Enhancing Teamwork through h Appreciative Inquiry

Transcription

1 SESSION MISSION: Enhancing Teamwork through h Appreciative Inquiry Tweet with the hashtag #tgconf We can expect more change to occur in our lifetimes than has occurred since the beginning of civilization over ten thousand years ago. - Jane Watkins and Bernard Mohr Appreciative Inquiry: Change at the Speed of Imagination 1

2 Appreciative Inquiry Is your team currently challenged to keep up with rapid change? Are you looking for ideas to improve your performance? Are you ready to discover new ways to maximize your team s productivity and efficiency? Appreciative Inquiry allows you to do just that. Appreciative Inquiry What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your office? 2

3 Change How to deal with it Traditional approach: Treat as problem to be solved Analyze what s wrong Root cause analysis Determine how to fix AI = A positive approach to change Pioneered by Dr. David Cooperrider, Case Western Graduate School of Business Based on tenets of positive psychology focus on solutions vs. problems A process of asking questions (inquiry) to determine what works best (appreciation) Focus on positive core as transformational engine 3

4 Leadership is aligning an organization s strengths in ways that make its weaknesses irrelevant. - Peter Drucker Appreciative Inquiry Appreciate To value; to recognize the best in people or the world around us To affirm past and present strengths, successes and potentials To perceive those things that give life to living systems Inquire To explore and discover To ask questions, to be open to seeing new potentials and possibilities 4

5 Models for Organizational Change Problem Solving Approach What doesn t work Problems Despair/Inaction Appreciative Inquiry What works Possibilities Energy/Action Instead of focusing on problems, deficits, it and needs, AI focuses on what is best about the current situation - looking for assets, potential, and possibilities. Principles of AI Organizations are organic constructions Asking gquestions starts the change process What we focus on grows; we have a choice! Project positive images vs. wait to react 5

6 4 D Change Cycle Discovery What s best about the organization? Dream What could be?; envision impact Design Create the steps ; construct the future Destiny Make it happen; sustain the change Every organization is a mystery to be embraced! AI How does it work? Choosing an affirmative topic of inquiry Asking a series of questions asking what s best about An individual A team An organization A process and using that positive core as a transformational engine to create a vision of the desired state. 6

7 Example: British Airways From How to solve lost baggage problem To How to enhance the customer arrival experience On time arrival Quick de-planing Clear signage to baggage claim Bags there and out quickly Friendly, helpful staff Topic of inquiry Must be stated in the affirmative Focus on what we want to grow Describe desired direction for our energy For today: Turning Pressure into Performance 7

8 Ready to begin? Discovery Tell Stories The universe is made of stories, not atoms. - Muriel Rukeyser 8

9 Tell Stories Stories give life to past experience. Stories make the events in memory memorable to others and to ourselves. - Roger Shank The Appreciative Interview (use the interview guide on page 3) 1. Tell me a story 2. Ongoing pressures 3. Excitement/Possibilities 9

10 Small group exercise What are the common themes that run through these stories? EnergyGram Of all the themes, which have the most potential to enhance your performance? These life-giving forces are your positive core! 10

11 Dream When we dream alone, it is just a dream. When we dream together, it is the beginning of a new reality. - Brazilian proverb Dream AI = Change at the speed of imagination 11

12 Imagine your team 5 years from now, if everything is just as you wish it would be, with all your strengths th magnified and enhanced. What would be different? How? Write it down. How can we create our future? 12

13 Imagine this desired future and... Draw a picture Compare visions What are the common themes? Design A vision without action is just a dream. - Joel Barker When inspired by a great dream, we have yet to find an organization that did not feel compelled to design something new and necessary. - David Cooperrider and Diana Whitney 13

14 Possibility statements Capture the essence of your vision in words Make it challenging g (provocative) Stretch beyond the status quo Present tense Design: Brainstorm new Structures Processes Technologies Strategies Be specific! 14

15 Destiny: Create what will be Think about it Talk about it Imagine it Work together Cultivate this type of culture Destiny: Create what will be Engage the whole organization Form action teams with assignments Generate specific requests Go public and ask for support Plan next steps Make it sustainable and keep it going! 15

16 Creating the preferred future These things take time, especially in larger offices Change is constant and always will be how can we make it sustainable/part of our culture? AI creates freedom To be known To be heard To dream To contribute To act As the illusion that there can be a stable environment fades, organizations are embracing the challenge of thriving in a world of constant change, realizing that change is not a force acting on organizations, but the very water in which organizations swim. - David Cooperrider 16

17 Questions? This presentation is available for download at Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation To order additional copies, or to request permission to reproduce any of the information provided, please call TG Communications at (800)