Resistance is a Frame
Frames at Work, Late September Edition
I’ve been leading change lately, and I want to write about it while I’m still inside it, because that’s when the lessons are honest.
The specifics don’t matter, and honestly they never do. Every organization I’ve ever been part of has run into the same moment: something has to change, the case for it is clear, and the change still doesn’t move. Not because the idea is wrong. Because the idea has to pass through people, and people have Frames.
I’ve been living in that moment for a few weeks now. And I’m meeting resistance from people who, for the most part, believe things are already working.
If you’ve ever tried to change anything inside an organization, you know exactly what I mean.
What change actually looks like
It rarely looks like a fight. It looks like the way things are being presented as finished when they’re really just familiar. It looks like someone quietly stepping back from the work while staying close enough to weigh in on it. It looks like your best intentions getting read as criticism, and your questions getting read as proof that you don’t understand.
I’ve been on the receiving end of some sharp words lately. Some of it was fair. Some of it wasn’t. All of it landed.
And here is the sentence that kept me from matching any of it.
Every ounce of resistance I’m meeting is a Frame. Not a personality flaw, not a political move, not a verdict on me. A Frame. The only real question is which one.
Organizations are Frame Stacks at scale
Framed Minds teaches that every person carries a stack of protective patterns, formed early, that decide how they respond when something feels unsafe. Change control is the corporate name for a moment where almost everything feels unsafe at once. A new way threatens the old way. A new role threatens an existing lane. A new question threatens whoever had the old answer.
So the Frames show up on schedule.
The Protector shows up as walls. Conversations you’re not part of, information shared on a need to know basis, a colleague who steps away from the work while watching every move. Its core belief is “If I don’t stay in control, I’ll get hurt.” Change feels like exactly that.
The Controller shows up as the process itself. Follow the process. Don’t go around the process. Nothing is wrong with the process. Its belief is “If I can predict everything, I’ll be safe,” and anything new is unpredictable by definition.
The Judge shows up in how your words get received. Gentle language becomes criticism. Questions become accusations. The Judge can’t take in a different view without handing down a verdict on it first.
The Performer shows up as expertise. “We already have this handled” is often the Performer protecting the one thing it can’t afford to lose, which is being the person who knew.
And sometimes it isn’t their Frame at all. It’s yours. My Performer wanted to prove I understood more than anyone assumed. My Judge had a case half built. I had a message drafted that leaned on my years and named someone’s tone, and the only reason it never went out is that I’ve learned to recognize that feeling as a Frame before I mistake it for a plan.
Resistance isn’t the enemy of change. It’s information about what people are protecting. Change control done well is Frame control: you find out what each person is guarding, you protect the safety, and you replace the behavior.
How I actually responded
I’ll share the move that worked, because I think it’s repeatable anywhere.
When I was asked for my perspective, I didn’t write the rebuttal. I built on what the other side had already said. I agreed with the part that was right, which was most of it. Then I added the one piece I believed was missing, and I offered it as help rather than as territory. I asked to own a piece of the work, not to claim it. And I left the shaping of my own role in the hands of the leader whose call it was.
I also wrote every word as if it would be forwarded to the people who disagreed with me, because it might be, and because that’s the right test anyway. Nothing accusatory survives a forward. That constraint made the message better and made me better.
That’s what staying true to your leadership values looks like in practice. Not being soft. Being unshakable about the problem and generous about the people.
Introducing Frames at Work
This newsletter has been called Frames at Work since the beginning, and this month the platform shipped a feature that finally shares its name.
Your Frames at Work is a new lens inside Framed Minds, and it’s built for exactly the situations I’ve been describing. Here’s how it differs from the Full Self Inventory, because the difference matters.
The Full Self Inventory is the foundation. Sixty items, about fifteen minutes, and it maps all twelve Frames into your canonical Frame Profile. That’s the assessment. It tells you what you carry.
Frames at Work is not a new assessment and it doesn’t rescore you. It starts from the Full Self Inventory you’ve already completed, asks five honest questions about your working life, and then Echo follows your established Frames into one specific room: work. How your lead Frame shows up in meetings, in ambition, in feedback, in boundaries, in how you lead and how you rest. Where your working self looks different from the rest of your life, and where it looks exactly the same. It’s narrative, never numeric. It’s a mirror, not a verdict, and it never changes your profile.
Think of it as chapter two of a report you’ve already read. Chapter one told you your Frames. Chapter two tells you what they’re doing to your career.
It’s included in Navigator. Complete your Full Self Inventory, then find Your Frames at Work on your dashboard.
One practice this week
Pick the person or team resisting your change right now. Before your next exchange with them, write one sentence that starts with “What they might be protecting is…” and finish it honestly.
Then write a second sentence that starts with “What I might be protecting is…”
Lead from the second sentence. It will change the first.
Before this week ends, ask yourself:
Where in my organization is “we already have this handled” doing the work of “we’re afraid to look”?
When resistance comes at me with sharp edges, which Frame do I reach for first?
If my next message were going to be forwarded to the people who disagree with me, would I still send it?
Change is coming for every organization. Resistance will meet it every time. The leaders who get through are the ones who can name the Frame in the room, including their own.
If you want to see what your Frames are doing at work, the founding offer is still open. Code FOUNDING gets you three months of Navigator free, then $15 a month for as long as you stay.
More soon.
You are not broken. You are framed. framedminds.com
Responses