“Engineers, medical people, scientific people have an obsession with solving the problem. in reality, when actually once you reach a basic level of wealth in society, most problems are actually problems of perception” – says Rory Sutherland.
Rory Sutherland is a name in the advertisement industry and probably knows better than most the power of the frame of perception in which people are. Changing the frame is often the solution – alas it is also often hard and long to do. That’s a tool that coaches are using though when it comes to helping people overcome challenges or situations where they feel loss of control.
The key of Rory’s point, however, is that scientific, objective, mathematical approaches are certain to fail. It is all in the way people look at issues. Therefore even if it is difficult, effort needs to be made to change the frame of perception rather than to try to persuade using objective arguments. It comes down to effecting deep changes in people, and this needs a lot of help and support.
Is your problem a real issue or only a problem of perception? What about changing your frame of reference?
Hat tip to Valeria Maltoni’s always excellent blog, and the post ‘The Power of Reframing Things‘
