Introduction to Appreciative Inquiry as a Performance Improvement Methodology

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Division of Occupational Psychology Learning a
Living 2006

• Introduction to Appreciative Inquiry as a
  Performance Improvement Methodology
• Sarah Lewis Jemstone Consultancy
• Wednesday 24th May 2006

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Appreciative Inquiry

• What is it and whats new about it?
• How does it work?
• How does it fit with the body of psychology?
• How do you do it?
• How can it be used to improve performance at the
  organisational, group and individual level?

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What is Appreciative Inquiry?

• Theory and practice of organisational change and
  development
• That grew out of a dissatisfaction with Action
  Research
• That recognizes and foregrounds human systems of
  belief, meaning and action in organisations
• That treats organisations as living human systems
• And has been developed by David Cooperrider,
  Suresh Srivastva and others from Case Western
  University

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What is it not?

• Scientific Method
• Objectivist There is an objective universe more
  or less separate from and independent of the
  observer
• Positivist Privileges the physically observable
• Reductionist Reduce higher order phenomena to
  elements (the parts)
• Fixed accounts

• Appreciative Inquiry
• Constructionist The universe is socially
  constructed. We can never see the world as it
  really is
• Holistic Rejects dualistic understandings, gives
  credence to mental causality, social dynamics
• Connective Interested in the connections between
  elements and complex patterns (the sum)
• Generative accounts

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How is it different?
Problem Solving AI Thinking
Problem focus (medical model) Account focus (social constructionism)
Solving the past Creating the future
Critical thinking analysis (data) Generative thinking (possibilities)
Planned solutions Emergent ways forward
Directed Facilitated / co-ordinated
Negative emotion/logic Positive energy/relationship
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So whats new in appreciative inquiry?

• Organisations as the triumph of the human
  imagination (rather than fixed, given entities)
• Organisation and organisations as products of
  human interaction and mind
• Not interested in why things go wrong, interested
  in how they work
• There is a move from deficit language to life
  centric approaches
• From vocabularies of human deficit to
  vocabularies of hope
• Organisations dont need fixing, need constant
  re-affirmation

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How is it different to other change methodologies?

• Creative rather than curative
• Dynamic rather than procedural
• Language as a living process rather than as a
  tool
• Embraces rather than pathologies humanness
• Focus on possibility rather than certainty
• Many ways rather than one right way

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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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Why inquiry?

• Inquiry focuses attention
• Inquiry produces accounts
• Inquiry is a creative process
• Inquiry is influential

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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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The Constructionist principle

• Reality is socially constructed
• We create our realities in relationship and
  communication
• We see what we talk about/we hear what we listen
  out for
• Its a multi-verse not a universe
• Meaning is context bound
• We seek always to make sense and to go on
• Organisations are networks of conversation
• The future is socially constructed

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Social Constructionist based methodologies

• Working with metaphors
• Strange loops of belief and paradoxical accounts
• Coordinated management of meaning
• Domains of conversation
• Stories
• Lego Serious Play
• Appreciative Inquiry

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Simultaneity principle

• To ask a question is to intervene The questions
  we ask are fateful and impactful
• Client and consultant, manager and team,
  organisation and environment are all in systemic
  relationship - each influencing the other
• It is not possible in human terms to stand
  outside the system
• To talk is to act To talk differently is to
  create change
• There is a moral element to our choice of inquiry
• Practice can not be divorced from theory,
  diagnosis can not be divorced from intervention
• There is no before

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The poetic principle

• An organisation is more like a text than a
  machine
• An organisation has many authors
• The many authors create, co-create, and recreate
  the organisation
• Changing different authors stories will change
  the organisation
• Stories dont reflect what is happening they are
  what is happening
• The future is co-created by many authors

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The anticipatory principle

• Human systems are essentially heliotropic
• They grow towards positive anticipatory futures
• These futures are socially constructed
• All behaviour in the present points towards the
  future
• When a future is sufficiently meaningful and
  attractive, behaviour will become oriented
  towards achieving that future
• The greater the self organisation, the greater
  the energy that goes into growth and the less
  that goes into creating order

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Positive principle

• Change takes energy
• Positive energy is a powerful source for change
• Positive energy can be created by re-experiencing
  positive experiences and
• By experiencing positive images of the future

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Seligman Positive Psychology

• Positive emotional states
• Correlated with many good things e.g. longevity,
  health, life satisfaction, social bonding,
  exploration and creativity
• Present when using our strengths, and when in a
  flow state
• Researched universally recognised positive traits
  and called these virtues

