What Are Foundational Frameworks? Part 1

From College Grad to Coffee Consultant

When I graduated from college, I thought I didn’t want to go into engineering. In fact, I thought I wanted to be an outdoor guide and lead people on mountaineering and whitewater rafting trips.

And part of my training as I was exploring that was to go to Mount Adams and climb to the summit. Now, if you’ve done any type of mountaineering whatsoever, you know what this is: an ice ax.

Engineering School to Snow School

Part of our training on Mount Adams was called Snow School.

And one of the things they showed us how to do was self-arrest or stop ourselves when we were sliding down a snow-covered slope.

And we literally did the things shown in this picture. We stood backwards on a hill covered in snow, and we threw ourselves down the slope backwards and use the ice ax to stop ourselves from sliding off the edge of the cliff.

Everything was under control… ish

Now in snow school, the edge of the cliff was very, very far away. There is no danger whatsoever.

However, the principles that we learned and specifically the tool that we used, the ice ax, is very similar to what we mean when we say a Foundational Framework, it’s a tool. And if you think about the way most people live, their daily lives, it’s a lot like Snow School.

Feel like you’re falling backwards down a snowy cliff? Me too…

A lot of people day after day, feel like they’re tumbling down a snow-covered slope… backwards… completely out of control. And a foundational framework is a lot like an ice ax, and we’re going to show them how to use.

A Foundational Framework is a lot like an ice ax, and we show our clients how to use it so that they can stop themselves from sliding off the edge of the cliff.

A Word of Warning

Foundational Frameworks aren’t magic, there are consequences when you use them. Just like an ice ax, when you use it to self-arrest, your knuckles still get scuffed!

These are Not “Hacks”

The question is not “are these magic hacks?” The question is, “is it better to have bloody knuckles or slide off the edge of the cliff into oblivion?”

I vote bloody knuckles.