Gyan on AI – Appreciative Inquiry

Gyan on AI – Appreciative Inquiry

Appreciative Inquiry is a philosophy, an approach to doing everything in life focusing on getting the best of people!

Change is inevitable, but the outcome of the change to be positive

is a choice we can make…

We all have our understanding about how things work and especially how people work (how human mind works). What makes people do what they do. What drives people.

While aiming at better outcome we are talking about driving Change in the way things work.We have tried and tested approach to drive people motivation and it’s done well for us. We identify the target followed by what is ‘Ideally’ needed to achieve the target and then finally evaluate what we have and what’s missing as compared to ‘Ideal’ list. Once we’ve established the list, we focus on what’s missing and fix it aiming at ‘Ideal’ state. We do that for everything we deal in life, including our organisations. That is how we manage business, manage processes, manage people, manage resources… practically everything. As stated earlier, this approach has done well for us, but we need to identify if it is an approach to achieve the best of what can be.

Going to basics of understanding how Human Mind works, how they take decisions and how to get the best of them…. One very familiar way of driving people is motivation by fear. Fear of losing job, losing that promotion, losing that increment, losing that social status, losing respect (insult), losing losing losing losing losing… It certainly drives people, but drives only to the extent of getting them in a state when they don’t lose what they’re afraid of… It certainly works, but equally certainly doesn’t get us the best in people…

Exploring what also works in driving people, below are few pointers:

• People love to speak of what they’re good at. They love to share their opinion, their understanding of way things work, what they’re good at, why they do what they do and how it makes sense to them. They love to do more of what they have been doing.
• People are driven by self-motivation when they chose what they wish to do. Their vision puts them in self-propelling mode.Self Discipline enhances productivity, but Implied discipline kills it.
• What people talk about and what they constantly think of often becomes their reality. All their efforts, time, space of mind and energy get driven by the world they create around themselves, the world articulated by their words and thoughts.
• People may chose drive any interpretation of world around them. They may choose to focus on what they do not want or may choose to articulate the same desire in terms of what they want.
• People are often driven by images and visualisations of ideal future they wish to create.
• An ideal future for all is always created by all who will be living the future and contributing towards making that future a reality.
• While driving large change initiatives for future, collective efforts are often much needed. It is important to have large group of people on same page, which is usually ignited by conversations. The direction of conversation is a choice that changes the outcome of change.
• While communicating with others the words chosen ignite the thought process that follows & further changes vision of desired future that decides the actions taken making it a reality.
• When a group of people collectively agree a common vision of desired future, they are collectively self-driven to achieve the same.
• Endless possibilities are created when people collectively complement each other’s strengths, bond closely and together co-create the future.
• People have the power of defining the ‘Ideal’ list of what is needed to achieve something and only people have the power to redefine that list.
• The biggest possibilities created by people lie in their ‘intellectual creativity’ of using their existing strengths in ways never imagined before.

 To elaborate on last two points I have a very crude analogy here.

Biryani recipe

Picture this. You have few guests coming to place at short notice and you are to prepare Biryani for them. You know that biryani recipe needs about 16 ingredients, but you have only 12 wherein only 10 are from the required ‘Ideal’ list and 2 of something else. This doesn’t stop you from making the biryani. Infact you use your ‘intellectual creativity’ and use these 12 ingredients to make the biryani. You never know it may even turn-out to be better than what you initially set-off making… By focusing on what you already have and building on it (using it in ways never used before) you didn’t just achieve what was required, you achieved something way beyond it…

The most important factor to be sensitive to is the conversation that ignites Change. The question we choose to ask leads to thought process, visualisation of future and actions towards the future making it a reality. It is very important to begin conversations with an intent to bring out the best of people.

Appreciative Inquiry is the term derived from simple understanding of the words:

Ap-pre’ci-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, e.g. the economy has appreciated 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.

(ref: https://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/intro/whatisai.cfm)

The above mentioned pointers about what drives people are captured below in an extract from website of The Centre For Appreciative Inquiry (http://www.centerforappreciativeinquiry.net/more-on-ai/principles-of-appreciative-inquiry/)

CORE APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY PRINCIPLES

The Core Principles of Appreciative Inquiry, which describe the basic tenets of the underlying Ai philosophy, were developed in the early 1990’s by David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva (Cooperrider’s advisor at Case Western Reserve University). The five original principles are: Constructionist, Simultaneity, Anticipatory, Poetic, and Positive.

The Constructionist Principle: 

Words Create Worlds

Reality, as we know it, is a subjective vs. objective state and is socially created through language and conversations.

The Simultaneity Principle:

Inquiry Creates Change

Inquiry is an intervention. The moment we ask a question, we begin to create a change. “The questions we ask are fateful.”

The Poetic Principle:

We Can Choose What We Study

Teams and organizations, like open books, are endless sources of study and learning. What we choose to study makes a difference. It describes – even creates – the world as we know it.

The Anticipatory Principle:

Image Inspires Action

Human systems move in the direction of their images of the future. The more positive and hopeful the image of the future, the more positive the present-day action.

