Big Picture, Big Passion: Exceptional Achievement Appreciative Inquiry Loretta L. Donovan President [email_address]

It is a time for re-thinking human organization and change. Deficit based modalities are increasingly falling short. And cynicism, about the very idea of planned change, is rampant. David Cooperrider

Discovery Identifying your Positive Core Design Possibility Propositions Ideal Organizational Designs Igniting Leadership at Every Level Dream Images of Future Shared Visions Destiny Actions/Projects Continuous Learning The AI Process

Discovery

Identifying your

Positive Core

4-D AI Model Purpose: Value the best of “what is” Task: Conduct an inquiry into the topic and assemble stories and key ideas that come out of the inquiry Purpose: Generalize key ideas into image of how group would function if discoveries were fully alive Task: Envision what might be Agree on possibility statements Purpose: Develop ideas about the relationships and practices for when the group is infused with the exceptional Task: Align values, structures & processes with the ideal Get everyone in the conversation Purpose: Innovate/align the framework within which people operate Build AI learning competencies into the system Task: Co-construct a sustainable preferred future embracing innovation at many levels Discover Dream Discover Deliver

Purpose: Value the best of “what is”

Task: Conduct an inquiry into the topic and assemble stories and key ideas that come out of the inquiry

Purpose: Generalize key ideas into image of how group would function if discoveries were fully alive

Task: Envision what might be

Agree on possibility statements

Purpose: Develop ideas about the relationships and practices for when the group is infused with the exceptional

Task: Align values, structures & processes with the ideal

Get everyone in the conversation

Purpose: Innovate/align the framework within which people operate

Build AI learning competencies into the system

Task: Co-construct a sustainable preferred future embracing innovation at many levels

The Appreciative Interview

The

Appreciative

Interview

Tips for Conducting Appreciative Inquiry Interviews Use the interview form as your “script”. Take the “listener” stance Be genuinely curious about your partner’s experiences, thoughts, and feelings Allow for silence Listen for great quotes and take good notes of the quotes or stories Manage your own time. Have fun!

Use the interview form as your “script”.

Take the “listener” stance

Be genuinely curious about your partner’s experiences, thoughts, and feelings

Allow for silence

Listen for great quotes and take good notes of the quotes or stories

Manage your own time. Have fun!

Let’s Talk About It

Sharing Interview Stories

Form a Group Join another pair or triad Share highlights and insights of the story you heard from your partner Everyone listens for patterns/insights Record key points on easel paper

Join another pair or triad

Share highlights and insights of the story you heard from your partner

Everyone listens for patterns/insights

Record key points on easel paper

Themes from Interviews Cull a list of the themes that were present across the highlights you scribed: high points life-giving forces ideas that “grabbed” you List the top ones on the wall chart Identify one best high point story and be ready to share it with the whole group

Cull a list of the themes that were present across the highlights you scribed:

high points

life-giving forces

ideas that “grabbed” you

List the top ones on the wall chart

Identify one best high point story and be ready to share it with the whole group

“ We inhabit a world that is always subjective and shaped by our interactions with it. Our world is impossible to pin down, constantly changing and infinitely more interesting than we ever imagined.” - Margaret Wheatley Leadership and the New Science

Appreciate What Is

Positive Core An Opportunity Create a knowledge link between the entire enterprise and the life-generating core of past, present, and future capacities… to ignite change.

Positive

Core

Evidence When organizations or groups capture positive imagery internally and make it visible, it starts to drive change in an individualistic, self-directed way. It creates a sense of focus. Our image of the future drives our ACTION! Placebo Effect Help someone construct an image of how something might happen, and it drives behavior which creates a change in that direction Pygmalion Effect Change a teacher’s image of a student, and their behavior changes toward the student, improving student performance Sociology The study of problems creates an increase in number & severity of problems. But opposite also occurs. Internal Conversations Studies of pre and post operative patients. Difference in recovery between positive and negative imagery. Sports Vivid visualization of one’s performance guides physical performance. Speed of learning when only correct images are reviewed.

AI Success Stories

Whole Organization Connection to the Positive Core Elevates Positive emotions of hope, inspiration, confidence, joy Increases Creativity, better decision making, increased collective capacity. “ Undoes” Negative impacts - letting go, makes irrelevant, finishes the residual of negative past. Protects Increases health-ability; resilience; accumulation of power; like an increase in immune system functioning.

