Framing helps individuals interpret data. When starting a conversation with someone, the person starts thinking about why we are talking to them and what they need to do with the information. To avoid the listener creating their own interpretations, it’s important that we make everything clear. Framing consists of 3 parts: context, intent & key message.

1. Context = helping the audience focus on the topic you want to talk about
2. Intent = making it clear what the audience should do with the information
3. Key message = the one line that summarizes the entire topic

Context

Starting a conversation with a clear context focuses your audience on the topic you want to talk about and helps filter out the other things that are in their head. Context is ALWAYS needed for every conversation and can be simply done with 1 statement.

• Name the project or the issue
• Name the process, system, or tool you will talk about
• Give the name of the customer with whom you are working
• Name the talk or objective you want to discuss

Examples:

• I’m working on project ABC…
• I was reviewing the new information security policy…
• We’re closing the sale on the Jefferson account…
• I read the marketing report you sent me…
• The office supplies have arrived…
• The new budget came out…
• We’re receiving the policy for XYZ…

Intent

Make it clear why you are communicating. This is because whenever we receive information, it takes our brains a few moments to work out what to do with it. We try to work out if we have to answer a question, or if the speaker is looking for a response, and so on. Setting a clear intent avoids twists and turns in conversations and helps keep to the point. Almost all work conversations have one of the below intents.

Category of Intention	Examples
Needing help/advice/input	Can you help me? We need your input. I need some advice Can you explain something?
Requesting Action	Can you provide an update on ABC? Can you send the contract to Zoë?
Wanting a Decision	We need a decision on XYZ.
Letting someone know something is about to happen, so they are not surprised.	Heads up, something is about to happen on ABC. You need to know this before you talk to the client.
Providing information/input the other person asked for previously.	Here’s the report you asked for. Here’s the information you’ve requested.

What if you just want to talk?

Start with “I have a funny story to share…” or “You might find this interesting…”. Or you can also ask a question instead of making a statement: “Do you have time for a funny story…” or “Would you like to know what happened with XYZ?” or “Can I vent for a minute?”

Examples combining Context and Intent:

• “Hi, can I talk to you about TechCorp? It’s not urgent, but I thought you might find it funny”
• “I’m about to submit a request for time off for and it needs your approval.”
• “I read the marking report you sent me and I think we have an opportunity.”
• “The office supplies arrived and there’s a problem with the delivery.”
• “The new budget came out. Here’s the summary report.”

Key Message

The key message is the line that contains the most important piece of information your audience needs to know. It’s key for having the listener better understand the rest of the detailed information later on.

For example: You give a clear intent asking for advice. However, if you don’t deliver a clear key message, the other person will not know what you need advice about.

Telling a story in chronological order often leads to having the key message at the end. This can turn a simple update into a rambling, long-winded story. People may think in the meanwhile: “so what?”, “why are you telling me this?”, “Is there something you need me to do?”, or “I’m not sure what to do with that information”.

Examples:

• We are closing the Davison Group today
• The sales system is down, and it will take up to a week to fix
• Can I please take next week off work?
• The team beat the service-level target
• Our most experienced developer is leaving
• We are over budget OR We will finish early
• I missed a deadline, and the customer is upset
• The client is asking for more time

Putting it all together

All 3 elements are necessary to deliver a complete message. Together they form a framing statement that will start your work conversations quickly and clearly. With framing, most messages can be delivered faster and with greater clarity. In the beginning it might take time to build good framing messages, but this is the best investment you can make in your communication skills as after some time it will flow naturally.

Example:

• Context: I’m working on the Jefferson account
• Intent: I’ve got good news
• Key Message: We just got them as a new client

Example:

• Context: I’ve read the report you sent me
• Intent: Can you explain something?
• Key message: I want to understand the change in timeline.

