Reframing Organizations

IntroductionThe Power of Reframing

Virtues and Drawbacks of Organized Activity The Curse of Cluelessness Strategies for Improving Organizations: The

Track Record Framing Multiframe Thinking

Are top managers clueless?

Home Depot CEO Bob Nardelli somehow didn’t anticipate that a rushed shareholders’ meeting where no one but him got to say anything would produce bad press and a major rebellion by shareholders and analysts.

Are top managers clueless?

CEO Jeff Skilling thought Enron was “in excellent shape” when he quit a few months before it collapsed

Are top managers clueless?

Joseph Berardino, CEO of Enron’s auditor, Andersen Worldwide, said no one told him some of his partners thought the firm was at risk in approving Enron’s aggressive accounting practices.

Are top manager clueless?

As New Orleans recovered from Hurricane Katrina, the Secretary of Homeland Security told reporters he had no reports of things that viewers had already seen on television news.

Virtues and drawbacks of organization

Prevalence of large, complex organizations is historically recent

Much of society’s important work is done in or by organizations, but…

They often produce poor service, defective or dangerous products and…

Too often they exploit people and communities, and damage the environment

Signs of Cluelessness

Management error produces bankruptcies of public companies every year

Most mergers fail, but companies keep on merging

One study estimates 50 to 75% of American managers are incompetent

Most change initiatives produce little change; some makes things worse

Strategies to improve organizations

Better management ConsultantsGovernment policy and regulation

What is a frame?

Mental map to read and negotiate a “territory” The better the map, the easier it is to know

where you are and get around (a map of New

York won’t help in San Francisco) Frame as window: enables you to see some

things, but not others Frame as tool: effectiveness depends on

choosing the right tool and knowing how to use it

Framing and “Blink” process

Well-learned and practiced frames facilitate “rapid cognition” – the capacity to quickly and accurately size up situations

Qualities of rapid cognition: Nonconscious (you can do it without thinking

about it) Fast Holistic Results in “affective judgments”

Structural Frame

Roots: sociology, management science Key concepts: goals, roles (division of labor),

formal relationships Central focus: alignment of structure with

goals and environment

Human Resource Frame

Roots: personality and social psychology Key concepts: needs (motives), capacities

(skills), feelings Central focus: fit between individual and

organization

Political Frame

Roots: political science Key concepts: interests, conflict, power,

scarce resources Central focus: getting and using power,

managing conflict to get things done

Symbolic Frame

Roots: social and cultural anthropology Key concepts: culture, myth, ritual, story, Central focus: building culture, staging

organizational drama

Structural and Human Resource Frames

Frame Structural Human Resource

Metaphor fororganization

Factory or Machine Family

Central concepts Rules, roles, goals,policies, technology,environment

Needs, skills,relationships

Image ofLeadership

Social architecture Empowerment

Basic leadershipchallenge:

Align structure to task, technology, environment

Align organization andhuman needs

Political and Symbolic Frames

Frame Political Symbolic

Metaphor fororganization

Jungle Carnival, temple, theater

Centralconcepts

Power, conflict,competition,organizational politics

Culture, meaning,metaphor, ritual,ceremony, stories, heroes

Image ofLeadership

Advocacy Inspiration

Basic leadershipchallenge:

Develop agenda andpower base

Create faith, beauty, meaning

Expanding managerial thinking

Traditional management thinking

Artistic thinking

See only one or two frames

Holistic, multi-frame perspective

Try to solve all problems with logic, structure

Rich palette of options

Seek certainty, control, avoid ambiguity, paradox

Develop creativity, playfulness

One right answer, one best way

Principled flexibility

Conclusion

Narrow thinking clueless managers Multiple frames improve understanding,

promote versatility Multiple frames enable reframing: viewing the

same thing from multiple perspectives