The Alignment Frame looks at the relationship between or within organisations and their members, and identifies any blockages that are stopping them from achieving their goals as set in the performance frame. The alignment frame accepts as its basic premise that poor alignment of relationships creates barriers to the achievement of an organisation’s goals.
The Alignment Frame acknowledges the importance of both the organisation and the individual, and in so doing, highlights the importance of each to attaining of the goals of the other.
The Three Frames approach has been, in my view, the critical success factor in delivering what the Government requires from my agency. Effective relationships breed productive connections, both for the individual and for the organisation. Through relationships, information is created, transformed and passed on, and confidence and empowerment are built. This spirit of connectedness (relationships), coupled with a supportive environment that brings commonality of purpose (alignment) for all parties, will ensure that departmental delivery is aligned to government expectations (performance).
The Three Frames supports Moore’s idea that public managers are seen as explorers (through the alignment frame) who with others (in the relationship frame) seek to discover, define and produce public value (the performance frame). I see the strategic triangle as an ‘organic’ system. Our reliance on mechanistic and controlling approaches to leadership and management stand in the way of innovation and effective leadership over participatory and self-organising processes. There is an intrinsic value in participation.
Moore’s strategic triangle neatly overlays with this and the Three Frames. As Moore suggests: ‘Managers should interact with the political system not simply through the medium of their mandated purposes but instead through more continuous and interactive dialogue’.
The Three Frames supports participation and engagement through dialogue, in a committed and consistent manner, to respond effectively to issues.
The features of dialogue are:
welcoming multiple viewpoints and maximum interaction;
behaviours that encourage co-operation with and acceptance of others;
talking and learning about shared issues which effect public value; and
inquiry, exploration and participation with the authorising and un-authorising environment.
Dialogue creates and recognises the humanised social systems of internal and external relationships which exist in all authorising environments. I believe the government’s response to the Gladstone oil spill is one example where Three Frames has been successfully applied to support a dialogue-based process to enhance public value.