OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I:

PCA-Symbolic Frame Worksheet

Worksheet Objectives:
1. Describe the symbolic frame
2. Apply the symbolic frame to your personal case situation

Complete the following making sure to support your ideas and cite from the textbook and other
course materials per APA guidelines. After the peer review, you have a chance to update this and
format for your Electronic Portfolio due in Module 6.

1) Briefly restate your situation from Module 1 and your role.

I am the program manager for our Enterprise Operations Analytics team responsible for
an Enterprise Workforce Management (WFM) Dashboard and Reporting solution that
will enable our WFM teams (real-time, short-range, and long-range) along with our
Operations teams to manage their contact center metrics. The initial phases of the project
have an aggressive timeline. The situation was a call that was held in November 2023
(three months after the initial kick-off of the program) where updates were to be provided
on obtaining the server, requirements gathering, and any issues with the design
framework. The team responsible for obtaining the server through IT didn’t understand
how to go about this but was indicating everything was on track until questioned
otherwise. The project manager who was supposed to be gathering requirements from our
WFM partners and Operations was waiting on the design team to put a “straw model” of
something together for these people to react to; however, the design team was waiting on
some baseline requirements before they could even understand what the straw-model
could even look like. Within the design framework, the team was working on Verint data
only when they had been previously told that we needed data from Cisco, Genesys,
Workday, and Verint to make this solution work. Throughout the call, the director over
the team who is responsible for this work makes promises, telling his team what to do,
etc.; however, he doesn’t attend all the calls. He also ends the call within the last five
minutes announcing how the project team structure will work, handing over his piece to
one of his direct reports, but not checking with myself and that person prior to
announcing on the call for how this will all work out.

2) Describe how the symbols of the organization influenced the situation.

The organization’s symbol is the tree of life, and Cigna’s website provides the following
information as they went through a redesign of their logo: “The change to our logo
reflects the evolution of our brand while still honoring the “Tree of Life” and its
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 historical significance. The “i” in our new logo represents the individual. The leaves that
encircle it form a tree, symbolizing health and vitality. Cigna now visually surrounds the
individual, demonstrating the support and expertise we provide to those we serve. In
addition to our new logo, we have new fonts, colors, and a more modern look and feel.”
(Cigna Healthcare, 2024). For me, this symbol reminds us of what our intent should be
when we do any work. The project was to bring all contact center operations into one
repository and allow our contact center workforce management and operations teams to
measure their KPIs and how they can better service our customers in their time of need. It
also allows us to provide a standardized measurement across all of our lines of business
so that we are speaking the same language.

In addition, the tree of life has always been a symbol for Cigna Healthcare; however,
what it also reminds me of is that when mergers occur, that symbol is new to the merging
company. Their symbols have been changed and they are now being asked to get behind
the new symbol. I very much believe this to be true for this project. One team was used to
the way things were done on the Cigna side of business and the other team was used to
the way things were done on the pharmacy side of the business. Neither way is wrong,
but when you need to come together as one, you need to establish the way you will focus
around the “I” in Cigna and move forward to do well for the health of the project.

3) Recommend how you would use organizational symbols for an alternative course of
action regarding your case.

In this situation, I think it would be beneficial for the two teams to come together as one
and decide on how they wanted to work together moving forward. In doing so, I think the
team could’ve benefited from having a symbol to rally around that symbolizes two teams
merging as one for a purpose that revolves around servicing the tree of life.

Once this understanding occurred and the team rallied around the symbolism, I believe
that if a situation happened like I described on the call, we could’ve all reminded
ourselves of our agreement that we formed and what the symbolism means. I also believe
this helps to ground people in purpose and can reset attitudes when needed.

4) Reflect on what you would do or not do differently given what you have learned
about this frame.

Our CEO is a great visionary, and he tells the story of The Cigna Group well. When he
speaks, he does so with stories that make the work we do relatable to everyone. I would
build the vision of this project better for the teams. By creating the vision of the project of
how it will help to foster how we serve our customers, and how we can improve the
service that we deliver by building better dashboards to allow the business to understand
trends, gaps, and what they can improve upon.

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 I would also rally the team better. I would do this through understanding how each team
performs, identifying the differences and similarities, and then having the team decide
how they want to move forward with the work they are doing. Whether you create an
actual team symbol, or it is a document outlining the agreements made, this allows the
team to focus on a common path. It can also serve to re-ground the team when needed. I
would also add a team ritual to meetings. I was once invited to a team call where at the
end of the meeting, there was one person who was designated to tell a “Dad joke” and
then they would decide who would be responsible for coming up with the joke the next
time. What I saw was anticipation for the joke to be told and there was camaraderie
amongst the team members that was built. The joke didn’t have to be good and it was
even better the worse it was, but this was the ritual.

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References
Cigna Healthcare. (2024). Our Name is Evolving. Our Commitment Remains the Same.
Retrieved from News and Insights: https://newsroom.cigna.com/cigna-healthcare-
evolution#:~:text=Symbolism%20of%20our%20new%20logo,tree%2C%20symbolizing
%20health%20and%20vitality.