Example:

• Context: I reviewed the new IT policy
• Intent: I need you to take action
• Key message: Our firewall is no longer compliant

Example:

• Context: I want to reward my team
• Intent: You should know
• Key Message: I’m going to spend the entire bonus budget

Example:

• Context: I’m working on project ABC
• Intent: You should know
• Key message: We missed a deadline but the customer said it’s ok

Example:

• Context: The kitchen sink is leaking
• Intent: I need your help
• Key message: Can you call a plumber?

Example:

• Context: I’m testing the LT-10
• Intent: We have a problem
• Key message: We’re going to finish a month later than planned

Keep separate topics separate

Many of our work conversations include more than one topic, which makes it harder to be clear and increases risk of confusion exponentially. Single topics have 1 context, 1 intent and 1 key message, but with more conversations you can have more contexts, different intents for each topic, and a variety of key messages.

One framing only happens when you have 1 context and 1 intent. How to tell if you have more than one topic:

1. More than one context = more than one topic of conversation = more than one framing.
2. More than one intent = more than one purpose for the conversation = more than one framing (even if it’s for the same context)

Once you have the separate framing for each topic, create a single summary framing for the entire conversation. This helps prepare the audience for different topics.

• Context = need to talk about multiple topics
• Intent = combination of the different topics intents combined into a single sentence
• The key message = combination of the different key messages for each topic

Example Conversation Framing about 3 topics:

• Context: I’d like to talk to you about 3 things
• Intent: I need some advice, and I have a couple of decisions
• Key Message: We have an issue with the office supply delivery. I’d like to nominate Dave for an award, and I have a request for some time off.

2 topics with one context

Example conversation framing with 1 context, multiple intents:

• Context: I have an update about the regional roll-out with 2 topics
• Intent and Key Message #1: An FYI about the team’s great performance
• Intent and Key Message #2: A request for a decision about the extra staffing

Sometimes we get so deep in the detail of topic #1, we forget there’s a second topic on the list of things to talk about. Even if you forget, your audience might remind you about the second topic because of the initial framing.

A structured summary comes after framing and is the way to summarize large and complex topics in a way that is always clear and easy to understand. A structured summary contains three parts: Goal, Problem, Solution (GPS) and forms the basis for the rest of the conversation.

Goal is what you are trying to do or achieve. E.g. get to the flag.

Problem is why you are having trouble doing or achieving it. E.g. An obstacle in the way.

Solution is what you will do to solve the problem and reach the goal. E.g. Build a bridge over the obstacle.

The 3 elements of GPS are separate elements that make up your message, so don’t combine them. E.g. the problem and goal are often mixed up as solving the problem is seen as the goal.

Example Structured summary:

• Goal: Wouldn’t it be great if we could start conversations about large and complex topics in a way that was always clear and easy to understand?
• Problem: Communication courses tell us to be concise, to start with a summary of the topic, but rarely show us exactly how to create a summary. It’s one thing to know you should be doing something. It’s quite another to know how to do it.
• Solution: The solution to this problem is to create a structured summary using what I call the “Goal, Problem, Solution” method.

No matter how complex the topic, it can ALWAYS be summarized in less than a minute.

Why this structure?

After you take out socializing and entertaining conversations, most work discussions are about solving problems and overcoming challenges. All companies have goals, targets, and deadlines and most of our daily work effort is about making sure those goals and targets are met. With this info it’s easy to create a framework for summarizing any topic in any situation. Conversations should not focus on problems, they should focus on solving problems. Our communication therefore should be structured to focus on clarifying the problem and getting closer to a solution.

1. You have a problem and need to find a solution
2. You have a problem and are recommending a solution
3. You had a problem, it has been solved, and you are reporting the outcome

If you don’t have the solution yet, the conversation is to help finding a solution.

• Option 1: Ask help for finding a solution. This may seem like giving extra work.
• Option 2: Better is to propose a solution that to ask for help without having any ideas of your own. E.g. if you have ideas you can ask for advice

The structured summary is an introduction to the conversation; it’s not the entire conversation. Its purpose is not to pack all the information into a few lines, but it’s a clear concise way to give your audience an overview of what’s coming next.

