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The power of attraction
Openness to new possibilities
It is our belief that the organisations that will be most successful in the coming years, those that will thrive through the current period of economic uncertainty and generate superior returns for their stakeholders, will also be vibrant, playful, energetic and fun places to be. They will be characterised by a spirit of creativity, inspiration, self belief and optimism that breathes life into the organisation and, most importantly, the people within it.
The protestant work ethic that arguably provided the backbone to businesses that thrived in the 19th and 20th centuries is, in this new century, more likely to be what stands in the way outstanding performance and long term, sustainable growth.
The organisations that prosper will be characterised by dialogue, networked relationships, shared discovery, curiosity, imagination, improvisation, ongoing enquiry, liberation of capacity, self organisation, shared speculation and dreams, and, above all a collective sense of responsibility for, and commitment to, the ongoing success of the business.
Difficult questions
Hold that image in your mind for a few moments and then ask yourself: How many of these characteristics are fully embedded in my organisation? Is my business a vibrant and energetic place to be, one in which each employee is enthusiastically committed to its growth and success? Do I and the people who work for me enjoy going to work and feel confident and optimistic about the future?
If your answers to these questions are entirely positive, and you are confident that they will continue to be in the months and years to come, you need read no further. For the rest of us, based on the principle that if we keep doing what we have always done we will get what we have always got, it is clear that we need to engage in some kind of organisational change effort. That is, we need to become proactive in shaping and realising a future organisation worthy of our dreams and aspirations.
Broken promises
Unfortunately, although we would argue that championing change is one of the key responsibilities of a leader, the history of organisational change initiatives is littered with programmes that failed to deliver. Worse, many initiatives have distracted the organisation from focussing on what it is distinctively good at and have left the business worse off than at the outset.
We believe that the deficit approach to organisational change, that of searching for what is wrong and trying to fix it, has not delivered, and will not deliver the promised sustainable improvements and growth.
Focussing on what is wrong and why people and organisations are not good enough drains energy and self belief. Alternatively, we can search for instances, however small and rare, when things have worked, when excellence was achieved. We can look for examples of where, however briefly, we were what we want to be. We can then dream about what it would be like to be that good all the time. We can choose to be provocative and challenging about what the organisation should and will be like, and then engage as many people as possible in creating what will be.
A pragmatic approach
Over the last 20 years or so, a slow revolution has been happening in the world of organisational development and change. A pragmatic approach has emerged based on the above principles. An approach called Appreciative Enquiry (AI).
AI is both a philosophical stance about what makes organisations grow and thrive, and a practical, pragmatic, common sense process, a series of simple steps. By philosophical stance, we mean that it is founded on a number of principles and beliefs about organisations as complex systems, and about how businesses and people work when they are at their best.
It is based on the law of attraction (popularised in the bestselling book, The Secret) which states that powerfully imagined futures have the capacity to draw people and organisations towards them.
AI is optimistic about people and believes that they want to achieve, succeed and grow. One of the best ways of unlocking this potential is through communication, enquiry and dialogue. This is based on the principle that the moment we begin to ask challenging questions, we start to create change. Importantly, this requires the empowerment and engagement of all employees in discovering the positive core of the organisation, dreaming a better future, putting in place a myriad of activities to build this future and committing to follow these through.
Creating comfortably powerful people
The approach requites a sharing of power which enables people to recognise not only that the organisation is open to change, but also that it is no longer possible for employees to look to others to deliver that change. People have to be given the power and the permission to change things and to create the future in dialogue with others.
The principle of dialogue is, therefore, key. That is, dialogue as exploration, learning and enquiry.
Although otherwise largely non prescriptive about organisational forms, most AI writers and practitioners are clear that the approach is incompatible with command and control organisational structures. To quote D Whitney and A Trosten-Bloom:
“To continue to succeed organisations need more inquiry. They need less command and control by a few and more exploration of possibilities among many. They need less certainty in their usual plans and strategies and greater capacity to sense and adapt quickly as their world changes. They need leaders who can acknowledge what the don't know and will enthusiastically ask provocative and inspiring questions.”
The process
A typical AI intervention is designed around a series of steps, normally known as the 5Ds. Although, because of the limitations of the written word, we present these steps in a linear manner, it must be remembered that real life is never as tidy as that. Effective AI programmes will move back and forth between each stage in an iterative manner.
These 5 steps are:
o Definition – agreeing the change agenda, desired outcomes and questions to be answered.
o Discovery – inquiring into stories of the positive core of the organisation
o Dream – agreeing a vision of how the future will be
o Design – creating a challenging framework that moves the organisation from dream to reality
o Delivery – implementing sustainable change
The important thing to bear in mind here, before we look in a little more detail at each of these stages, is that an AI intervention does not need to be complex. It can be as simple as a one day workshop, or it can be a full scale change programme running over several months. Indeed, there is case study evidence to suggest that a single day intervention, coupled with judicious follow up and support, can deliver substantial organisational benefits.
