Framing a Conversation: What a Starbucks Partner Taught Me At The Drive-Thru

Which sentence resonates better with you?

“Our operation is broke and the business can’t keep up” or “thankfully, our business is doing so well that it’s pushed the limits of what our operation can handle”

Both of these statements say the same thing, which is that the business is doing so well that the processes of old must be revisited to scale. The difference is all in the framing and delivery of how these sentences are delivered.

How about these sentences?

“This rain is awful and I’m tired of getting soaked” or “while I know we’re tired of getting rained on, the good news is the dry spell is over.”

Both of these sentences say the same thing, which is that it’s raining and nobody likes to get wet. One of these sentences sheds light on the positives of the situation.

As a leader, you have the ability to frame every statement that you deliver. Framing is all about the ability to articulate a situation in a specific manner. Framing is not about creating a false sense of reality, rather it is a way to rethink the problem and or state it in a way that gets the audience to see another side of the story.

Framing the conversation can turn a negative into a positive or get your audience to change their mindset on the way a specific situation may look and feel. Perhaps the topic that is being addressed has been looked at as a drag in the past, but when you frame the conversation in a new way, the audience can shift their view from viewing the situation as bad to seeing the good in the situation.

Framing is not new, in fact you’re quite used to it. It has been used in Advertising for years to get you to feel or hear a message a specific way. Every day messages are framed to you on television, radio and the internet. A message like, “don’t miss out,” creates a sense of urgency and also pushes you to think about what would happen if you were to miss out on the product. This framing spins the lack of product availability as a great thing. Rather than say, “if you don’t hurry, we’ll sell out,’’ the statement gets you to think about the value of moving fast to get this great product.

So today at Starbucks, a Partner at the drive-thru framed the situation for me perfectly. Upon placing my order and waiting to hear how much I owed, this Partner said so elegantly, “$8.54 is all you’re spending today.”

I have no idea if this Partner was trained to say this or if he was just changing his vernacular with each customer to pass the time, but these words had a profound effect on me today.

Let’s consider the other options.

“You owe $8.54”

“Your total due today is $8.54”

“Today’s cost is $8.54”

“The damage is $8.54”

All of these statements are absolutely normal in a transaction and we take for granted that we’re just used to hearing it. So to hear someone completely frame the situation into a positive context of, “that’s all you’re spending today,” almost caused me to pause and order more stuff.

By framing the situation the way he did, it gave me a sense of optimism that perhaps I haven’t spent a ridiculous amount of money at Starbucks in my lifetime or that the $20 I was about to add to my app was a bargain. None of these thoughts are true by the way, but a simple framing of the situation caused me to pause for a second where I otherwise wouldn’t have.

Think about your day with your team and how you’re addressing them with the framing of your words. Can you take a situation that otherwise may be looked at as a challenge and turn it into something positive or shift the way of thinking?

The difference between, “all of this hiring is stressful,” and “the stress we’re feeling is a result of amazing growth,” is the framing. As a leader, you choose the words to frame that drives the mindset, culture, and community of your organization.

by Scott Bond