11 Gifts Appreciative Inquiry (AI) brings to Leaders, Teams, & Stakeholders
Written By Natasha Dalmia | August 30, 2019
Over the past decade, I have worked with leaders from diverse fields as that of Education, Healthcare, Childcare, Social Services; introducing Appreciative Inquiry (AI) to them. * In this article, I will zoom in on the work with Principals & Key Personnel from diverse schools from Ministry of education (MOE), Singapore; some of them coming together from a Cluster and other schools approaching us independently. The intentions, when clarified, are mostly to build a generative culture, where educators as leaders innovate, manage change with a coaching style, and can contribute to the growth of not only their students but also of their fellow-educators, and the system.
Introducing Appreciative Inquiry (AI), here are 11 gifts AI brings to the room. This is why my clients have taken very well to AI to bring desired change to the scale of the whole.
1. Providing psychological safety — Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a strengths-based approach. It is an affirmative approach that focuses inquiry on what’s right, what’s working, and how to work toward a desired vision (Davidcooperrider.com, 2019).
Example — Educators found this approach revolutionary when working with students, especially contrasting it with the ‘right-wrong’ approach and engaging the child on what is her/his desired vision. I witnessed the ‘aha’ when the reframe was applied to their fellow-colleagues. One client had reached out seeking support in the system of Key-Personnel (KP) leaders of the school. The setbacks comprised the behaviours shown in a culture of silence, the proverbial feeling of being alone on the top, with a missed sense of team that directly impacted performance. I worked with them to support increasing their range, starting with what was working. This provided psychological safety to gradually uncover the truth. The staff developer summed up the impact,
“ Most of my colleagues speak the truth and our hope is to contribute to make this a high performing team. I also sense the positivity, wish and desire to want to communicate, support and work with each other.”
2. Exercising the reflective muscles — Appreciative Inquiry (AI) entails interviews in its first phase of Discovery. Away from yes/no/multiple choice questions, the Discovery AI questions seem to unlock within the leaders whispers of wisdom that go unnoticed in the busy-ness of life. Time and time again, leaders share the deep joy and relief they feel after an interview. To quote Parker J. Palmer, ‘Good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher.’
Example — One of my clients shared after a two-days workshop,
“I enjoyed the Discovery interviews the most as I realised that they made me reflect. It has been a long time since I have focused on my inner voice, as I am always thinking about students, problems, and fire-fighting issues. My take-away is to return to reflection.”
3. Discovering the Positive Core — Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as a paradigm of change does not espouse for changing everything. What remains constant is the positive core. One of the assumptions is that every community, society, team has at its core the best of that which is valued from the past, is relevant to the present and is worth taking it into the future; in essence, the positive core. They can be strengths, mindsets, values, practices, the purpose itself and the whole, which is bigger than the sum of its parts. Discovering this positive core strengthens the community, society and team, making them resilient to face the change and design the path towards the desired future.
Example — I have seen educators and leaders tap into their creativity to express this positive core in metaphors with messages that ring resoundingly. The real value is in the inclusiveness, the collaboration and the articulation of this positive core, which is affirming across and beyond the diversity in groups. One of the most touching stories for me is of a school practicing Positive Education whose positive core was its people and their practices that was treasured and taken into the new future in the wake of tsunami like waves of change.
4. Holding space for grief, stress and failure — The moment the word ‘positive’ is introduced, the nature of duality brings forth the word ‘negative’. One of the FAQs is if Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is only about the positive? Gervase R. Bushe penned an article called, ‘Appreciative Inquiry Is Not (Just) About The Positive’. Explaining why is it useful to focus on the positive, he writes,
“ A focus on the positive can support change in general.” He goes on to explain, “ Listening to an adversary’s stories humanizes and builds bridges. Sometimes adversaries discover they value very similar things, and can relate to each other … that state, however, can be attained through both uplifting stories and through sad or tragic stories.”
Example — Working with 100 educators who came together in the context of a merger of two schools, the emotions in the room was high on both sides. The interview was done in pairs with educators from the original two schools partnering with each other. The AI protocol elicited stories that were inspiring, real, sad and hopeful. Honouring the pain and holding space for grief for the loss of a identity was a non — negotiable. Conversations amidst the people generated ways to support each other and work through the cloud of stress to serve the people at the core of the purpose; students. At the end of the process, there was a shared identity of the pain of the merger, and also of hopes and dreams for the new future. Hence, to answer the FAQ, AI is neither positive nor negative; it is generative.
5. Dreaming and Envisioning — After Discovery, the next phase in Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is Dream that answers the query to ‘What could be?’ Conscious Leaders know that Vision for an organisation cannot be drafted in isolation. The leaders also want to listen to the voices from the ground. AI makes a huge difference here in the focus of the inquiry. If the questions are all about problem — solving, or even soliciting information on what are the problems, the answers are all focusing primarily on problems. That is important but not necessarily, complete. If the questions are also about dreams of the people from the ground for themselves, their teams, the organisation, the stakeholders and the system, the answers widen in scope.
Example — This part of the process is paramount for educators working with children of all ages and in different stages of their lives. It is renewing for the educators to return to their personal dreams of what started them on this journey of education and to dream for the future. When the leaders come together to articulate the images of the future that they dream about, the change is no longer seen as driven externally but rather one that is driven internally with passion and purpose. People find themselves not only adapting to change but creating towards a future they have always wanted. Many clients chant away the adage, “positive images lead to positive actions”.
