Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership

Chapter 20. Bringing It All Together Change and Leadership in Action

Life's daily challenges rarely arrive clearly labeled or neatly packaged. Instead, they immerse us in a murky, turbulent, and unrelenting flood. The art of reframing uses knowledge and intuition to make sense of the current and to find sensible and effective ways to channel the flow.

In this chapter, we illustrate the process by following a new principal through his first week in a deeply troubled urban high school.^[13] Had this been a corporation in crisis, a struggling hospital, or an embattled public agency, the basic leadership issues would be much the same. We assume that our protagonist is familiar with the frames and with reframing and is committed to the view of leadership ...