introduction to appreciative inquiry sarah lewis
TRANSCRIPT
Introduction to Appreciative Inquiry
Sarah Lewis
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Appreciative Inquiry
What is it and what’s new about it?
How does it work?
How do you do it?
What are the implications for practice?
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What is it?
Theory and practice of organisational change
That grew out of a dissatisfaction with Action Research
Post modern in its ontological and epistemological base
David Cooperrider, Suresh Srivastva
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So what’s new in appreciative inquiry? Organisations as the triumph of the human imagination
Organisations as products of human interaction and mind
Not how things go wrong - isn’t it amazing they work at all
The move from deficit language to life centric approaches
From vocabularies of human deficit to vocabularies of hope
Organisations don’t need fixing, need constant re-affirmation
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Why appreciative?
Appreciation is a process of affirmation, it is an act of attention
Create change by paying attention to what you want more of
Appreciation helps groups generate images for themselves based on an affirmative understanding of their past.
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Appreciative Inquiry & Problem SolvingProblem solving
Felt need ‘identification of problem’
Analysis of causes
Analysis of possible solutions
Action planning (treatment)
Basic assumption: organisation is a problem to be solved
Appreciative inquiry
Appreciating and valuing the best of what is
Envisioning what might be
Dialoguing what should be
Innovating what will be
Basic assumption: organisation is a mystery to be embraced.
Hammond 1996
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Appreciative inquiry: principles The constructionist principle
The simultaneity principle
The poetic principle
The anticipatory principle
The positive principle
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Assumptions of appreciative inquiry In every society, organisation or group, something works
What we focus on becomes our reality
Reality is created in the moment and there are multiple realities
The act of asking a question influences in some way
People have more confidence and comfort to journey to the future when they carry forward parts of the past
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Assumptions of appreciative inquiry
If we carry parts of the past forward, they should be what is best about the past
It is important to value difference
The language we use creates our reality
(Hammond 1996)
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Language, theory and moral order Theory provides a perceptual framework
Choice of what to study carries a degree of responsibility
Language and words are the building blocks of social reality
Not a passive purveyor of meaning between people, rather, an agent active in the creation of meaning
Knowledge of a system can be used to change itself
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The four D model
Identify those peak times when everything operated perfectly
What factors were behind the peak experiences
What intervention will make the peak experience the norm?
‘Affirmative topics, always homegrown, can be on anything the people in the organisation feel gives life to the system’
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The four D model
Discovery: Discover and disclose positive capacity
Dreaming: A sense of how things could be
Design: Creation of the ideal organisation
Destiny: An inspired movement
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Appreciative InquiryDiscover and Value‘the best of what is’
Dreaming (envisioning the future)
‘What might be’
Design through Dialogue
‘What should be’
Destiny (co-construct the future)
‘What will be’
Affirmative Topic Choice
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The appreciative interview
In pairs Each - identify a specific event when you feel you really made
a difference, a really special event Interview each other to re-create that experience: What? How?
Who else? Feelings, talk, noticing, How did it make a difference? And so on - rich experience
What was different in that situation to other similar situations where you weren’t able to make such a difference?
When have both had your turn - reflections - what do you notice about the experience you have just had?
15 mins/15 mins /10 mins
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Benedictine University
Traditional academic culture Ill equipped to respond to demands for change Strategic planning - culture change Decision to use Faculty meeting/ AI
All 86 staff new and returning
High level of participation
Pursuit of an ideal
Grounded in research Mutual interviewing
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Benedictine University
Recorded Shaped in core values Learning
Speed at which able to capture data from all facultyFocus on positive & possible produced upbeat toneCynicism set aside, transcending problems, celebrating strengths
Process on going
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Quantitative research
Fortune 500, 94 fast food restaurants, one area Problem retention salaried restaurant staff 3 groups AI, normal problem solving, nothing One year collecting base line data - turnover 18 months intervention.
One AI meeting a month each restaurant
Three meeting each general manager
One ‘roundtable’ washup
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Results
AI group 30% higher retention than ‘normal’ group AI group 32% higher retention than ‘nothing’ group Al group less inclined to leave $103,320 savings in hard training dollars Confounding factor - leadership
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Appreciative Process
Discovering the best of Understanding what creates the best of Amplifying the people and processes who best
exemplify the best of
Giving attention to what is working well Watching for what you want to see Amplifying it when you see it
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Amplification
Stories Quality of stories told (new telling, new insight) Recording of stories told - rich in detail, own voice Sharing of stories told
Thematic feedback documents
Video
Propositions - capturing the elements Surveys Feedback on surveys
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How does this connect with what I’m doing?
In small groups
ThinkingSpending my timeHopingPlanningDreaming
Feedback - existing points of connection
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Research into AI: What matters most? The power of positive questions The appreciative inquiry interview Story telling Future vision/ provocative propositions Positive image Collaboration/co-constructing/common ground Anticipatory principle Continuity Replacing deficit discourse(Yaeger and Sorensen 2001)
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Role of consultant
Explorers not mechanics
Active agent not impartial bystander
Wordsmith
Collaborator
Generous, curious, appreciative, systemic
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Implications for managers and leaders The main task of management is meaning making and
creating possibilities to go on
Organisations are networks of conversation in which
accounts are created
More than one account can exist, none is the truth, all may
be true
Conversation/communication contains moral order
Affect action through communication
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How will I use this, if at all?
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Thank you
Sarah Lewis
Jemstone Consultancy
020 8293 0017
www.jemstoneconsultancy.co.uk