Appreciative Inquiry, and structureret process design and

facilitationBy Kaj Voetmann

Appreciative Inquiry

Kaj Voetmann• Kaj Voetmann, born 1955 in Denmark. Master in Organization and

Leadership from Aarhus. Supplemented with Systemic Leadership, Organizational Development and Communication and Psychology. My specialty is Creating, maintaining and transforming organizations and I have been consulting, teaching and wring about that for the last 22 years.

• I have experience with public, private and nongovernmental organizations in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Colombia. My latest courses were on transformational leadership and generative planning.

• I work from Complexity theory (natural science) which is the foundation for social constructionism, Appreciative Inquiry and Dialogue as the main tools for human development. Traditional theories based on assumptions about one cause and one effect or on systems theories can explain how to create stability, but they have no answer to the mysteries of transformation.

• During my working years I have had many connections to the culture sector and especially the cooperation between culture, public institutions and business.

Kaj’s coat of arms

Complexity theory and processes

• The world consists of Complex Responsive Processes in Interactions that leave Physical (in each process and in the environment), Mental, Virtual and Social (in economy and in power distribution) tracks

• So we have to create interactions that has the quality and number that leaves the tracks we want to leave

The Simple Philosophy

What you give attention becomes your reality!

Talk about the things you want more of!

Not about the things you do not want!

It is the same things you look at, but the results are very different

Appreciative Focus• Is the cup half empty • Or is the cup half full?

Problems!

Successes!

Frustrated dreams!

The complex philosophy

Find what works

Investigate what makes it work

Find what doesn’t work

Find what you want instead (the dream)

Create a mental and physical image of your preferred future based on the best you have and your wildest dreams

Create a mental and physical image of the path to the preferred future

Start living the preferred future NOW!

The basic competences

• Appreciative interviewing

• Appreciative storytelling

• Appreciative observation

• Appreciative feed back and feed forward

Appreciative Inquiry CoachingInterviewer Focus Person Challenge

Internal dialogue

Witnesses

Tell about a challenge you already conquered for 2-3 minutesWhat was the best in this experience?What made it possible for you to have this experience? What did you or other people do? What was the circumstances and conditions?What could make the solution even better?What was or will be the visible results of the success?What is so important for you that it made you choose this story?

Note the positive properties the Focusperson demonstrates in the interview and give your feedback after the interview

Types of Questions

Linear assumptions

Complex assumptions

Get information

Create an effect

Exploratory questions

Circular questions

Strategic questions or statements

Reflective questions

Generative questions Connected

to the purpose

Points of view

Connecting the pieces

Human aspirations

• All people want to make a difference for themselves and other people by contributing constructively to the communities of practices they participate in

• All people want to have good personal relationships to the people in their communities of practice

Ethics in process facilitation

• You will be invited to support one person’s or group’s intentions against other people’s intentions

• You have to stay out of chosing who you support in public

• You have to see everything as a negotiation between multiple good intentions competing in finding a good mutual solution that dissolves the conflict between different intentions

Networks of Identity Formation

Parents

Grand parents

Siblings

Identity

FriendsWork

Leisure activities

Educa-tion

The identity is the stories we have about who we are. We have learnt them through our experiences in our Communities of practise. These stories develop through new experiences.

Communities of practise are the networks where we make our experiences. Through life we participate in many different communities of practise. Our experience grow when we participate in more and more communities of practise.

The stories about who we are – are different from one community of practise to another. These stories often defines the rights and obligations we have and the possibilities and constraints.

Defining the Mission of an organization

Clients

Banks Suppliers

Mission

OwnersUnions

Society Neigh-bours

Which Communities of practise are the most important for your organization?

Which stories do we need each of these communities to tell about our organization in order have a well functioning organization?

When you look across these stories which ideas, concepts, images and metaphors are common to the stories?

Put these concepts into the center of the star and formulate your mission statement

This is a way to understand the ValueCreationNetwork of the organization. And a simple way of creating a Brand or if you use the images and metaphors a Logo.

Appreciative Inquiry RAP

Nu kan det være nok

Ikke mere brok

George Bush danser salsa i en gade fyldt med guld

Osama danser med i en verden fyldt med fred

Pia Gårdskjær favner sin indre muslim

Mens Per Stig Møller spillet fint på violin

The PastWhat are your best experience with ….?

What made it possible for you to have those experiences?

What is life giving for you?

The FutureWhat do you dream was possible too?

If your wildest dreams came true – how would the perfect future look like?

Which bold steps do you need to take to make it come true?

Generative metaphores

”I have a dream!”

”Put a man on the moon!”

”Imagine Colombia”

The Language as a Creative Force

Central elements (questions) in a structured interaction

Which results do we want to achieve?

Which interactions do we need

to go through to achieve the wanted

results?

How do we organize the

participants, the sequence and the physical space?

