Framing is a political tool, and we probably should not use it in IT, but everybody does.
Essentially, framing means using particular terms to promote a viewpoint or a way of seeing something. It happens all the time, and it is a perfectly normal part of communication. For a fuller explanation, I would recommend reading “Don’t Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate” by George Lakoff, which provides useful background on the subject.
You see framing frequently in corporate IT, but you can fight back against it.
When framing is being used against you, particularly when you are trying to get something done, you will often hear complex technical language or reassuring, almost fatherly terms misused. You might hear phrases such as “advisory board” for a group that is supposedly just there to help. But in reality, it may be a group of gatekeepers trying to ensure that nobody does anything they do not like.
You can challenge this by flipping the framing around.
For example, if there is an approval document, which is itself a positive and authoritative term, you can simply call it paperwork.
“We are nearly ready. We just need to complete the paperwork.”
This diminishes what another part of the corporation might describe as an advisory document, governance document or strategic approval document.
The ultimate version of this, which has also been used in American politics, is the phrase “permission slip”.
Suppose you are waiting for approval from a governance board inside a corporation, and it calls its document a “strategic approval document”, which makes it sound like something grand and unarguable when it might be nothing of the sort, but if you refer to it as a permission slip, you completely change the frame.
It stops sounding like guidance, responsible oversight and strategic governance. Instead, it becomes paperwork handed out to a child by someone in authority.
I do not advise doing this. It is not a particularly nice tactic, but you will see people use it against you. They will use overly grand phrases to justify their own work, while using diminutive words and phrases to describe yours.
It is human nature, but it does have a name.
That name is framing.
Keep an eye out for it.