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The Virtues

• Virtues
• Wisdom and knowledge
• Courage
• Love and humanity
• Justice
• Temperance
• Spirituality and transcendence
• Underpinned by 24 strengths
• The strengths that are deeply characteristic of
  you are your signature strengths
• When wellbeing comes from engaging our strengths
  and virtues, our lives are imbued with
  authenticity

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Change in emphasis for developmental activity
There is a growing awareness that peoples
potential for performance and performance
improvement lies in maximising and capitalising
on their strengths and finding work arounds for
their weaknesses, rather than trying to create an
ideal rounded person.
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Assumptions of appreciative inquiry

• In every society, organisation or group,
  something works
• Every living system has untapped and rich
  inspiring accounts of the positive
• The act of asking a question influences in some
  way
• What we focus on becomes our reality
• The language we use creates our reality

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Assumptions of appreciative inquiry

• People have more confidence and comfort to
  journey to the future when they carry forward
  parts of the past
• If we carry parts of the past forward, they
  should be what is best about the past
• It is important to value difference
• The way we know people, groups and organisations
  is fateful
• (Hammond 1996)

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The four D model

• Affirmative topics, always homegrown, can be
  anything the people in the organisation feel
  gives life to the system
• 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 Inquiry
Discover and Value the best of what is
Affirmative Topic Choice
Destiny What will be
Dreaming What might be
Design through Dialogue What should be
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Discovery

• Identifying the best of what is, what works
• Creating and amplifying accounts of the good, of
  peak experiences
• Affirming good things (by paying attention,
  appreciating)
• Creating data
• Creating a launch pad for the future
• Creating strategic possibilities
• Generating hope and other good emotions

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The appreciative interview

• In pairs
• Each - identify a specific event or episode when
  you feel you really made a difference, when you
  were working at your best.
• Interview each other to re-create that
  experience What? How? Who else? Where? Tell me
  more. Feelings, talk, noticing, How did it make a
  difference? And so on - rich experience.
  Description not explanation
• When have both had your turn - reflections - what
  do you notice about the experience you have just
  had? How did you feel in both roles? What effect
  did it have for you reconnecting with a positive
  experience?

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In groups of four How is this appreciative
interview process relevant to the challenges of
coaching or individual performance improvement?
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Dreaming

• Imagining possible futures, in detail (positive
  anticipatory images)
• Using discovery launch pad
• Creative not deductive
• Creating possibility, creating data, creating
  change
• Shared positive experience
• Exploring strategic possibilities

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A dreaming experience

• In pairs
• Interview each other about How things could be?
• Essentially you are asking How would your
  life/world/organisation/team be if more of the
  good things weve been talking about were
  happening more of the time?
• Imagine you are a journalist doing a Day in the
  life of interview
• You are working to build a really rich picture of
  this imaginary future. You are seeking
  description
• Usually about 2 years on seems to work, so start
  by setting the time So its the 24th of May
  2008.

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In groups of four How is this dreaming process
relevant to the challenges of coaching or
individual performance improvement?
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Design

• Linking future and present
• Creating paths or accounts of connection
• What are we doing now that points towards that
  future?
• If we were like that, how would we be organized?
• What can we do now, what can I do now?
• Generating strategic intent
• Positive energy for change excitement, hope,
  affirmation

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Designing

• In pairs
• Re-establish yourselves in 2008
• You are working to establish a created ladder
  between back then and now
• Youre role is to help your person establish a 2
  year looking back perspective
• Ask questions such as what was the first thing
  you noticed? What do you find yourself doing less
  of/more of, now than then? Who was the first
  person to get excited about the possiblities?
• Try to create about 3 first ladder steps

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Destiny

• Releasing, channeling, facilitating energy into
  forward actions
• Appreciating social nature of change, working
  with energy and flow - creative messiness
• Achieving coherence and co-ordination (not
  control and constriction)
• Appropriate processes of coherence (story, story
  board, action plan, provocative propositions)
• Appropriate processes of co-ordination
  (communication, relationship, working parties,
  meetings)
• Living strategy

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Appreciative inquiry and change

• The key to creating change in the organisation
  is creating new theories /ideas/images that enter
  the everyday language of system members
• (Bushe 2001)

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• A Team Intervention

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Team in Trouble
Six in team Not for profit professional
institute

• Under threat of outsourcing
• High turnover
• Lack of clear induction
• Unfair work distribution
• Nothing improves
• Difficulty making and implementing decisions
• Factors outside control

• Poor performance
• Poor leadership
• Poor morale
• Feeling angry and upset
• Expressed intentions to leave
• Not working as a team
• Working reactively

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Discovery 1

• Appreciation
• When is the events team at its best?
• When are you at your best, in the context of the
  team and its work?
• Who or what else affects how well the team can do
  its work?
• How does the team know when it has been
  successful? And who else knows?
• Changes
• In your view, what have been the significant
  changes for the team over the last however long
• What changes would you like to see?
• Who else might like to see changes and what
  changes?

