‘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.
Here’s an issue that anyone working with positive change methods is going to face, especially working in a business context. Here also is an elegant way to handle it. The Problem With Problem-Solving This issue is more complex than you…
It took me a long time to get round to reading Six Thinking Hats, but finally after 25 years of corporate training I took the plunge. I was expecting a brainstorming process, because that’s how I had most often heard…
Yesterday, I wasted most of a beautiful sunny Sunday morning trying to fix an email problem. Today, five minutes work made it a non-issue. What changed in between the two? I took a step back, rethought, and discovered there was an…
Get your Appreciative Inquiry process started off right with this quick and easy guide to defining an affirmative topic The affirmative topic for an Appreciative Inquiry is important – ‘fateful’ as many books about AI describe it – because the…
Sometimes our attempts to solve a problem cause an even bigger problem down the track. Here’s how to recognise these situations, and some ideas on what to do about it. An article on by Connirae Andreas on the always useful…
If you’ve run out of ideas for solving a complex, intractable problem, try this exercise, drawn from the Appreciative Inquiry approach. It works by finding what’s already working well and building on it, rather than trying to analyse the causes…