Frame creation integrates solutions into the stakeholder context

The plans, agendas, and strategies developed in the Transformation stage of frame creation are integrated into the broader context of the organizations involved.

In the last step of the frame creation process, we need to make sure that the new frames and the developments they initiate are well integrated into the broader context of the organizations involved (whether they are the original problem owner or a whole new network of players). The new frames created in the context of this original problem situation may also hold patterns of relationships that can be applied in other areas of the organization or beyond. New thinking means that new opportunities and connections will arise. On a deeper level, what has been learned in the discovery of the underlying themes can now be integrated into the “discourse” of the organization as active knowledge. This integration allows organizations to move away from only reacting to problem situations that the world throws at them, and to become proactive in their relationship to their environment. This is a crucial ability for organizations that face open, complex, dynamic, and networked problem situations.^[1]

The nine steps of frame creation:

1. Archaeology – Investigate who has already tried what to solve the problem.
2. Paradox – Understand the core paradox of the problem.
3. Context – Learn practices and scenarios that may suggest a solution.
4. Field – Consider all stakeholders of the problem and solution.
5. Themes – Seek to understand the root factors of stakeholders.
6. Frames – Identify common themes as the basis for frames.
7. Futures – “Think forward” to identify solutions.
8. Transformation – Develop a plan for transformation.
9. Integration – Integrate solutions into the stakeholder context.