How to use NLP Frames to create SMART Goals?

It was a long time you watched a movie with your friends. Somehow your movie-going along with your friends got delayed for long. It was so long that one of the weekends, you really wanted to go and watch a movie, no matter what.

So you quickly get ready and started for your favourite movie place. You call your friends and ask them to be at the theatre directly.

Your favourite movie place is a multiplex where you had watched a lot of movies. You also had a lot of fond memories there.

The multiplex has a number of screens. Each one with a different movie, different hall capacity, ambience, facilities and timings.

Since it was a weekend, there is a possibility of the tickets getting sold out fast. You are the nearest to the place so your friends ask you to buy tickets.

When you reach there, you see a lot of crowd. Suddenly you feel that the tickets could sell out faster than expected, so you need to make your decision quickly.

You start searching for the movies. You are unable to decide based on the titles of the movies, so you search for their genres. The genre of the movie gives you an idea about what kind of a movie it is.

NLP Frames can be applied in the above situation. NLP Frames gives you the much-needed direction towards the thinking process. Using it gives you much more clarity than not using it.

Let us see the different types of NLP Frames.

Types of NLP Frames:

1. Outcome Frame.
2. As-If Frame.
3. Open Frame.
4. Ecology Frame.
5. Evidence Frame.
6. Positive Frame.
7. Backtrack Frame.

1. Outcome Frame:

While making a decision to watch the movie, you searched for the genre, ambience, timing, location of seats etc.

You wanted to enjoy some humour so that was the genre and you had a discussion with your friends through the phone to decide about the time, number of tickets to be purchased and other things.

Outcome frame provides a focus on your objective or what you want to achieve. It also takes into account the effects of achieving the objective and the resources required to achieve it.

2. As – If Frame:

You wanted to give a surprise to one of your friends. So you think As-If you were him.

You make your decision based on his favourite actors, “If I were him, I would like to see this actor”. So you bought tickets for that particular movie.

You can use the As-If Frame in many situations. Many problems can be solved creatively by thinking ‘As-If’ something had occurred, not occurred, present, not present, available, not available, solvable, not solvable etc.

3. Open Frame:

While returning, you were discussing about the film you just watched. You were discussing your favourite scene, the characterisation and the story. You were comfortable with the company so you are not filtering your opinions. This is Open Frame.

This frame of thinking can be used while building rapport and can be applied in various situations like brainstorming, training etc.

4. Ecology Frame:

A few of your friends have some plans later in the day. So you plan the time of the movie accordingly. This action helped your friends and they appreciate you for your clear thinking.

This is Ecology Frame of thinking and this will be helpful to you in keeping relationship healthy.

Ecology Frame is considering the effect on the immediate subsystem.

5. Evidence Frame.

You are determined to help your friend who has an important meeting later in the evening. So you check his plan, end time of the movie and the commute time required to reach his place.

With all this evidence, you inform him how this plan is good. He is now happy. You all watched the movie happily together. It was a wonderful day for you.

The Evidence frame is used as a gauge to assess your progress towards your objective. Therefore you will know if corrective action is necessary or not.

If the collected evidence is strong, you can check whether the outcome must be modified or not depending upon the time available.

6. Positive Frame:

Some of your friends say the movie was not worth the money. But a few of your friends come up with beautiful spin up for the boring scenes.

You enjoyed like crazy.

While returning home, you know that the positive outcome of all the expenses is a wonderful experience with your friends. This is ‘Positive Frame’ of thinking.

7. Backtrack Frame.

When you finished seeing the movie, you start your planning for the next trip. But a few of your friends have some commitments for the day and they excused themselves. You later backtracked them about the plans and helped them land on the same page as yours.

Each person understands information differently and may come to significantly different conclusions.

Backtracking is a way to make sure everyone has the same understanding of what is discussed or decided.

Application of NLP Frames:

NLP frames can be applied in a lot of situations. Some of them are decision making, formulating a response, creating SMART Goals etc.

Let’s see how NLP Frames can be applied for creating SMART Goals.

SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant and Time-Bound.

When we think in Outcome frame we can easily come up with a very Specific Objective.

When we think in Evidence frame we can come up with Measurable results.

When we think in Ecology frame, we can come up with Actionable activities that can be completed daily. Also the Objective, Actions, Evidence and time measurements will be made more Relevant to you.

Here we have seen about the NLP Frames and its applications. There is Outcome Frame, As-If Frame, Open Frame, Ecology Frame, Evidence Frame, Positive Frame and Backtrack Frame.

We have also seen how we can connect the NLP Frames while creating SMART Goals. Connecting NLP Frames with SMART Goals gives us more clarity and the objective can be achieved easily.

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