Recovering When a Frame-Setting Attempt Fails

Chase Hughes's model for what to do when a statement in the Statement-Sets-Frame, Question-Locks-It-In Architecture doesn't land:

Diagnose why it failed — three possibilities: a focus generation problem (the listener wasn't mentally present — "nobody was home to receive it" — even though the statement was technically well executed); the listener heard it but rejected the premise; or the listener was holding a competing frame that deflected it.
Release the frame — fully abandon the failed attempt without referencing or repeating it. Persisting signals a bad plan or low skill. The best operators "don't land the frame on the first try" and drop a failed attempt "without flinching" — paradoxically, dropping it cleanly reads as more dangerous/skilled, because it shows you have more than one way in.
Shift the class, don't intensify — switch to a different statement class entirely for the second attempt (e.g. resonance or concession after a rejected pacing statement) rather than repeating or intensifying the same one ("pacing harder" doesn't work).
Treat the first attempt as a jab, not a knockout — a boxer's-jab technique: the opening statement isn't meant to win the frame outright, it's a probe. Use what the listener protects, dismisses, or counter-offers as data to target the second, better-aimed attempt.