Examples

Example 1:

• Context: I’ve just spoken to the Davison Group.
• Intent: Can you help me with a problem?
• Key Message: They didn’t get the last shipment and want a refund.
• Goal: The Davison Group prepaid for a shipment last month that didn’t arrive; we need to fix this.
• Problem: I can’t find the shipment, and the refund is above the limit I can approve.
• Solution: Can you authorize the refund and help me find the missing shipment?

Example 2:

• Context: I reviewed the new information security policy
• Intent: We need to take action
• Key Message: Our firewall is not compliant anymore
• Goal: The new industry regulations require a level-five firewall for all ecommerce transactions to keep payment data secure
• Problem: Our current software will only allow us to support up to level four
• Solution: We need to come up with a plan for upgrading the software and present it to the leadership team for approval.

Every problem requires 1 framing, but there’s 1 exception to it. If multiple problems have a common cause, that common cause becomes the singular problem to address. The root cause is what gets summarized as part of the GPS structure. For example:

• Goal: to deliver a product upgrade on time
• Problem: we are going to miss the go-live date because we have multiple related issues, each with different timelines.
• Solution: I need to get time with your team to work through the issues and create a response plan.

Focus on solutions

Conversations that focus on the causes of the problems are only positive when the goal of the conversation is to prevent the problem from happening again. Most of our communication is to focus on the actions required to solve the problem.

When giving a status update, focus on the steps already taken to fix the problem. If you haven’t taken any steps already, you can summarize the steps you will take to solve the problem. If you don’t know what steps to take, the intent of the conversation is probably to get input from your audience to help you find a solution.

Example 1:

• Context: I’ve just spoken to the Davison Group
• Intent: Can you help me with a problem?
• Key Message: I didn’t get the last shipment and want a refund.
• Goal: The Davison Group prepaid for a large shipment last month that didn’t arrive. We need to fix this.
• Problem: I can’t find the shipment, and the refund is above the limit I can approve.
• Solution: Can you authorize the refund and help me find the missing shipment?

Example 2:

• Context: I reviewed the new information security policy
• Intent: We need to take action
• Key Message: Our firewall is not compliant anymore
• Goal: The new industry regulations require us to have a level five firewall for all e-commerce transactions to keep payment data secure.
• Problem: Our current software will only allow us to support up to level four.
• Solution: We need to come up with the plan for upgrading the software and present it to the leadership team for approval.

Final note: if you have a summary but can’t memorize it, just write it down. The audience will thank you for it. The audience will focus more on the content of the message than the delivery. Most leaders give speeches using prepared notes and scripts. If it wasn’t important to get the content of the message right, the teleprompter wouldn’t exist.

There are 2 steps to take in the first minute to ensure you start the conversation well.

• Step #1: Time Check: This sets expectations for how much time you need.
• Step #2: Validation checkpoint: This step clarifies if your audience can talk now.

These steps come at the beginning and end of the message you have created using framing and structured summary.

Step 1: Time Check – Do you have X minutes?

A common question used to start an unplanned conversation is “Do you have a minute” or “Do you have a moment”. If it really takes only a minute, that’s ok but it rarely takes less than a minute for people to get to the point, let alone complete a conversation. When the conversation takes longer than expected it puts the audience in the awkward position of either having to interrupt the speaker or choosing to spend more time than expected on the conversation. This can have its own consequences like being late for other meetings or having less break time.

• Ask for the amount of time you actually need. Instead of asking for a minute, ask for as much time, or more time, than you think it will take to have the conversation. Don’t ask for a minute if you’ll need 5 or 10 minutes. If you can’t meet your deadline, people may doubt your ability to deliver against deadlines.
• Get to the point quickly. Use the framing and structured summary framework. In this way, you get to the point and leave more time left for the true conversation.

