Frames of reference are everywhere. For example, if you are in the northern hemisphere and you look into the night sky, you will see the visible universe as a collection of stars grouped into constellations.  Now imagine a person in the southern hemisphere looking at the night sky; the person will still see the visible universe as a collection of stars grouped into constellations but they will be a different set; the 2 people have different frames of reference.

If the person in the southern hemisphere says to the person in the northern hemisphere “I think that there is something happening to the fourth STAR in the Southern Cross constellation”, the northern hemisphere person may not know what the other is talking about and certainly could not TELL if something was happening or not

We all have our own unique frames of reference for every subject in our heads; they are based on our experiences of childhood, PARENTING, education, religion, previous interactions with other people etc and even where we are physically located.

If you live in a country where there are words written in the road to warn you of something, like “SLOW”, if you are in a car, you will see the word SLOW ‘normally’ but if you were in a helicopter above the word you will see it vertically elongated.

It is the same sign but it is seen differently because of the different frame of reference for the viewers.

So why is this important to you?  When people are communicating the words and ideas that they express come from their own frame of reference and the potential for miscommunication is high if the frames of reference of the listener are not similar to that of the listener.  Imagine trying to describe a hippopotamus to someone who has never seen one; would you try an ANALOGY with something your listener had seen? Would you try to draw one? Not simple!

As a Scrum Master/Facilitator you need to be aware of different peoples’ frames of reference when they are communicating so that you can spot possible misunderstandings in listeners.

The participants in product development workshops will all have their own frames of reference from business and technical and even between people within the same skill set depending on their individual experience.

Listen for jargon and abbreviations in conversation and ensure that all listeners know what the speaker is talking about.

The ‘Groan Zone’
After a period of divergent thinking (see Q – What are ‘divergent’ and ‘convergent’ thinking? ), most groups enter a Groan Zone.

Having just ‘brainstormed’ a list, the next task, in theory, is simple; sift through the ideas and pick a few to discuss in depth. 

In practice that task can be difficult because everyone has their own frame of reference;  when people misunderstand one another, they become more confused, more impatient and possibly more self-centered; people repeat themselves, they interrupt, they dismiss other people's ideas and rudely put each other down.

Without a facilitator, at some point, the participants will agree to almost anything, any half-baked, unrealistic, mediocre compromise, just as long as it will get them out of the room.

One way to help workshop participants gain an understanding of each other's ideas is to encourage them to ask direct questions of one another and listen carefully to the answers. 

However, there are some challenges to this ‘simple’ approach:

• Some participants fear that asking questions MIGHT seem confrontational or rude
• Many people cannot cope with the ambiguity of unstructured inquiry and dialogue for very long
• It is hard for everyone to tolerate the poor behaviors and emotional turmoil that occurs when people feel misunderstood