Progression in processes

Tid

Progression

Projects and processesUnknown set of solutions

Known set of solutions

Unknown set of rights and obligations

Known set of rights and obligations

Development projects

Negotiation projects

Technical projects

OperationslDoing the assigned tasksEmpowerment

Design process

Neg

otia

tion

of h

ow t

o go

on

in a

mea

ning

ful w

ay

Focus on interactionsTasks

Physical environment

Virtual environment

Customers

Colleagues• Same profession• Other professions

Management• Closest manager• Higher up

Partners of cooperation• Internal• External

Friends• In the workplace

• Outside the workplace

Family• In the workplace

• Outside the workplace

Private economy

Life changes• Death among close

relations • Marriage• Divorce

• New living place• New work

• Disease

DialoguingConditions

Collective

Individual

Discussion and DialogueWhen you discuss in order to reach

agreement

The result often is that the disagreement becomes visible

And you end up with with a community based on consensus

based on the lowest common denominator

When you invite to diversity in telling points of views and intentions

The results often is that a community base on much more than

the lowest common denominator become visible

And you end up with a community based on shared knowledge,

tolerance towards diversity and knowledge of the resources of the

community

Scientific proofs

• Placebo-effect: If you believe in it yourself it works better than if you don’t

• Pygmalion or Rosenthal-effect: If you have mutual positive expectations things work better than if you don’t

• Mental training: By training to change your mental patterns to patterns where you are in control of your own situation you can influence your immune system to become better at coping with diseases

• The Balance between positive/negative dialogue: An overweight of positive inner dialogue influences your performance for the better

• A culture influenced by a positive image of the future thrives and a culture influenced by a negative image of the future declines

The Methods

• Originally Appreciative Inquiry was a research method, where the researcher should make her own research design and the specific questions that should be asked

• Therefore practitioners combined the philosopy with know methods and ideas: TQM, The Learning Organization, Therapy, Systemic thinking

• Today the 4D-model is the best know, but not necessarily the most effective in specific applications

The Secret of Change

Improved Results

Improved Interactions

Improved Language

Improved

Relationships

Improved

Communication

Methods

Competitiveness

Resource utilization

Employee Satisfaction

Customer Satisfaction

What is it process leaders offer to their clients?

• I/we can help you to find a better set of solutions to the challenges you are facing now and in the future based on your knowledge of your organisation/community!

• And I/we can give you inspiration from the best practices in the world!

• You just have to help me define the challenges you are facing and invest the time and ressources that is necessary or possible to find the set of solutions!

Affirmative topic choice

• Identify the part of the network that should be invited

• Identify the pat of the network you can invite• Find a title that has these qualities:

– It is oriented to the future– It is including all the parts in the network that should

have been invited– It should be a creating a new community of practise– It should be formulated positively inviting to better

future options for everyone

Development Processes that Create New Realities

Peter Senge’s 5 Disciplines

Mental models

Personal mastery

Mental models

Shared visions

Individual worldview

Collective worldview

Team Learning

Systems Thinking

Personal mastery is to have the ambition of becoming as competent as possible

Mental models are the ideas we live by and we need to know them and know what they do to us

Shared visions are based on the interweaving of the individual visions in the personal mastery

Team Learning is to have a dialogue that makes it possible to share visions and mental models in order to coordinate visions and mental models

Systems thinking is to know the whole so well that you know how to play your role to make the whole work

Generative Planning

Promoting forces

Bold steps

Opposing forces

Vision/Preferred future

Golden steps

Appreciative Force Field Analysis

Promoting Forces Opposing Forces Preventive Actions

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Storyline process documentation

Activities

Valuation

1 2 … N

What worked well?

What made it work well?

How could it have worked even better?

The Process Design

• What would you like to be able to do when we finish?

• Which improvements do you need in your relationships to each other and other people?

• Which communication situation can you systematically use to change your language and relations?

• How can we design a series of interactions that can create these improved Results and Relationships that will make it possible for us to use our Resources in the best possible way?

The Mental Training

• Individual mental training• Visualizing as a method

of training• Coal-Diamond strategy

(see the KaosPilot book)• Competence

development takes place through improvements in the connections between braincells

• Collective mental training• Communication and

physical visualizing as a method of training

• Provocative propositions• Competence

development takes place through improvements in the connections between human beings, mainly through communication

The Summit• Appreciative Inquiry Summit is a large-group

intervention, where you invite everyone who has to implement the solutions after doing your strategic planning

• It is recommended to use 3-5 days on the process – it is the TRAINING in applying Appreciative Inquiry that creates the Results and Relationships that makes it possible to utilize all Resources in the best possible way

• The Results are fantastic if you dare implement Appreciative Inquiry in all communication situations, where it is possible to train it

The Life Style

• By training Appreciative Inquiry your view of the world will change– You become good at using a constructive language

instead of a destructive (Results and Relations)– You become good at inviting people to be empowered

(joint responsibility)– You become good at creating a spirit of cooperation– You become good at engaging everyone– You become good at communicating clearly