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Next week I start teaching an online workshop called Create Your Framework.
In this blog post I’ll discuss why I think it’s important for every authentic business to have its own framework…
First of all, here are some examples of frameworks, and what type they are:
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (pyramid)
The Work of Byron Katie (linear)
The 5 Love Languages (archetypal)
The Authentic Business Framework (grid) … by yours truly 🙂
These and many other frameworks are helpful to better understand oneself and the world.
However, as you’ve studied other frameworks, you probably notice that none are perfectly comprehensive, or perhaps not worded the way you’d prefer.
When it comes to understanding and integrating your life experiences, no framework is ideal, except for the one you create and evolve.
If you do create and share your framework with others, the resulting conversations will help you reflect and grow, and your framework may even greatly benefit others.
Your Framework Makes Your Work Irreplaceable
Once you’ve created your own framework, it becomes a unique way of thinking about the world and working through a specific set of problems or achieving a specific set of goals.
No one else will think about those sets of problems or goals in quite the same way that your framework does.
Although other people may create related frameworks, yours will be a system that comes from your own experiences and research, and nothing can replace that. It will keep evolving based on your learning.
Your Framework Will Change Lives
As you develop your framework and get it out into the world, your true fans may deeply resonate with it.
Your framework will show them where they are on their journey, and where they need to go. It provides both validation and guidance.
Every Important Idea will have a Place
When you create your own framework, you start to learn and study better, because your brain has somewhere to put everything. Or, if you encounter some idea that doesn’t fit, your brain starts to look for a new category.
Imagine that as you continue discovering or creating knowledge, you’ll have a framework in which you can place all important ideas!
You’ll have fewer “open loops” in your mind that cause confusion or anxiety. There will be a bucket for everything.
All Frameworks Evolve
Of course, your framework doesn’t have to be set in stone (yet!) and can continue to grow in new directions.
As you apply your own framework to your work or content creation, you’ll come to see that some parts that can be eliminated, extended, combined, or changed completely… especially in the early days.
When you use someone else’s framework, you don’t have the right to change theirs. The beauty of having your framework is that you can modify and update it anytime you like.
Audiences Appreciate Updated Frameworks!
You might be concerned that changing your framework might seem flaky, but in my experience (with my own business and many other thought-leader businesses), announcing an update of a framework has more benefits than drawbacks.
The re-launch or update of a framework will create a natural marketing buzz and introduce it to people who hadn’t seen it previously.
Those who already adopted your framework will be glad to know that it’s even better than before. You get to explain the insights that led to the changes. This gives you additional opportunities to create new content/products/programs, or update older ones.
I encourage everyone who loves knowledge to learn how to create their own framework.
If you’d like to learn alongside me and other students, I’m facilitating an online course called Create Your Framework. (You can join live or watch the recordings later.)
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This post was previously published on www.georgekao.com and is republished here with permission from the author.
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Photo credit: Istockphoto.com