Reframing. It’s a vitally important topic on the Winning Mindset Mastery Podcast. It’s a valuable, life-enhancing skill. We often think about reframing in terms of what it does for us. But have you ever thought about how reframing can help you help other people? It can! In today’s episode, you’ll hear the inspiring, thought-provoking story of a man who reframes in a way that helps people. And also save lives! Tune in now!
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How To Use Reframing To Help Other People
I am excited about this episode and how I know it’s going to help you because it’s a great example of a reframe. It’s a situation that any of us would encounter at any different time. If you have been reading the blog for a while, you know that one episode a week I like to dedicate to a reframe. 1) It is a fantastic skill to develop your winning mindset. 2) You get better at it, both by practicing it yourself and hearing how other people might reframe a situation. They are a little more objective. They might have some ways of looking at it that are a little different from yours and can make you even better.
I had someone share a story with me for a reframe. They had reframed it themselves and did a fantastic job that can help lots and lots of folks. This gentleman is David Marlowe. I think the world of him. He has done a lot in his career to help enable businesses and people to do things in a better way. Part of that is from his out-of-the-box thinking. You know me. If there’s a problem, I’m going to tell you that the answer to fix it is mindset. Most of the time, it is. That was the case here.
If there's a problem, most of the time the answer to fixing it is mindset. Share on XMany years ago, David was part of a team that helped to monitor and repair MRI machines in hospitals that get special imaging for patients. When I said many years ago, this was before the internet. They maybe had 14-bit modems. I think that’s what you call them. Most of what they did was over the phone, talking the technicians through different troubleshooting, or they had to shut down the machine, go out to the hospital, and lose a few days of being able to help the patient. It was a big deal to be able to fix things over the phone.
What they found out after lots of time testing and going through this process was the most likely thing that was keeping the machine from working was having the wrong weight typed in for the individual. As for the technology and the way it worked, if a 200-pound man was in the machine and you accidentally only typed 20 pounds, there wouldn’t be enough power for it to do the imaging it needed to do.
Here’s the tough part. They don’t know these texts are on the phone with them. In order for them to have the text check if that is the problem, the tech has to admit they are wrong. Keep this in mind. In this particular environment, these are folks who know their mistakes can mean life or death. They are cautious and not willing to admit that they may have made a mistake. That’s what his team kept running into. The thing is, we are all human. That happens.
Reframing: We’re humans. Mistakes happen.
David came up with a brilliant reframe to not only help these technicians but help keep the machines up and running and help more patients. That reframe was to say to the technicians, “Sometimes the keyboards can skip.” If anyone has ever typed on a keyboard quite a bit, or if you are like me, you type aggressively on the keyboard, sometimes they give out like the E isn’t working anymore. That’s plausible. That can happen. It also allowed the text to make the check without David making them wrong.
By reframing what might be wrong and saying that the “keyboard” might have skipped, which is technically true. Even if they typed it wrong, the keyboard did skip a number. It did it because it wasn’t typed in. By making that simple change, those techs were able to check for the “keyboard” error. Over 90% of those machines were up and running in minutes. That made a tremendous change for David and his team, for the techs who were trying to help their patients, and for the hospitals that used those machines all over the nation with one simple reframe.
Reframing: By making that simple change, those techs were able to check for the “keyboard” error.
What is powerful about this is it’s the same principle. We reframe so that we can see opportunities and know that things are happening for us, not to us. Sometimes we simply reframe so the situation feels better and we are more empowered. That’s what David did for those folks so that he could help them. He could have chosen to be right and said, “I know this is what you did.” I got on a plane, flew out there, and verified that he was right, but he wouldn’t be helping anyone that way.
Reframing: We reframe so that we can see opportunities and know that things are happening for us, not to us.
The next time you have a situation come up where you get to choose between whether or not you are going to be right or whether or not you are going to reframe someone to help them and you, I would love to hear about it. This is something that can save you a lot of time, make your job a lot easier, and help a lot more people.
Go to my website for the show. It’s WinningMindsetMasteryPodcast.com. At the very bottom of the page, you will see a section called Ask April. The great thing about that is you can talk to me through that little button. You push it and go for it. It will send me that message directly. I can answer you too in my voice and privately, whatever question you have about mindset, reframing, or an idea for the show.
That will keep us in a two-way conversation. That will be lots of fun. While you are there, we still have a few weeks before the drawing for the grand prize VIP day with me, where you and I can spend some time together in person. We will work on mindset, business, or whatever it is. It’s all about you and I can’t wait to spend time together. Here’s to your success.
