Appreciative Inquiry Transforming Relationships, Organizations, and Communities

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Appreciative InquiryTransforming Relationships,
Organizations, and Communities

• Mark Chupp
• 2008 Human Services Institute

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A Premise

• Life is about innovation, not survival
• Were here to co-create, not defend
• Everything is in a constant process of discovery
  and creating
• Life organizes systems
• so that more life may flourish
• Organizations are living,
• organic systems

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Create a Safe Space

• Create a safe space for all to connect to our
  best, whole selves, and to co create a new future
  
• A healthy space
• A generative space
• A reconciling space
• We listen to all voices and discover the
  potentials diverse views hold for positive change
  
• There are only two ways to live your life. One
  is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is
  as though everything is a miracle.
• Albert Einstein

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Appreciative Inquiry

• An asset-based approach
• Preserve the best of the past while envisioning
  and creating a positive future
• A positive change tool for organizations and
  community development

No problem can be solved from the same level of
consciousness that created it. We must learn to
see the world anew. Albert Einstein
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What is Appreciative Inquiry?

• Ap-preci-ate, v., 1. valuing the act of
  recognizing the best in people or the world
  around us affirming past and present strengths,
  successes, and potentials to perceive those
  things that give life (health, vitality,
  excellence) to living systems 2. to increase in
  value, Synonyms VALUING, PRIZING, ESTEEMING, and
  HONORING.
• In-quire (kwir), v., 1. the act of exploration
  and discovery. 2. To ask questions to be open
  to seeing new potentials and possibilities.
  Synonyms DISCOVERY, SEARCH, and SYSTEMATIC
  EXPLORATION, STUDY

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Problem Solving The Deficit Theory of Change

• Identify the problem
• Conduct root cause analysis
• Brainstorm and analyze possible solutions
• Develop action plan
• Back Door whats in the way of what we want?

Metaphor Organizations are problems to be solved
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Cultural Consequences of Deficit Discourse

• Fragmentation
• Few new images of possibility
• The experts must know...dependence and
  hierarchy
• Spirals in deficit vocabularies
• Breakdown relations/closed door planning

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Problem Solving
Appreciative Inquiry

• Identify the problem
• Conduct root cause analysis
• Brainstorm and analyze possible solutions
• Develop action plan
• Back Door whats in the way of what we want?
• Deficit Thinking

• Appreciate value the best of What Is
• Envision What Might Be
• Dialogue What Should Be
• Innovate What Will Be
• Front Door what is it we ultimately want?
• Possibility Thinking

Metaphor Organizations are problems to be solved
Metaphor Organizations are mysteries to be
discovered
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Assumptions in AI

• In every human situation something works
• What we focus on becomes our reality. Positive
  image creates positive reality
• Reality is created in the moment and there are
  multiple realities
• The language we use
• shapes our reality

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Assumptions in AI

• The act of asking questions influences the
  outcomes change begins with the first question
  we ask
• People have more confidence going into the future
  (unknown) when they carry forward parts of the
  past or present (known). Carry the best into the
  future.
• Diversity is a necessary component of healthy
  systems. We value differences.

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AI in 2 Questions

• What gives life?
• What can we create that is congruent with what
  gives life?

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Interviews

• Give all attention to the other
• Listen not to critique but to value
• Identify assets and strengths that emerge
• Celebrate

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Table Discussions

• What are elements of positive organizational
  change?
• What made positive change possible?
• What are emerging themes and any recommendations
  you have for others?
• How could you use the collective elements and
  strengths you have shared today?
• What is one thing you can commit to right now
  that will strengthen positive change in your
  organization?

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Appreciative Inquiry is

• A way of being in the world
• A philosophy for working with change in human
  systems
• A five-phase cycle of continuous and systematic
  change

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AI 5-D Spiral
AI systematically and collaboratively creates a
knowledge link between the entire organization
and the life-generating core of past, present,
and future capacitiesand this ignites change.
David Cooperrider
Robert Voyle
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AI 5-D Process
5. Deliver Innovating what will be Co-creating
a sustainable, preferred future. Who, what, when,
where, and how? 4. Design Dialoguing what should
be Aligning values, structures, and mission
with the ideal. Developing achievable plans and
steps to make the vision a reality 3. Dream
Envisioning the ideal What is the world
calling our organization to be? Developing
common images of the future. Writing provocative
propositions. 2. Discover Valuing the best of
what is Interview process and gathering of
experiences. Inquiry into the life-giving
properties of the individual and organization.
1. Define Committing to the positive Awareness
of the need for development. Preparing for an
appreciative process.
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Inquiry from an Appreciative View

• 1. Inquiry into what is possible should begin
  with appreciation. The primary task is to
  describe and explain those exceptional moments
  that give energy to the community and activate
  members' competencies and energies.
• 2. Inquiry into what's possible should be
  applicable. Study should lead to the creation of
  knowledge that can be used, applied, and
  validated in action.
• 3. Inquiry into what is possible should be
  provocative. A community is capable of becoming
  more than it is at any given moment and learning
  how to determine its own future.
• 4. Inquiry into the human potential in the
  community should be collaborative. This assumes
  an inseparable relationship between the process
  of inquiry and its content.

