Appreciative inquiry - learning from success
As a rule, the management of a company focuses on everything that is not working: It identifies problems, analyzes situations and initiates countermeasures. The paradigm that an organization is a problem that needs to be solved is part of the problem itself. Because this view becomes a subjective reality. With Appreciative Inquiry (AI), the focus is not on what is lacking, but on the splendor of what is already working.
Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is more than a conference and workshop method: it is a fundamental attitude, a different way of looking at things, a philosophy. In a nutshell, AI is the opposite of problem-solving approaches. The difference is based on the realization that we can learn more from what works than from what doesn't work. For example, if a company wants successful projects, effective teams and cross-functional communication, it needs to focus on exactly that.
Appreciative inquiry changes the perspective
In the day-to-day life of an organization, many things are perceived as problems. This is not tragic, but part of the reality that has to be dealt with. The decisive factor is whether you constantly focus your attention on "the problem" (and its supposed solution) or whether you concentrate on what you want to achieve as a target state. Anyone who has perceived a problem or deficit and works with the AI approach changes their perspective and asks themselves: "What do we want more of?" The investigation therefore relates to the desired target state and not the problem.
A practical example: At one airline, baggage regularly did not arrive at the destination airport at the same time as the passengers. It often got lost or was not forwarded. Instead of the usual problem analysis, the management decided to work with the AI approach. As part of a workshop, the statement "The baggage (also) arrives!" was formulated as a desirable target state.
The participants compiled all incidents in which baggage transportation had worked in the past. The investigation was therefore not problem-oriented, but rather potential-oriented and appreciative. The many small success stories and anecdotes brought to light how to proceed to make luggage transportation work. In this way, many dormant potentials were discovered and harnessed.
Success stories make a company stronger
The study of what works is based on an age-old approach: Storytelling. By retelling and compiling anecdotes and incidents, a large number of success stories are generated, which are examined for their instructive core (success factors and recommendations for the future)
The individual steps of Appreciative Inquiry
- Plan an AI process
- Develop the core topics
- Asking the appreciative questions
- Standard setting and process
a) Discovery: What works?
b) Dream: What could be?
c) Design: What should be?
d) Destiniy: What will be! - Documentation
- Anchoring in the organization
One of the AI assumptions is that people or groups develop in the direction that they are primarily concerned with. Appreciative inquiry is a promising approach as long as the groups are interdependent, have a common past or a common future. In corporate development as well as in urban development or in the school system.
The question is simple. It is:
- What do you want to have as a company, as a school or as a city? In other words: What do you want MORE of?
- Do you want one hundred percent satisfied customers? Do you want satisfied, happy citizens and tradespeople in a cosmopolitan and liveable community?
- Do you want highly effective, intrinsically motivated and enthusiastic learners?
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