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Discovery 1

• Future
• What do you think is going to happen in the
  future?
• What, in your opinion does the team need to do
  differently to ensure the best possible future?
• Current times
• What do you consider to be the most significant
  issues for the team at the moment?
• How would you like the team to view you?
• Other things
• What else do I need to know to be able to
  effectively help this team work together more
  effectively?
• Note Not asked what is wrong and who is to
  blame?

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Contracted Focus

• Establishing proactive and positive leadership
  and management (people, processes, customers,
  boundaries, work)
• Developing a sharper and empowering sense of
  purpose, aspiration and value
• Clarify issues of autonomy, group co-ordination
  and team work
• Recognizing, registering and broadcasting success

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Discovery Two With everyone

• Moving the answer to the question How come I am
  working this hard and feel this bad,? from
  personalities in team to something more
  systemic
• Getting ready to work together
• Appreciative interviews
• Systemic mapping of system expectations and
  criteria for success
• Identifying value add
• Statements of purpose and vision
• Individual commitments to change

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Dreaming

• A little more discovery. And re-discovery
• Future interviewing
• How would it be if more of these things were
  happening more of the time?
• Future Features
• (template for evaluation/measurement)

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Design

• Backlighting Constructing ladders of account
• Creating and sharing a story of change
• The role of the leader

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Destiny

• Starting again
• Everything in the room. Reconnecting. Connecting
  story
• What should be done?
• What will we do? A story of future action
• Decision to delay

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Evaluation 1
Objective Mode Oct 2002 Spread Oct 2002 Mode Oct 2003 Spread Oct 2003
Holding boundaries 3 2-4 6 2-10
Sharing knowledge and skill None 3-8 8 7-9
Importance of success 10 1-10 9 8-11
Fairness of work share None 2-7 6 3-10
Manager skills 5 3-5 6 4-7
Leadership skills 5 1-6 none 3-7
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Evaluation 2

• Sessions immediate effect but faded over time
• Increased empowerment
• Less frustration within team generally
• Work wasnt always capitalized upon
• Leader had become more effective, but more needed
• Team meetings becoming more learning experiences
• Team generally working together better
• Outsourcing design work had been a good decision

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Faciliation, Tips and issues

• In small groups, discuss questions you would like
  to ask and select top 2
• Topics you might like to consider could include
• Contracting
• Getting started
• Choosing the appreciative topic
• Developing an appreciative ear and vocabulary
• Counter indicators

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My practice

• On your own or in pairs, consider how you might
  take your learning today into your own practice.
  Be ready to share this in a moment

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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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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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AI processes Amplification

• Amplifying the data
• 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
• Amplifying the findings/outcomes proposals
• Surveys
• Feedback on surveys

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Appreciative inquiry language

• Talk as a medium to achieve change
• The placing of attention
• The sense created by talk
• The research question is the intervention and
  is fateful and impactful

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Different understanding of relation language and
change

• Positivist
• Linear Causality
• Truth
• Static meaning
• Neutral
• Fixed time
• Objective universe
• Scientific method based interventions

• Constructionist
• Circular Causality
• Accounts
• Dynamic meaning
• Fateful
• Possibility time
• Socially constructed multiverse
• Appreciative Inquiry Interventions

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Attending to accounts

• Voices
• Positions
• Perspectives
• Authorship and narrators
• Audience
• Context
• Image, feelings, metaphor

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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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Learning a Living Mission Statement
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References

• Joseph Le Doux 2003 The emotional Brain Phoenix
• David Cooperrider, Suresh Srivastva (eds)1999
  Appreciative Management and Leadership Williams
  Custom Publishing
• Sue Hammond1996 The thin book of appreciative
  inquiry Kodiak Consulting
• Martin Seligman 2003 Authentic Happiness Nicholas
  Brearley
• Alan Carr 2004 Positive Psychology Brunner-Routled
  ge
• Mary Gergen and Kenneth Gergen (eds) 2003 Social
  Construction, a reader Sage
• David Cooperrider, Peter Sorensen, Therese Yaeger
  and Diana Whitney (eds) 2001 Appreciative
  Inquiry an emerging direction for organisational
  development Stipes
• Rita Carter 2003 Mapping the Mind Phoenix

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Forthcoming Workshops Masterclasses

• Insert details of forthcoming workshops