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Slavic Village Broadway

• Historically a Polish, Slovenian, Slovakian, and
  Czech neighborhood in Cleveland with a shared
  identity for what has become known as Slavic
  Village
• Urban Challenges white flight, disinvestment,
  erosion of civic values, isolation, mass
  distraction, and escapism
• African American population was 3 in 1990 and
  26 in 2000
• The grand narrative of the neighborhood was
  perceived as one of racial tension

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Broadway Diversity in Progress

• An outgrowth of Slavic Village Development
  community organizing program
• Trained residents to do interviews to discover
  the positive core of the neighborhood
• The AI Pairing a planned date between dissimilar
  groups in the neighborhood
• 30 member Steering Committee meets monthly to
  coordinate pairings and action steps

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Discover
What are the root causes of comfortable diverse
relationships?
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Steps to Create Change
Plans
Organizational Redesign
Projects
Shared Vision
Possibility Statements
Principles to Preserve
Identify Our Positive Core
Uncover Themes
Best Practice Stories
Appreciative Interviews
Build Cross-Sector Relations
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Slavic Village Broadway

• Historically a Polish, Slovenian, Slovakian, and
  Czech neighborhood in Cleveland with a shared
  identity for what has become known as Slavic
  Village
• Urban Challenges white flight, disinvestment,
  erosion of civic values, isolation, mass
  distraction, and escapism
• African American population was 3 in 1990 and
  26 in 2000
• The grand narrative of the neighborhood was
  perceived as one of racial tension

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Broadway Diversity in Progress

• An outgrowth of Slavic Village Development
  community organizing program
• Trained residents to do interviews to discover
  the positive core of the neighborhood
• The AI Pairing a planned date between dissimilar
  groups in the neighborhood
• 30 member Steering Committee meets monthly to
  coordinate pairings and action steps

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Pathways to TrustGroup Level Paths
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Pathways to TrustIndividual Level Paths
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BDP Outcomes

• New diverse organization with capacity to
  dialogue about race
• Concrete actions (Welcome Wagon, Mural, Church
  Alliance, etc)
• Changing identity
• and public discourse

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BDP Outcomes

• 4. New approach to organizing centered around
  community building

5. Conflict intervention teams respond to racial
incidents Its like the old neighborhood only
in multicolor. Polish American Senior Citizen
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US Department of Education Regional Office of
Civil Rights
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US Department of Education OCR Sample Principles
from Interviews

• Resourcing and Supporting One Another
• When team members pool their strengths on a case,
  each person learns from and is supported by the
  other members.  Egos drop off as different skills
  and interests combine to build trusting
  relationships and create outstanding work.
• Empowered Decision-Making     
• When people are empowered with the freedom to do
  what is needed to accomplish a goal and feel a
  part of the decision-making process, they develop
  a personal commitment to the project and feel a
  sense of pride for themselves and others on their
  ability to quickly and effectively respond to the
  needs of our customers. 

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US Department of Education OCR Action Steps in 3
Areas

• Develop 6-month Pilot to Staff Cases from
  Office-Wide Pool
• More Interaction with the Real World
• Focus on Value v. Process

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Why does it work?

• The power of personal stories to transform lives
• We listen (Margaret Wheatley)
• Social distance narrowedwe are the same
• Differences become secondary to larger goals
• United effort toward positive goals provides a
  safe path for resolving conflicts on the way
• Increases the capacity for real dialogue around
  unresolved differences

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Whole Organization Connection to the Positive
Core

• Elevates positive emotions of hope, inspiration,
  confidence, joy raises intelligence expands the
  language of life (internal dialogue) increases
  in appreciative interchange and mutually
  elevating relationships higher creativity,
  better decision making, increased collective
  capacity.
• Undo Negative Patterns letting go, makes
  irrelevant, finishes the residual of negative
  past.
• Protection in Future Increases health-ability
  resilience accumulation of power like an
  increase in immune system functioning.

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Other Examples

• US Department of Education, Regional Office of
  Civil Rights
• Catholic Diocese of Cleveland
• United Religions Initiative
• World Vision
• From a bureaucratic hierarchical world to a
  network of networks

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• All the greatest and most important problems of
  life are fundamentally insoluble... They can
  never be solved, but only outgrown. This
  outgrowing proves, on further investigation, to
  require a new level of consciousness. Some higher
  or wider interest appeared on the horizon and
  through the broadening of outlook the insoluble
  problem lost its urgency. It was not solved
  logically in its own terms but faded when
  confronted with a new and stronger life urge.
• Carl Jung

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Resources

• The Appreciative Inquiry Commons
  http//appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/
• Business as an Agent of World Benefit
  http//worldbenefit.case.edu/