Definition
It is important first of all to decide whether AI is the most appropriate intervention. Although highly effective, it is not a panacea for all ills and all situations.
Time also needs to be taken to define a change agenda, to agree who is going to take part in the initial phase of the programme and to educate them in the process. Larger programmes will also require the appointment of an advisory team whose job it will be to act as project managers.
Having scoped the project, the next step is to agree a set of up to five core topics. Careful, thoughtful and informed choice of topics is important as they will effectively scope and guide the process. The intention is to focus dialogue on those factors that give life to the organisation when it is at its best.
Problem definition is usually done in a workshop setting and will take anything from an hour to two days depending on the scope of the project. The guiding principle here is to keep it as simple as possible, but no simpler.
Discovery
This is the stage at which people normally start to really enjoy the process. The drive to search out and nurture the best becomes infectious.
A set of interview questions is written for each previously agreed topic. These questions are framed to encourage people to tell stories that explore past, present and future options. Typical questions include: “Tell me a story about the best team you ever worked with”, “Tell me about a peak experience or high point in your professional life ... a time when you felt most alive, most engaged, and really proud of yourself and your work”, or “What are the core factors that give life to this organisation, when it is at its best?”
On a one day workshop, participants form pairs and conduct 45 minute interviews with each other. In a more complex intervention, interview guides are written and interviewers are trained. Typically, each interviewer will be asked to interview around 10 people, and sometimes interviewees are themselves asked if they too want to train to become interviewers. The important thing is that the interview be tailored to the needs of the organisation and, ideally, that as many people as possible are involved.
Whatever the scale of the project, it is then necessary to collate and make sense of the data. This means drawing out the richest stories and quotes and looking for patterns and themes. The principle of themes is important, in AI jargon this is often called mapping the positive core. Effectively it involves the interviewers working together to agree a list organisational success factors and exceptional moments that will form the basis for imagining what an organisation would look like in which these elements were the norm.
Dream
The dream phase is a right brained imaginative activity designed to encourage people to explore exciting possibilities for the organisation. This is normally done in groups of up to 12 and can take anything from an hour to half a day. Logic and pragmatism are deliberately held in check until the subsequent Design stage.
Building on the work done to map the positive core of the organisation, attention is now turned to what it could become. Participants are asked to envision the most stimulating and invigorating possibilities and to do so in a provocative way that expands and enhances their image of the business and of its future possibilities.
Design
Starting with an articulation of the values and aspirations of the business, the visions created in the dream phase are now given substance and form. The ideal organisation is described in a set of provocative statements, known as provocative propositions, designed to stretch the organisation towards what it is capable of when it is at its best.
The emphasis is on those things which will give most leverage to the achievement of the desired change. People are encourage to work on those aspects of the organisational dream they care most about and to turn these dreams into affirmative statements that state in some level of detail what this aspiration will look like when it is fully achieved. These provocative propositions are stated in the present tense, they are desirable, they require people to stretch to achieve them and, importantly, they are grounded in the stories that were unearthed in the Discovery phase.
Delivery
As with any change programme, delivery is both a key step and the stage at which many initiatives falter. It is vital that the energy drive and enthusiasm which was created in the previous steps is supported and maintained. The principle of attraction does, however, help make this more likely. Quite simply, it is much easier to work towards a compelling future vision than it is to try and move away from what is seen as an unsatisfactory past.
During this stage, teams turn provocative proposition statements into a series of tangible actions and are then given responsibility for project managing delivery.
A key principle here is that of self organised innovation. Teams are given authority and responsibility within a context that offers both support and challenge. Team members are allocated on the basis of interest and enthusiasm. The aim is to engage people in projects they are passionate about.
During the delivery phase it is important to publicise and celebrate success stories and to communicate about ways in which the future is being made real. In a small AI project the delivery will be the work of a single team. In a larger project comprising several teams, however, there is a need for a support infrastructure and coordination. This is usually done by means of an advisory group that contains members from each team.
The way we do things around here
Organisations that embrace AI as a methodology do not just follow this process through a one off change cycle. The three stage organisational development model of present state, transition and desired state, as described by Kurt Lewin over 50 years ago is no longer valid. Indeed, it never was. Rather like puppies and Christmas, AI is a lifetime commitment. It involves keeping key components of organisational architecture and vision constantly under review.
Most importantly, it is about ongoing dialogue, enquiry and appreciation of what gives life to the organisation
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