Using the Action Framework

The Action Framework represents a rapid and iterative model of the Do No Harm thought process. It can be broken down into six steps. Some people are formal with this model, documenting their thought process and decision making, while others are more intuitive, not documenting but nonetheless arriving at good decisions.

Step 1: Dividers/Connectors

Start with a Dividers and Connectors Analysis in order to set the context.

What divides people in this context? What connects them? You can use the SAVES categories here, but the goal here is not to be comprehensive. Rather, we are looking for the most significant (i.e. most dangerous or most calming) Dividers and Connectors.

Prioritize the Dividers and Connectors. Develop a list of about five to six of each. Commit to tracking them.

Step 2: Worse or Better

Ask if the Dividers and/or Connectors are getting better or worse?

This question introduces a sense of time and of change into the analysis process. People cannot feel confident taking the next step—looking at Options & Opportunities—unless they have sense of how Dividers/Connectors change over time in the context.

Ask how they are getting worse or better?

Step 3: Patterns of Impact

Before getting to Options & Opportunities, examine how the Dividers and Connectors are getting worse or better. You will see the ABCs at work.

Step 4: Options & Opportunities

People develop new ways of doing their work based on their understanding of the Dividers/Connectors and their changes. Use the ABCs that you have already identified to develop the Options or Opportunities.

Use Critical Detail Mapping to clarify your understanding of your intervention. Use the critical details in concert with the ABCs to develop viable and effective Options and Opportunities.

People use the word “options” to discuss what they need to develop when they encounter problems (things getting worse). They use the word “opportunities” when they see things getting better and want to promote these trends.

Step 5: Patterns of Impact

Before implementing new Options or Opportunities, check your redesign against the ABCs you identified as the patterns of change in the Dividers and Connectors. If your new Option is not explicitly making use of the identified ABCs, then it will not have the expected impact on the Dividers and/or Connectors.

Step 6: Action

Make actual changes to an intervention (implement the options and opportunities).

Changing the intervention tends to be the last point in any given cycle. But it is, of course, also the beginning of a new cycle.

Iterate

Impacts from the redesigned intervention on the Dividers/Connectors show up as changes in the context, represented by Dividers and Connectors. These will become apparent as you go through the cycle again and again.

Rapid Learning

If you go through this cycle thoughtfully, using the ABCs, and do not see the expected changes there are just two points for review. This makes the review process extraordinarily simple and quick.

First, you might not have the right items on your lists of Dividers and Connectors. Review your lists for significance.

Second, you might have identified the wrong pattern of ABC. Review the pattern or patterns you identified for relevance to the changes in Dividers and Connectors.

Do not expect huge change in short time periods. Set your metrics lower. Do expect noticeable change, however. Your efforts to work with the context should be noticeable quite rapidly.

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