels close. Too distant, and it fades. Instead of talking about sea levels in 2100, show the flood risks affecting neighborhoods this season.
Write one or two lines explaining why the issue is urgent, relevant, or timely for this audience today.
Draft and try you frame
Now draft your frame by combining your answers into a concise paragraph. Keep everything pointed at your core message. Remove anything that weakens it. Test it by reading it aloud, anticipating objections, and sharing it with others. Try it in practice sessions, or imagine your audience hearing it. Adjust elements based on how it lands. It’s not about what you say. It’s about what your audience hears.
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A good frame doesn’t distort reality. It guides people toward the part of it that matters most. Build yours with clarity and purpose.
