SOAR vs SWOT!

Appreciative Inquiry at Work

Dr Liz E Mellish

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

AI On-Line Conference
19-21 April, 2005

©Mellish & Associates www.mellish.com.au www.aileadership.com

Appreciative Inquiry – what is it?

Appreciative Inquiry is an approach to organisational development and

change which grows out of social constructionist thought.

The appreciative inquiry approach offers us all the process and potential
to positively explore, collectively imagine, collaboratively design and
jointly commit to a path forward.

©Mellish & Associates www.mellish.com.au www.aileadership.com

 Assumptions of Appreciative Inquiry:

 In every society, organisation, group something works

 What we focus on becomes our reality

 Reality is created in the moment, and there are multiple realities

 The act of asking questions of an organisation or group influences the group in some way

 People have more confidence and comfort to journey to the future (the unknown) when they carry

forward parts of the past (the known)

 If we carry parts of the past forward, they should be what is best about the past

 It is important to value differences

 The language we use creates our reality

©Mellish & Associates www.mellish.com.au www.aileadership.com

Principles of Appreciative Inquiry

Appreciate: the best of what exists, values and hopes for the future

Apply: knowledge of what works, what is possible

Provoke: imaginations re new ways of organising, creative

improvements, ideas and proposals

Collaborate: collective capacity building, shared expertise , resources and

participative decision making

©Mellish & Associates www.mellish.com.au www.aileadership.com

4-D Model of Appreciative Inquiry

Discover
Stakeholder
engagement,
exploration of best
experiences, hopes
and priorities for the

Deliver future Dream

Provocative
Strategic deliverables,
achievements, propositions, principles

Ongoing improvisation
Design
Organisational
implications, key
strategies

©Mellish & Associates www.mellish.com.au www.aileadership.com

How Does AI Work?

 Appreciate the context: situational, specific and participant centred

 Create the conditions: governance + scope of inquiry

 Design the interview protocol

 Design the Appreciative Inquiry process – 4 D Model

 Locate and sustain sources of energy for change

©Mellish & Associates www.mellish.com.au www.aileadership.com

Organisational Change Case Studies
 
Business Unit
University
Government Department
Health Promotion
Virtual Community
Government Service
Delivery
Agriculture Renewal
Catholic Settings
Indigenous Settings
©Mellish & Associates
Need
Service realignment
Staff engagement
New faculty
Participative decision making
Strategic direction
Organisational arrangements
Merge cultures
Change behaviour of school
children
Improved health outcomes
Create it
Share integrated service
delivery learning
Shared vision
Community Engagement
Renewal
Negotiation Tables
www.mellish.com.au
Consulting
Restructure / ABC
Business planning
Scope of Inquiry
Workshops – space design
Participant centred decisions
Reference group
Scope of inquiry – questions
Workshops
Strategic direction statement
Germ busters program
Hand washing routines –
schools
Mentor
Participant Centered Process
Workshop 4-D
Interests/ Creative dreaming
2 day summit
Mixed stakeholders
Envisioning event
Culture change
Workshop
AI in Catholic settings
AI approach and skills
www.aileadership.com
Outcomes
Effective business unit 5 years
on
World class facility
Zero industrial disputation
Cabinet endorsed organisation
Policy platform established
95% program cost savings
($400 000 / $20 000)
Sustained behaviour change
$5m revenue p.a.
Low cost – high impact
Access Queensland
Rural renewal
Strategic alliances
Pastoral planning
Staff renewal
Cluster planning
Shared Responsibility
Agreements
Community action plans
Sample Interview Protocol
Q1 Reflecting on your …. experience to date, what have been the high points? Select an example of when you felt you were
making a real difference. What were the circumstances? Why did it feel good? Who were you working with? What did
you/your client achieve? What was special about this experience? Describe the story around your example….

Q2 What is it that you value most about

Yourself, your distinctive competence / contribution

Your colleagues

Your clients/organisation

Q3 What 'gives life' to …. - without 'it' (this core life giving factor), the organisation would cease to exist?

Q4 What are your hopes for your organisation - what best might it represent, what might it achieve?

Q5 What key success factors would indicate to you that … is well positioned?

©Mellish & Associates www.mellish.com.au www.aileadership.com

Appreciative Inquiry Process Key issues for
practitioners :
1. Shifting between two paradigms of management, that is managing the
gap or the transition from viewing the world in essentially an hierarchical
way, to a more participant centred way of viewing the world.

2. Applying both a macro process frame and micro strategies for large-
group facilitation in the context of organisational change.

3. Balancing the risks and tensions in large-scale participative change work.

 

©Mellish & Associates www.mellish.com.au www.aileadership.com

Appreciative Inquiry Process: knowledge and
skills required
Adopting an appreciative mindset
Professional obligation: Process Leadership
Social Obligation: Partnering in change

Managing diversity
Life streaming
Democratising strategy

Locating and maintaining the energy for change

Getting the whole system in the room
Empowering participants

Integrating micro and macro issues

Integrating strategy, structure and culture
Facilitating a shared vision
Creating social architecture for organising

Transferring ownership of the process

Stimulating lots of little fires
Sharing responsibility for organisational direction and quality with everyone

©Mellish & Associates www.mellish.com.au www.aileadership.com

Appreciative Inquiry Process:
Questions for organisations re large scale systems change

In Transition Are we in transition?

Need to reposition Is there a need for something better?
Want to engage people Does achieving a new direction & way of
operating depend on our people?

Diversity Does creating & sustaining the change

Co design meta strategic management cycle
Participatory decision making
Social Sustainability
Participant centred process
Build a shared vision
demand a participatory process?
Is questioning organisational life vital to
sustaining it?
Is our meta strategic management cycle best
driven by diversity & participatory decision
making?
Do we want to articulate a shared vision and
the means of achieving it?

©Mellish & Associates www.mellish.com.au www.aileadership.com