Step 2: Validation Check – Are you the right person? Is now a good time?

After the time check, delivering your framing and structured summary. Your audience now already had a great introduction and the audience agreed to talk to you, but you should verify that your audience is able to engage in the conversation after they have heard the additional information. For someone to help you with a problem, the person must have the ability and the availability to do so.

• Ability – the other person should have knowledge, access, or authority to help with your request. Ask if the other person has the ability to help.
• Availability – the time and the desire to help. Ask if they have the time to help. We tend to assume that the other person is also ready to speak to us but that may not be the case. Give the audience a choice to continue or leave.

The audience may have several options:

• Be prepared to continue the discussion immediately
• Not be ready to have the conversation at that moment
• Tell you they are not the right person for the topic (and potentially redirect you)
• Want to clarify something you said in the framing or the structured summary

Examples:

• Are you the right person to help with this?
• Do you have time to talk about this now?
• Do you have any questions about what I just described?

What if you don’t know the right person to talk to? In this case, your framing and structured summary should be focused on finding the person to help with your issue rather than focusing on the issue itself.

Example:

• Context: I’m locked out of the sales system.
• Intent: Can you help me?
• Key Message: Do you know how I can reset my password?

The techniques just described can be applied to more than just conversation-based communication. Emails, meeting invitations, escalations, presentations, and even interviews can benefit from these techniques.

Emails

• Context goes in the subject line
• Intent can go in the subject line or in the first line of the email
• Your key message should be stated in the first line of the email
• The goal, problem, and solution are labeled bullet points or separate short paragraphs in the main message.

You can use bold or bullet points to make sure each of the elements are included. Using request instead of solution can help clarify the intent.

Example

Subject: Website updates – priority decision needed

Hi Diane,

Can you help me with a priority order decision for the website development team?

Goal: The product team has asked us to fix a problem with the login screen on the website. This is an urgent request because customers are calling and complaining they can’t access their accounts.

Problem: We have limited resources on our team, and other pieces of work would have to move to a later delivery date for this change to occur.

Solution/request: Can you help me understand the priority for the following items? Which one can be delayed?

• Item 1: Layout changes for sidebar menus on the homepage
• Item 2: Automate the generation of the PDFs
• Item 3: Add a question form to the contact page

We have until Friday to decide on what to delay, so you have a couple of days. Please call me if you have any questions.

Thanks

Some emails don’t need structured summaries

Every mail needs context, intent and key message. Not every mail needs to include a summary using the GPS method. For example, one-line questions, replying to a message, participating in a group discussion, providing feedback, etc.

For complex topics, the first email sent should have a structured summary to ensure the topic is clear, but subsequent emails in response to the original message don’t need a summary. Think of email as a chain of conversations.

If you are in a complex chain of conversations, it can be needed to use a structured summary in the middle of the chain. Be the one to bring clarity to the conversation.

Forwarding email chains

There is one situation where it is always a good idea to include a structured summary in an email chain, and that is when forwarding email chains. This avoids the other person having to dig for information, or guess why you are sending this to them. When forwarding an email, write your email as though you are starting a new conversation.

Meeting invitations & first minute of meetings

On average 15% of every working day is spent in meetings and this number increases to 35% for managers and executives. Everyone in the meeting wants to know the purpose of the meeting and what will come of it. The output can be a decision, a more-informed group of people, a list of ideas, solutions, and so on.

Meeting invitation

Start every meeting invitation with a framing containing the following elements:

• Subject line:
  • Context
  • Intent
• Key message: containing 2 new items
  • Meeting Purpose: one line describing what the meeting is for
  • Meeting output: one line stating the expected outcome or output of the meeting
• Structured summary: This will provide a concise summary of the meeting topic and help people prepare for the discussion.

Keep the bolded words in the invite as this guides readers through the message and makes it easier to understand. No time check nor validation point is needed for invitations.

