Appreciative Inquiry in An Eggshell: Change at the Speed of Imagination
by Bernard J. Mohr (bjmSynapse@aol.com) (November/01)

What if innovation could come by learning from moments of excellence?

What if change could be exciting, energizing and confidence building for everyone in the organization? 

What if we could carry the very best of who we are and have been into a future that we create together?

What if change could happen at the speed of imagination?

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a powerful new vehicle for setting in motion a wave of positive organizational change. It's based on a deceptively simple premise: that organizations grow in the direction of what they repeatedly ask questions about and focus their attention on. The practice of AI is grounded in an intense exploration of unconditional positive questions that can uncover an organization's best practices and innovations, as well as the conditions that allow it to thrive AND the translation of these findings into the daily processes and practices of the organizations work

So, instead of asking, "What are our problems? What hasn't worked?" we might say, "Tell me a story about a time when things were going really well around here." This simple shift in perspective constitutes a powerful intervention in its own right that can begin nudging the company in the direction of the inquiry-and toward radical innovation. 
Of course there is a bit more to it than that!

How Does Appreciative Inquiry Work?
Instead of focusing on problems and changing people, AI invites people to engage in a collaborative discovery of what makes their organization effective-in economic, ecological, and human terms. This dialogue stirs up energy, excitement, and insights. Organization members then weave that new knowledge into the firm's formal and informal systems, such as the way they develop and implement business strategy measure progress or organize themselves to accomplish tasks. In this way, positive change begins simultaneously with inquiry, allowing true learning to take place. Existing problems are replaced with innovation and excitement as conversations increasingly shift towards uncovering the organizations positive core.

The Five "D's" (see diagram at end)
AI is an ongoing, iterative cycle consisting of five phases: Definition, Discovery, Dream, Design, and Destiny. In large companies, the process often begins with individual units or divisions. In small companies, everyone can take part right from the start. 

Definition. Reframe a business challenge into a positive topic of inquiry and customize a strategy for including "the whole system" in subsequent phases of the change process. Because organizations move in the direction of the questions they ask, the topic and the questions chosen are vital to creating positive change. 

Discovery. Identify the organization's best practices, life-giving forces, or root causes of success. Based on the line of inquiry established during the Definition phase, participants interview hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people from within and outside of the organization. Through this process, new insights emerge about what drives the organization, what its capabilities are, and what contribution its members can make to the world. 

Dream. Build on the learning's developed during the Discovery phase by envisioning the organization's future. Dream sessions can range from small teams to "summits" in which hundreds of people participate. People throughout the business create images of what life in the organization and with its key constituents would look like if the company's best practices became the norm rather than the exception. This approach differs greatly from other visioning processes, because the dreams are grounded in what participants know to be their own and the system's capabilities.

Design. Identify the high-leverage changes the organization would have to make in its systems, processes, roles, and metrics to support the vision described in the Dream phase. This phase is more than just breaking down the dream into short-term actions; it's translating the dream into the language of the organization's social architecture-all of the formal and informal structures that sustain it.

Destiny. Flesh out and experiment with the innovations identified during the Design phase. The hallmarks of this phase are creativity, innovation, and iteration-buttressed by ongoing inquiries into the progress being made and the effectiveness of the changes. Employees work to identify, highlight, and expand what is working well. They also continue to innovate where needed, so that the organization can grow and learn. The main challenge that groups face during this stage is sustaining-even magnifying-the inspiration that characterizes the earlier phases.

"AI at Work - four stories"

In less than six months, Dex, a billion dollar, for-profit subsidiary of the Fortune 100 company US West, achieved a huge return on investment of $15.62 for every dollar invested. The Dex office that pioneered AI also improved product quality by 51%, cycle times by over 400%, and employee morale by 245%. During this same period, this U.S. office moved up to number one in employee satisfaction among all 46 offices. Additionally, operating costs declined and customer satisfaction increased.

When a Mexican cosmetics firm wanted to eliminate discrimination against women, the management team first asked consultants to help them understand the causes of this unequal treatment. Dissatisfied with the direction their conversations were taking, they decided to shift their focus-to inquire instead into the causes and conditions that contribute to excellent cross-gender relationships in the workplace. This change led the organization to a whole new body of knowledge about the issue. The members of the firm then came up with a compelling vision that they could work toward based on the conversations that took place during the inquiry process: a business world in which everyone is treated fairly regardless of gender. Not long thereafter, the company won an award for having one of Mexico's most supportive workplaces for women.

When a Brazilian food manufacturing company was facing potential disaster due to lost business, high rates of absenteeism and poor quality they brought together all 700 of their employees along with key customers and other stakeholders to determine the future of the company. In a series of whole system working sessions innovations in products, customer relations, organization structure and culture were identified and implementation begun. Within a year absenteeism was down by 300 % and quality increased significantly and new products were introduced. Within the next few years profitability increased by 422 %, productivity increased by 42% sales increased by 66%. 

In a leading unionized North American manufacturer of heavy equipment the cycle time to bring to market new products was agonizingly slow. Representatives of all parts of the work process which created new products came together to study the process at its moments of greatest functioning. They identified the contributing factors to excellent performance and translated those factors into changes in the business process, the organization, the culture and roles and relationships. This resulted in a product development cycle which went from 5 years to three years.

Conditions That Support Appreciative Inquiry
While organizations have applied AI in many ways, the following conditions seem to be present when it has been most effectively incorporated into a process of organizational learning and change.

• The organization honestly acknowledges any current difficulties
• The organizational culture supports participation of all voices, at all levels-with the understanding that outcomes from grassroots innovation cannot be known in advance.
• Learning and change are seen as ongoing processes, not a one-time event.
• The company's leaders believe in the organization's capabilities and agree that accessing this "positive core" can drive learning and change.
• The organization supplies the structures and resources needed to collect/distribute "exceptional time" stories and support creative action.