A Synopsis (In Brief) of The Political Frame and the “Big Picture” Seminar by Secretary of State Ken Bennett

At the orientation we were given a text book called “Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership” by Bolan and Deal. It’s about the size of a phone book and is loaded with real world examples of how this stuff works. It’s still a text book—but not a bad one. It wants the reader to be able to see things from each of the four basic “frames” in the book: Structural, Human Resource, Political, or Symbolic. There are pros and cons to each approach depending on the situation, and the supposition is that a good leader can readily switch from one frame to the other to do what needs be done. The first frame we read about (not the first frame in the book coincidentally) was the political frame or what I like to call “Power, Power, Who’s got the Power?” There was some general terminology and then the book breaks down the rest into parts something like this:

Part I- Political Assumptions (Everyone makes them, now you can too!)
1. “Organizations are coalitions of assorted individuals and interests groups.” (Alright makes sense-people come together for power’s sake)
2. “Coalition members have enduring differences in values, beliefs, information, interests & perceptions of reality.” (I really like that perceptions of reality part—although this one brought to mind Newton’s whole idea about opposing forces causing friction)
3. “Most important decisions involve allocating resources.” (I want all the bananas—no bananas for you!)
4. “Goals & Decisions emerge from bargaining & negotiation among competing stakeholders jockeying for own interests.” (you may have ONE banana, if I get a turn with the coconut radio)

Part II- Sources of Power (know yours!)
1. Positional Power (I’m da boss)
2. Control of Rewards (Can deliver Bribes)
3. Coercive Power (I’ve got the pistol, so I get the pesos)
4. Information & Experience (I know where the treasure is buried)
5. Personal Power (Charisma)
6. Alliances & Networks (UN)
7. Access or control of Agendas (I got a seat at the table)
8. Framing: Control of meaning & symbols (spin)

So after Reading all of that in the book and discussing it with the rest of the academy participants we got to attend the Big Picture Seminar with Secretary of State Ken Bennett. Ken Bennett spoke a lot about his personal experiences. He had a lot of anecdotes. My favorite was about how he got senators to remember him by asking AZ trivia questions on the floor of the state senate and giving away snicker bars to the winner with the correct answer. It allowed him to get his foot in the door and BUILD RELATIONSHIPS. It was something that made him stand out and be remembered (so we’ve got Charisma and Control of Rewards going on there). His take home message was really just that: BUILD RELATIONSHIPS. Do it now (don’t wait tell there is trouble), Do it however you can (Get your own snicker bar method), Do it within your organization (Networking) but even more important do it outside of your organization (Outreach). He also had some advice on the power of story. In politics good human interest story makes all the difference. Statistic s without a story or human element are ineffective. The story gives the statistics meaning for an outsider. The trick here is: you can’t tell your own story. Your customers and community have to tell story of how wonderful you are for you. Which bring us back to the whole BUILD RELATIONSHIPS thing, the more relationships you have the more people there are to tell your story. So once again the take home messages are BUILD RELATIONSHIPS, and take a multi-pronged approach to state your case. Stats and story will help you hedge your bets.