I read Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership by Lee G. Bolman and Terrence E. Deal last month and wanted to highlight it for my organizationally inclined friends. This is a classic text for organizational health and change as evidenced by the fact that it is on its 6th edition at this point. It is a textbook so be warned and it’s a fat book – but so much good stuff in it.
Bolman and Deal’s well known paradigm involved four frames, which is why their approach is often called the four frames model. They represent the frames as lenses to evaluate and understand what is taking place and what is needed in a community or organization. There is the structural frame which involves the nuts and bolts, the structures, the rules, the organizational DNA. There is the human resource frame which involves the care of employees and people and the insurance of a meaningful, safe, and fulfilling environment with healthy processes that show value to people. There is the symbolic frame which involves stories, meaning, and vision. And there is the political frame which centers on power and negotiation and how things get done and what is involved in leading change given the landscape of stakeholders.
This text has so much good theory woven in throughout, with great research and antidotes throughout. It really does help given someone categories to work with when analyzing a given organization and assessing next steps and just as importantly, good processes to accomplish those next steps.
Given the popularity of the book, I suggest googling some summaries of the book and you can get the gist of the framework and even that alone will allow you to become a better leader. I do firmly believe that leaders have to attend to all 4 of these frames. I am strong in a couple of them but have long minimized the structural frame because of my preference for flexibility or maybe because of some experiences. But I really had to come back around and I’ve begun to really change my attitude and approach to some structural components to organizations.
So – excellent leadership development resource for organizational leaders and team leaders, but it’s also a great assessment tool for consultant work as well.
