This week Danny and I wrapped up our final observation of a non-educational organization. We sat down afterwards and took notes like we always do, but this time it felt drastically different. We had officially established rapport and had questions that really seemed to matter. Several of which the owner answered, "you know I haven't really thought about that...I probably should". Our questions weren't diagnostic or even specific; they were open-ended about how they deal with conflict, how they celebrate success, and what their visions of the future are. Perhaps I had been searching for something to offer them after they had spent so much energy and effort offering us a sneak peak into their lives...but it felt good.
The analysis of our notes several days later led to a different kind of feeling. All this reading about labels and identifying phenomena just doesn't have much use...I've been worried for several days now that my report would just be boring labeling and comparison. Most of the good stuff in our observation came from being an objective, curious observer of people...not an academic searching for conceptual or theoretical meaning. I don't need to label nametags "symbolic" or work retreats "culture"...I don't need Senge to identify their philosophies as "mental models". Organizations do the same complex and difficult thing individual people do: communicate. Everything they do is a form of communication...with eachother, with their customers, with their collaborators, with their audiences, with their families, and most importantly with themselves.
This week, a full five years after learning about B&D's four frames for the first time, I finally applied them. I thought I was applying them before, but I was really just labeling them. This week I evolved to use the four frames and see how others used them. Danny and I put together "what we learned" and one of our big points was that a new general manager successfully established some structure and symbolism in an organization that was very HR and politically oriented. She made a work schedule, accounting rules, a physical space for full-time staff and a point system for rewards. The result? Some people left and the owner said "good riddance"...those who stayed and all the new staff feel like they are a part of something more than a job. Everyone there "thinks they are on the right path now" and praise her for making some unpopular decisions that sent her home crying several nights. This week I learned that the four frames are not for distinction, nor for labeling...they are for working together and actual use. Without one, the org just doesn't work as well as it could. When all four are in play, those in it feel confident and connected.
Perhaps the "frames" aren't for looking through, they are for addressing. Perhaps the four frames aren't for analyzing, they are for using.
