There is a step that I find most people are missing when it comes to designing their framework.

And that is taking their framework from themes and distilling those themes down into the practical skills that that framework represents. 

So what do I mean by skills associated with your framework?

What I mean is - What does someone need to do, and to what degree of proficiency, to achieve that element of your framework?

For example, if a pillar of my framework is facilitation, or the ability to hold space, I can’t just say a pillar is facilitation and leave it there. 

I need to actually describe what the ability to hold space looks like.

Is that the ability to facilitate conversation, to hold boundaries, to structure a space so that people feel comfortable sharing?  And not just those abilities but what does doing that well versus not well, or what does doing that at a level one versus a level five look like? 

The problem that happens is that often when we leave things in the thematic world, and then our framework and offer becomes this big amorphous blob that turns into a ton of scope creep with really vague teaching experiences. 

Or it leaves us feeling confused and wondering if we need to have this giant offer that covers absolutely everything under the sun.  

Versus the feeling when you can actually clearly define the skills that go along with the pillar of your framework.

Then that allows you to decide if you want to have offers that specifically focus on one skill. Or if you want to have offers that focus on all the skills but you’re moving your people from a level one proficiency to a level two proficiency, etc. 

And you can start asking yourself - Do I serve different client archetypes where some people that I work with might be starting a level one in all of my skills and my more established clients might be at a level five?

A clearly defined framework allows us to bring a degree of nuance and specificity to our work. 

So if you’re sitting down and you’re looking at your framework or you’re looking at your program and you’re questioning what does this actually mean? 

Here’s an exercise that I find Really Helpful:

If you were going to certify someone in your method, or certify them in your framework, what abilities and skills would you need to see them demonstrate in order for you to feel comfortable and confident certifying them and attaching them to your brand name?


Whether you have a certification program or not, it’s a really helpful exercise because we realize exactly how much specificity we need to include when we start thinking about certifying someone in our program or framework skills. It’s not just enough that they can facilitate. We would want to know what does that facilitation look like? How do they do that? To what degree do they do that? To what proficiency do they demonstrate that?

And by having that clarity it brings such a refinement into our work that allows us to further move our people along in the learning experience - because we can say that I have architected this experience to help you refine a very specific skill to a very specific degree of proficiency.

Already have the inklings of killer program mapped out but need help with creating the framework? Let me help you create your unique framework to go with your brilliant program idea, check out all the details here and turn your brilliant idea into a life-changing online program.

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