The Positive Principle:

Positive Questions Lead to Positive Change

Momentum for [small or] large-scale change requires large amounts of positive affect and social bonding. This momentum is best generated through positive questions that amplify the positive core.¹

EMERGENT APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY PRINCIPLES

Additional principles that have surfaced throughout the years that are based on, or constructed from, the five original core Ai principles. They are:

The Wholeness Principle:

Wholeness Brings Out the Best

Wholeness brings out the best in people and organizations. Bringing all stakeholders together in large group forums stimulates creativity and builds collective capacity.

The Enactment Principle:

Acting ‘As If” is Self-Fulfilling

To really make a change, we must “be the change we want to see.” Positive change occurs when the process used to create the change is a living model of the ideal future.

The Free Choice Principle:

Free Choice Liberates Power

People perform better and are more committed when they have the freedom to choose how and what they contribute. Free choice stimulates organizational excellence and positive change.²

The Narrative Principle:

Stories are Transformative

We construct stories about our lives (personal and professional) and live into them.³

The Awareness Principle:

Be Conscious of Underlying Assumptions.

Understanding and being aware of our underlying assumptions are important to developing and cultivating good relationships. Practicing cycles of action and reflection can build one’s self-awareness.⁴

__________________________

¹Cooperrider, D.L., & Whitney, D. A Positive Revolution in Change: Appreciative Inquiry. Taos, NM: Corporation for Positive Change, 1999.

²Whitney, D. &Trosten-Bloom, A. The Power of Appreciative Inquiry. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler, 2003.

³Barrett, F. & Fry, R. Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Approach to Cooperative Capacity Building. Chagrin Falls, OH: Taos Institute Publishing, 2005.

⁴Stavros, J. & Torres, C. Dynamic Relationships: Unleashing the Power of Appreciative Inquiry in Daily Living. Chagrin Falls, OH: Taos Institute Publishing, 2005.

Below is a simple comparison highlighting world view distinction between two approaches:

Application of AI philosophy

As stated at the beginning, AI is a philosophy and not a tool or technique. It defines our way of approach of doing everything.

Focusing on specific intervention and helping an organisation to learn and adapt this approach, 4-D cycle is a process that can be of help. This process when implemented at an organisation bringing together the whole system (not necessarily every stake holder, but representative from each area) is known as an AI Summit.

AI Summit

In an AI Summit whole system of the organisation is gathered, kept off from any distractions for 2 – 4 days. During the summit, there are immense interactions irrespective of what level, background, etc. the person comes from. An atmosphere of immense psychological comfort and freedom is created facilitating people to express their thoughts about themselves, their opinion about how things work, how things should be and their ideas to make things happen.

4-D Cycle

4-D Cycle is a process that uses principles mentioned above in a systematic manner helping people and organisations as whole experience the possibilities they can create with an AI approach… Ignite Positive Revolution.

4 Ds represent four steps of the process:

 Discovery is a process to identify strengths of system.

In deficit based approach we often diagnose the system in times when things are not the way desired and try to point at what’s obstructing from reaching status-quo.

Whereas, to identify strengths of a system we need to focus on times when organisation has been at its peak. Focusing on what gave life to system then, what made things work delivering exceptional results.

This is done in few steps:

µ       Asking people to interview each other in pairs. The inquiry during interview revolves around each person expressing their story of their peak experience in the system with as many details as possible. The interviewer carefully capturing themes which emerge from the story. Identifying the values / strengths that drove the system creating peak experience of the interviewee.

µ       The same is done by both in the pair. They capture the themes they see evolving from the stories shared.

µ       Those pairs are grouped in 4 or 6 people groups. Each interviewer shares stories of the person they interviewed to others in group.

µ       Collectively the group picks a story that covers most of the common themes they could observe.

µ       They would put out these themes on a chart paper in as creative way as possible and put up that paper on a wall so as everyone can see.

µ       Each group will share their story with others in an open forum and the themes they have observed emerging from the story.

µ       After all the groups have shared their stories, every person in the room is given 5 votes each and they need to freely vote for the theme they find the strongest amongst all put up on the chart papers.

µ       Those with maximum votes make the Positive Core of the system.

Dreaming is a process of visualizing and declaring how the future should be.

Participants are asked to picture state of future they would desire to see. Gather as many details as possible and share it on the forum. Each group either performs a skit or presents in any form so as the future can be made visual. This visualisation of ideal future drives people to identify articulate the vision.

Defining the ideal state and future making it a concrete mission is the next step.

A Wish-listof specific future ideal state is captured from the visualisations of future. Collectively the most prominent points are identified and priotised. Positive Core is the basis of making things happen. A rigourous brainstorming and collective ‘intellectual creativity’ leads to innovative actionable solutions. The targets, mission and Vision is co-created. Everyone is committed to the Change as they have defined the ideal future and means to achieve it using their existing strengths (what they are good at). This sets people in self-propelling mode. Everyone is self-motivated, self-driven to do what it takes to help each other collectively achieve the aim.

Destiny is sustaining the approach in every part of life of the system, of the organisation.

Executing the AI philosophy and igniting Change with this approach as a one-time activity is not what makes it a way of life. Facilitating adaption of AI philosophy where the way of doing things include respect for each other’s ‘individual creativity’, co-creating possibilities and executing them complementing each other.


Warm Personal Regards,
Deep Mody
A Change Leader
Helping Humans do what they do - Be Human