1. Appreciative Inquiry Is Only About Being ‘Positive’ ❌ On first hearing about Appreciative Inquiry, it might be tempting to dismiss the approach as ‘looking at the world through rose-coloured glasses, pretending everything is wonderful, and sweeping problems under the…
Appreciative Inquiry facilitator and coach Andy Smith describes the difference between Directive and Non-Directive coaching
Why listening beats giving advice, and what coaches and managers can learn from Motivational Interviewing Recently I came across an engaging short video by Roksana Anning on the ‘Righting Reflex’. The term was new to me, but the idea resonated…
How to get your coaching client to feel at ease with you, open up quicker, and reframe their issues, in your first session A new Practical Appreciative Inquiry online training starts soon – click here to get the details and how…
Here’s a great way to define a ‘problem space’ and reframe it to a quest for what you want instead, without ignoring the negatives or being accused of brushing problems under the carpet. A new Practical Appreciative Inquiry online training…
Here’s a short video (with transcript) on an easy way to ‘flip’ problem statements into affirmative topics
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…
Sometimes it’s easy to ‘flip’ a problem statement into an affirmative topic. But for some problems, perhaps vaguer or more complex ones, it can seem harder. Here’s a process you can use when none of your attempts at an affirmative…
Objective appraisal is impossible Although feedback is famously “the breakfast of champions”, nobody likes getting negative feedback. Now a new book, Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World, by management researcher Marcus Buckingham and SVP…
Coaching Works – But What Kind Of Coaching? It’s fairly well established that coaching works. For example, a meta-analysis of studies of workplace coaching in 2015 shows a strong positive effect on individual performance, and smaller but still positive effects on…