Elevates

Positive emotions of hope, inspiration, confidence, joy

Increases

Creativity, better decision making, increased collective capacity.

“ Undoes”

Negative impacts - letting go, makes irrelevant, finishes the residual of negative past.

Protects

Increases health-ability; resilience; accumulation of power; like an increase in immune system functioning.

An Open Moment We Are “In It” Now We are at the very point in time when a 400-year old age is dying and another is struggling to be born, a shifting of culture, science, society, and institutions enormously greater than the world has ever experienced. Ahead, the possibility of the regeneration of relationships, liberty, community, and ethics such as the world has never known, and a harmony with nature, with one another, and with the divine intelligence such as the world has never dreamed. -- Dee Hock, Founder & CEO, Visa

High-Potential Design Possibilities Job descriptions Work flows Information flows Job design Business processes Education, training, and leadership development process Policies on social responsibility Compensation & incentive systems Key organizational strategies Planning processes Communication systems Technology systems Decision-making approaches Measurement systems Performance review process Competencies Organizational structures Planning processes Communication systems Technology systems Decision-making approaches Organization, departmental and individual goals Measurement systems Performance review process Strategies for attracting and retaining talent Mission, vision and values

Riane Eisler The Chalice and The Blade “ Although we don’t usually think of them in this way, most social realities - schools, hospitals, stock exchanges, political parties, churches- are actualization's of ideas that once existed only the minds of a few women and men. This is also true of the abolition of slavery, the replacement of monarchies with republics and all other progress we have made…”

“ Although we don’t usually think of them in this way, most social realities - schools, hospitals, stock exchanges, political parties, churches- are actualization's of ideas that once existed only the minds of a few women and men. This is also true of the abolition of slavery, the replacement of monarchies with republics and all other progress we have made…”

Expressing the Preferred Future

From Dream to Design

Future Possibility Statements A statement describing your ideal board. It bridges the best of what is today with your own speculation or intuition of what might be in the future. It is provocative to the extent to which: it stretches the realm of the status quo, challenges common assumptions or routines, helps suggest real possibilities that represent desired outcomes for the board.

A statement describing your ideal board.

It bridges the best of what is today with your own

speculation or intuition of what might be in the future. It is provocative to the extent to which:

it stretches the realm of the status quo,

challenges common assumptions or routines,

helps suggest real possibilities that represent desired outcomes for the board.

"If one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways, one can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration." ~Edith Wharton

Examples of Organizational Design Elements Job descriptions Work flows Information flows Job design Business processes Education, training, and leadership development process Policies on social responsibility Compensation and incentive systems Key organizational strategies Planning processes Communication systems Technology systems Decision-making approaches Organization, Departmental and individual goals Measurement systems Performance review process Strategies for attracting and retaining talent Competencies Organizational Structures The organization’s mission, vision and values

Job descriptions

Work flows

Information flows

Job design

Business processes

Education, training, and leadership development process

Policies on social responsibility

Compensation and incentive systems

Key organizational strategies

Planning processes

Communication systems

Technology systems

Decision-making approaches

Organization, Departmental and individual goals

Measurement systems

Performance review process

Strategies for attracting and retaining talent

Competencies

Organizational Structures

The organization’s mission, vision and values

Diana Whitney & Amanda Trosten-Bloom “ Through conscious conversations about organization design it seeks to answer the question, “What forms of organization can bring out the best of people, liberate cooperation and give form to our highest values and ideals?” The Power of Appreciative Inquiry – A Practical Guide to Positive Change

“ Through conscious conversations

about organization design it seeks to

answer the question, “What forms of

organization can bring out the best of

people, liberate cooperation and give

form to our highest values and ideals?”

Discovery Identifying your Positive Core Design Possibility Propositions Ideal Organizational Designs Igniting Leadership at Every Level Dream Images of Future Shared Visions Destiny Actions/Projects Continuous Learning The AI Process

Discovery

Identifying your

Positive Core

Design

Possibility Propositions

Ideal Organizational Designs

It’s All About You: A Way of Being What do you do best already--from an appreciative perspective? What would you like to do more of….(work or home)? One AI project (small or big) you would like to experiment with and do? Beliefs you have about yourself will help you succeed?

What do you do best already--from an appreciative perspective?

What would you like to do more of….(work or home)?

One AI project (small or big) you would like to experiment with and do?

Beliefs you have about yourself will help you succeed?

"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." -- Mark Twain