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Putting Appreciative
Inquiry into practice.
First, organizations should not be considered broken, in
need of being fixed; or viewed as problems to be solved.
Secondly, consider the application of appreciative
inquiry as we recall the times we were most alive; at
our best as individuals or organizations. While
eliciting renewed energy, we can begin to dialogue about
designing a future-state based on actual experiences
rather than imagined or hoped-for change. Because these
experiences are real, we have confidence that they can
be recreated.
Contrast this with the all too frequent situation of
listening to plans for the future that a leader or
manager has created in isolation: and then you walk away
either in disbelief that it will happen or with a “wait
and see attitude.”
In order to supercharge your organization consider two
models for bringing about successful change.
The first is one that most of us have operated by for
many years. It’s known as problem-solving.
Within the
problem-solving methodology, we start by looking for
problems, identifying the causes, analyzing the causes,
and then attempting to identify possible solutions after
we have already put ourselves in an energy draining,
deficit-based, and depressing state by focusing on
problems, their sources, and times we would prefer to
forget.
Results show that appreciative inquiry outperforms other
change methods.
Problem Solving can be slow and Conservative while
creating a temporary Organizational Depression.
AI can produce High-Velocity Change, Rapid Innovation,
Energy for Action – Based on Hope, Cooperation and
Commitment, and leave a Culture of High Performance.
Although this may sound just like positive thinking or
like a Pollyannaish approach to serious problems, let me
assure you that it is not.
The framework for creating an Appreciative Inquiry
Summit can be quite involved and require the collection
and analysis of a lot of information to create the
themes for the future.
For companies though; problem solving is beginning to
look like a very outdated method that would involve
consultants entering an organization looking for
problems with the only logical result being a discovery
of more problems.
In AI, the arduous task of intervention gives way to the
speed of imagination and innovation; instead of negative
thinking, criticism, and spiraling diagnosis.
Appreciative Inquiry suggests a growing disenchantment
with exhausted theories of change, especially those
wedded to vocabularies of human deficit, and a
corresponding urge to work with people, groups, and
organizations in a more constructive, life affirming,
strength-based and spirited way.
Your life has already been touched by AI. Just a few of
the organizations that have benefited from AI are
Roadway Express, Hunter Douglas, GTE, McDonald’s, Smith
Kline Beacham, the United States Navy, and the EPA.
In fact, there are roots in business, community
projects, nonprofit sectors, educational systems,
manufacturing, environmental agencies, psychology,
therapy and health care, technology, Government; and
throughout industry. These include organizations in the
United States as well as many projects around the world.
The appreciative inquiry process describes how to create
change by paying attention to what you want more of
rather than focusing on problems and searching for their
causes.
The beauty of appreciative inquiry is that is not a
fixed model for creating change but rather; it is
created and constantly re-created by the people who are
invited into in the process.
Even if we feel that we are positive the majority of the
time, consider how we limit ourselves in the brief
periods when we are not. A senior manager at GTE
described appreciative inquiry and then cautioned the
group that he wasn't advocating buying into mindless
happy talk. But he asked them, when you get a survey
that says 94% of your customers are happy, what do you
automatically do?
Perhaps you've already guessed the answer.
Most people interview the unhappy 6%, instead
of asking the 94% what made them happy.
Consider also, that even with the best intentions, we
may bring about results that are not anticipated. Think
about training on sexual harassment. Studies have shown
that after training the number of complaints increased;
which makes sense, because now people are more educated
and are aware of what not to do, so they become acutely
aware of those behaviors. By applying the philosophy of
appreciative inquiry, the training would now be designed
so people would be asked to share examples of what it
feels and looks like to be treated with dignity and
respect by the opposite sex.
Can AI work in business to improve the bottom line?
Great question. Consider that currently employees in
most companies only hear about the company's
profitability when it is dismal and therefore certain
incentives and privileges cannot be granted to
employees.
What would happen if employees were brought together and
asked to create the scenario of what it was like to work
for a company when profits were plentiful? I'm confident
most would recall receiving well-deserved raises, a
general sense of well-being while at work, perhaps more
festive events, celebrations and company parties. The
atmosphere would be conducive for creativity and
innovation would be welcomed.
In fact, while discussing bottom-line financial results,
one of the largest proponents of appreciative inquiry
has been Cap Gemini, Earnst and Young.
The key point is simply to recognize that instinctively
and intuitively we either accept that important ideas
can profoundly alter the way we see ourselves, perceive
our reality and conduct our lives. Or, we can choose to
maintain the status quo and wait for change to be
inflicted upon us.
The noted psychologist Carl Jung concluded that
important problems are rarely solved but only outgrown.
This “outgrowing”, proves on further investigation, to
require a new level of consciousness. Some higher or
wider interest appears on the horizon and through the
broadening of outlook, the problem loses its urgency. It
was not solved logically in its own terms but faded when
confronted with a new and stronger life urge.
Carl Jung
If you are skeptical, you’re not the first.
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