‘Flipping’ a problem statement to become an affirmative topic is the main task in the Definition stage of Appreciative Inquiry – but it can benefit any kind of coaching. Here’s the checklist of the qualities your affirmative topic needs to have to be successful.
A new Practical Appreciative Inquiry live online facilitator training starts soon – click here to get the details and how to book Transcript The affirmative topic for an Appreciative Inquiry is important – ‘fateful’ as many books about AI describe it – because the topic sets the frame for what you will be inquiring into.
The ‘Definition’ stage of Appreciative Inquiry is where you get everything ready to conduct your Appreciative Inquiry process. It’s the bit that’s taken as a given when we talk about the 4D model – the cycle of Discover, Dream, Design, and Deliver that you might go through when you conduct an Appreciative Inquiry meeting or
I wonder if you’ve found yourself in a situation like this? Recently one of my former Appreciative Inquiry students called me to get some advice. She was running an ideas generation meeting, using Appreciative Inquiry as a broad framework. Her boss, who has supported her and let her get on with new initiatives, was invited
Recently one of my Practical Appreciative Inquiry graduates emailed me an interesting question. She is using an appreciative interview format in her research working with maternity staff (doctors, midwives and maternity support workers) who have worked through the Covid crisis and obviously been under a lot of pressure. She was concerned that it would seem
How do you structure an Appreciative Inquiry process? The 5D format is the most widely-used way of doing it. Here’s a quick overview of what happens in each stage. 0:32 – What do we mean by the ‘Positive Core’? 2:05 – Sometimes known as the 4D Format 2:37 – The Definition stage 3:12 – The
“The inquiry is the intervention” Because questions direct attention to whatever is being asked about, they affect perceptions, emotions, and sometimes, the beliefs of people answering those questions. Consequently, change starts as soon as you start asking questions. The way you ask the questions, and the frame within which you ask them, is also important.
‘Positive questions create positive change’: change requires a lot of positive emotion, which positive questions create. Change requires learning to act in new ways, but it’s also stressful – and people can’t learn when they are stressed. The Positive Principle rescues us from this paradox. 0:16 – The paradox of change 0:46 – Most large-scale
‘We can choose what we study’ The third in a series of short videos where we introduce the five principles underpinning Appreciative Inquiry. The ‘Poetic Principle’ reminds us that what we focus on grows, so when we choose to study success rather than problems, we can find useful new resources and learnings that were overlooked
The second in a series of short videos where we introduce the basic principles underpinning Appreciative Inquiry. The Anticipatory Principle states that organisations (and people) tend to grow in the direction of their positive images of the future, like a sunflower or heliotrope grows towards the sun. Our expectations of the future – and therefore
This article follows on from What Most Leaders Are Getting Wrong About Empathy, And Why That’s Dangerous In Times Of Change: Part 1 How To Stop Empathy From Destroying Organizations And Families As our organizations evolve into the 21st Century, where we move away from the bureaucratic kind of organizing towards more networked systems, and
Gervase Bushe’s ‘Experience Cube’ (part of the Clear Leadership model outlined in his excellent book, Clear Leadership: Sustaining Real Collaboration and Partnership at Work) is a useful tool for reducing anxiety, communicating more clearly, and increasing self-awareness. This article is my take on how it works to get these results. What Is The Experience Cube?