6. Visualising — Scientific studies have shown that the brain does not differentiate between a real memory and an imagined (visualised) one. This means that we have the power to change our brain chemistry by imagining something vividly; feeling the emotions that we would were it to be a real experience, and our brains would record the imagined experience as a real memory. Now let us look at Appreciative Inquiry (AI) dream phase applying this lens.
Example — To begin with, most people equate change with pain; change with loss and therefore imagine if not the worst, at the very least the minimum of personal losses. When change is imagined as a problem to be solved, associated with loss and the emotions it evokes, the brain locks it up as a real experience. Hence, most people resist change. However, Appreciative Inquiry (AI) has a different approach to change encouraging individuals, teams, communities to imagine what might they desire for their growth to look like and feel like in the future. These are images of the future, which begets positive emotions and positive actions to reach for these goals. The principles, the language, the positive core and the Dream phase activate visualisation as a process enabling change to be viewed as strengths-based and desired where the proverbial baby is not thrown with the bath water. My clients have reported time and time again that it is an enabling and empowering process.
7. Integrating Design Thinking — After Dream, the next phase in Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is Design that answers the query to ‘What should be?’ Many educators with whom I have interacted have varying levels of exposure and experience of Design Thinking methodology. Naturally, AI elicits the bright minds to collaborate to come up with provocative propositions for desired change, play with the “How might we” questions, co-create prototypes to be tested, to be reviewed and to be integrated in the change process.
Example — It has been very fulfilling to see the educators connect the dots, create prototypes, often under pressure of time, and present them with clarity. This has impacted pedagogy, curriculum, practices of leadership and teaching in schools when followed-through with commitment. One of my clients whose schools had to physically move to another location due to construction in the old space found value in the process of prototyping smaller changes in packing up, unpacking, attending to the day-to-day work of teaching and marking and finally moving. Another has addressed a provocative proposition of designing the path of education to the point that it is student centric that makes the educator’s role irrelevant in the traditional sense. As one of them shared, “We can now design to improve the culture in our school/cluster.”
8. Delivering Results — The fourth phase in Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is Deliver/Destiny which brings the accountability to the people; individuals, team, community that embarked upon the journey.
Example — Clients walk away even after a foundational workshop with a sense of awe and respect of the process that catalyses teamwork, innovative thinking, and a deeper sense of camaraderie and collaboration in every cohort. Once you listen to the story of another, and share your own, as part of the process, then continue to work together towards the images of the future in a strengths-based manner, the perception from adversary to ally changes inherently. People are surprised to feel acknowledged, to have the space to bring forth their strengths and have fun! At a recent workshop, a client summed it up,
“ The crux of AI — 4D, good stories and very authentic learning experiences. The importance of having great synergy amongst us, the caring environment showered by the participants, when we did not even know each other two days ago!” Another client shared this back in his school, “ Build up from positive core, flexibility to provide context, overlay with LO tools to enrich transformation.”
9. Articulating Meaning — One of the key distinctions for the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) approach on change is the invitation to articulate one’s own meaning about the self in the change. As per the Social Constructionist principle, the notion that words create worlds, people have the ultimate choice in the way that they respond to any change. As Victor E. Frankl penned in his classic book, ‘Search for Meaning’, “ Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s way.”
AI deliberately invites every individual to bring meaning to the journey one is in through its Discover to Deliver/Destiny cycle. Generally, people respond to changes better when they are included, involved, empowered and enabled through the journey. AI is scalable to the entire organisation/s. An AI summit has the potential to invite 1000s of people and stakeholders to address change and co-create meaning together. People support what they help create. From strategic planning to leadership & organisational development, every of our client engagement has found this principle to be ‘oh so true!’
10. Operationalising Positive Education — Martin Seligman, espoused as the father of positive psychology, is known to quote, “ The aim of positive psychology is to catalyze a change in psychology from a preoccupation only of repairing the worst things in life to also building the best qualities in life.” Positive Education is the approach that blends academic learning with character & well-being. In the recent-most World Positive Education Accelerator Conference 2018, Martin Seligman & David L. Cooperrider joined forces for Positive Education and AI to transform education for the 21st century.
In Singapore, Sequoia Group invited educators from the entire spectrum of education from Early Childcare Education to Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary education to build capability for change and innovation. The Appreciative Inquiry (AI) for Educators was launched in March 2019. The invitation is there for everybody who wishes to step in to make a generative difference in the field of education. AI cuts across perceived borders of race, religion, and generation gaps in workplaces, to name a few, to bring people to distinctly focus on the questions that matter.
Back in 2008–2011, we worked with different schools with a provocative proposition to train its students in AI as a way of character — building, so that they may interview the adults and the elderly about healthy ageing and well-being. The work done served during the economic downturn period in 2008 where students interviewed workers who had got entrenched. They shared a renewed understanding of the purpose of education to integrate academic excellence with a caring society, starting NOW. (https://www.sequoia.com.sg/programmes-initiatives/initiatives/imagine-singapore/)
11. Enjoying ‘T’ with AI; Trust, Transparency & Thoughtfulness — In Margaret Mead’s famous words,
“ Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has. “
If, as David Cooperrider says, human systems grow in the direction of questions they ask, an oft-asked question in the 21st century world tuning towards AI-Artificial Intelligence is, “How to build trust?”
In my practice as Consultant & Coach, AI process has allowed many teams & stakeholders to walk the tight rope of organisational journey and transformational change. A metaphor I offer is to enjoy a warm cup of ‘T’ that gradually builds Transparency in conversations & Thoughtfulness in actions; which when it becomes a practice, leads to Trust.
For more queries on how AI can be of service to your organisation, contact us at enquiries@sequoia.com.sg or +65 6253 1615
* Natasha is with Sequoia Group.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