For most meetings an agenda is not needed as the purpose and the output of the meeting is the agenda. However, if there are multiple speakers, topics, etc., an agenda helps show the order of the topics.

Agenda:

• Topic 1: framing
• Topic 2: framing
• …

Don’t forward blank meeting invitations. This will raise questions with the receiver.

Starting a meeting

The best way to start a meeting is to review the meeting invitation. It’s important to review it at the start of the meeting for several reasons:

• Not everyone reads the invite, and if they do so it may have been some days ago.
• A clear introduction focuses the attendees on the topic at hand
• The audience is aligned: same goal, problem, proposed solution.
• Provides the opportunity to ask questions, validate or clarify the goal, problem, proposed solution.
• Time reduced talking about the history of the problem by adding already info about solutions.

TIP: make meeting introductions easier for yourself by creating a well-structured invitation.

Use validation checkpoints to reduce irrelevant meetings

Meeting invitations don’t need a validation checkpoint, but there’s a lot of value in including one at the start of the meeting itself. Adding a validation checkpoint after introducing the meeting using framing and structured summary has many benefits:

• Attendees can ask additional questions
• Allows the group to confirm the right people are in the meeting
• Ideal time to let people choose to leave the meeting
• Give enough information to the attendees to make an informed decision.

“If it isn’t something you need to be involved in, feel free to leave.”

“Hi Kim, we aren’t covering anything related to your team today. You can stay if you want to, but I don’t mind if you leave.”

Unexpected questions

When you receive a question and you are not prepared, the answer may result in a flustered and rambling response. In these situations, the techniques mentioned earlier in this book can help to create a clear, concise response.

Manager: “Can you tell us what caused sales to be lower than expected this month?”

You: “Sales were lower than expected this month because … [ insert key message] [Insert goal, problem, solution.]”

Using a structured summary makes it easier to avoid emotional responses and excuses because you are focused on the solution. The answer can focus on steps taken to avoid a worse result or the actions being taken to improve the result in the near future. Information is always positive.

Escalating Issues

Escalation happens when you need someone higher than you in the organization to take action or be aware of the situation. Cfr. Earlier “Heads – up / FYI” and “Request for help” examples. Framing and structured summaries are essential for good communication when escalating an issue: Fast to the point, fact-based & focused on solving the problem.

Framing Interview Answers

In interview questions when you apply for a job, you may get following questions:

• “Give me an example of …”
• “Tell me about a time when …”

That’s an excellent moment to prove your communication skills. By using framing and structured summary, you can describe any situation in under a minute.

Framing:

• Context: Describe the situation using generic terms. Don’t use project or system names that may have no meaning to anyone outside your current team.
• Intent: state what you needed to happen in the situation
• Key message: what is the main message describing the difficult situation? This is usually the problem or challenge that you successfully overcame.

Structured summary:

• Goal: describe the goal for the situation. This may be your goal, the company goal, or someone else’s goal that you helped them achieve. This may duplicate a little of what you said in the framing section, but that is alright. As long as you don’t repeat the same words from framing, it will help reinforce the information in the example.
• Problem: describe the problem that stopped you, the other person, or the company from achieving the goal.
• Solution: Briefly describe what you did to overcome the difficult problem. If you describe a problem that someone else faced, the solution is what you did to help them solve it.

Prepare before the interview! Two examples can be found in the book “The First Minute” on page 110.

Fenning, C. (2021). The First Minute: How to Start Conversations that Get Results. Lioncrest Publishing.

Further Readings

• Chris Fenning Official Website - Author of "The First Minute" and communication resources.
• Harvard Business Review - Communication - Articles and studies on workplace communication.
• Toastmasters International - Community for improving public speaking and leadership skills.
• Mind Tools - Communication Skills - Tools and resources for enhancing communication skills.
• TED Talks - Communication - Inspiring TED Talks on communication.
• SkillsYouNeed - Communication Skills - In-depth articles and resources on communication.