1. Reframing Organizations, 4th ed.

2. Introduction The Power of Reframing
Virtues and Drawbacks of Organized Activity
The Curse of Cluelessness
Strategies for Improving Organizations: The Track Record
Framing
Multiframe Thinking

3. 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.

4. Are top managers clueless?
CEO Jeff Skilling thought Enron was “in excellent shape” when he quit a few months before it collapsed

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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

8. 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

9. Strategies to improve organizations
Better management
Consultants
Government policy and regulation

10. 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

11. 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”

12. Structural Frame Roots: sociology, management science
Key concepts: goals, roles (division of labor), formal relationships
Central focus: alignment of structure with goals and environment

13. Human Resource Frame Roots: personality and social psychology
Key concepts: needs (motives), capacities (skills), feelings
Central focus: fit between individual and organization

14. Political Frame Roots: political science
Key concepts: interests, conflict, power, scarce resources
Central focus: getting and using power, managing conflict to get things done

15. Symbolic Frame Roots: social and cultural anthropology
Key concepts: culture, myth, ritual, story,
Central focus: building culture, staging organizational drama

16. Structural and Human Resource Frames

17. Political and Symbolic Frames

18. 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

19. Conclusion Narrow thinking  clueless managers
Multiple frames improve understanding, promote versatility
Multiple frames enable reframing: viewing the same thing from multiple perspectives