Category — Appreciative Inquiry

Solving “Wicked” Problems

Red Cape or Green?

      Imagine you have been charged with making the biggest possible difference for the world and the seven billion of us on it. Quite the challenge. But you are in luck, for I am a magic genie and can grant you one wish. I can give you a RED cape which will let you stop “bad” things. Or I can give you a GREEN cape which will let you grow good” things. Which cape will you choose?

      Want to stop Famine? How about Disease? Simply put on your red cape and wish them away. But what do you get if you stop famine? People who are no longer starving. (Don’t get me wrong; that would be a good thing. But is it enough?) What happens if you stop disease? Does the absence of sickness imply health? I think not. Simply ending the problem is insufficient.

      If you wanted to end famine, what would you grow instead using your green cape? How about something like “well-nourished” people.  If you wanted to end disease, what about growing “healthy” people? Notice how focusing on what you want more of, versus what you want less of can actually have a much bigger impact in actually dealing with the problem. Also note that in no way does Green Cape thinking ignore the very real problems facing the world.

      So if it’s true for changing the world, does it also hold true in business? What do you get if you stop customer dissatisfaction? Customers may no longer be leaving (again, a good thing) but are they telling their friends and families wonderful stories about your business. What if, instead, you grew loyal and passionate customers? Might that have a greater impact on your bottom line?

      Having a problem with staff turnover? Need to stop your best people from walking out the door?  What if you could grow an engaged and motivated workforce? Might your talent stick around?  The positive image of the future you want carries incredible power, much more than the negative image of the past you wish to avoid.

Positive Image              Positive Action

      What impact can a positive image have? At the individual level think of the power of our images of ourselves evident in the Placebo Effect. Most of the medical profession now accepts as genuine the fact that anywhere from one-third to two-thirds of all patients will show marked physiological and emotional improvement in symptoms simply by believing that they are being given an effective treatment, even when that treatment is just a sugar pill or some other inert substance.

(The Placebo: Is it Much Ado About Nothing? Arthur K. Shapiro and Elaine Shapiro; The Placebo Effect: An Interdisciplinary Exploration; By Anne Harrington 1997, Harvard University Press, Boston, Mass.)

      At the group level, the Pygmalion effect is equally persuasive.  In 1968, Robert Rosenthal, a Harvard University professor, and Leonore Jacobson, a principal of an elementary school in San Francisco, published ‘Pygmalion in the classroom: Teacher expectation and pupils’ intellectual development’. The main argument of the book is that the expectations that teachers have about their students’ behavior can unwittingly influence such behavior. This influence, or self-fulfilling prophecy, could have a positive or negative impact. In other words, when teachers expect students to do well, they tend to do well; when teachers expect students to fail, they tend to fail.   

Rosenthal and Jacobson borrowed the term ‘Pygmalion effect’ from a play by George Bernard Shaw (‘Pygmalion’) in which a professor’s high expectations radically transformed the educational performance of a lower-class girl. ‘Pygmalion in the Classroom’ describes an experiment carried out in an elementary school (which the authors call Oak School) to test the hypothesis that in any given classroom there is a correlation between teachers’ expectations and students’ achievement. In the experiment, Rosenthal and Jacobson gave an intelligence test to all of the students at an elementary school at the beginning of the school year. Then, they randomly selected 20 percent of the students – without any relation to their test results – and reported to the teachers that these 20% of students were showing “unusual potential for intellectual growth” and could be expected to “bloom” in their academic performance by the end of the year. Eight months later, at the end of the academic year, they came back and re-tested all the students. Those labeled as “intelligent” children showed significantly greater increase in the new tests than the other children who were not singled out for the teachers’ attention.”

History of Education Daniel Schugurensky, URL:  http://www.wier.ca/~%20daniel_schugurensky/assignment1/1968rosenjacob.html

It was proven that the image that the teacher held of the student was a more powerful predictor of a child’s performance than IQ scores, home environment, or past performance. Image creates action!

Green Cape thinking carries a much more positive, and therefore powerful and energizing image of the future galvanizing action rather then resistance.

So, which do you choose– Red or Green?

I spent the week of January 12 in Las Vegas leading a 4-day Appreciative Inquiry summit for an entire business of 750 people. As far as I know, this is only the second time a full Inquiry covering all 5 “D’s” has been done at this scale and it was the highlight of my career. The power of bringing the whole business into the room cannot be underestimated. The new relationships formed alone were probably enough to justify the investment. In addition to the whole new set of connections, they also developed 85 prototypes and projects to bring about the cultural and business changes they want and need. Even though the focus of the Inquiry was Empowerment, over half of the project ideas dealt with new products and services, as well as changes in marketing and sales approaches, organizational structure,  technology systems and business processes. Even during breaks, conversations stayed focused on the business at hand. The energy at the end of the Summit was as high as at the start, something I have never experienced before. Every aspect of the session reinforced the concept of empowerment. We had one ground rule: “Everyone is a fully functioning adult making informed choices about how to participate.” Other than at the start, we never herded people back into the room. We used only 8 content slides. And the leadership team members spoke for a total of 40 minutes over the course of the 4 days. They were full players in the entire process and their equal participation was noticed and appreciated. If you would like to hear more about this amazing event, please drop me an email of give me a call.

One of Profound Conversations’ core approaches is The Importance of Questions & The Appreciative Approach. One of the questions I am often asked by clients is to explain what exactly I mean by the Appreciative Approach, why I use it – and how they can learn more.

I made them a summary – and I would like to share it with you.

Appreciative Inquiry & The Appreciative Approach

“We have two possibilities, we can look at what works or we can look at what doesn’t work – whatever we look for is what we are going to find”. – Marjorie Schiller, Phd

The Appreciative Approach is based on Appreciative Inquiry (AI).

AI offers a new, invigorating approach to dealing with the very real business issues you face. We focus on what gives energy, and support leaders, their teams, and their organizations on remembering and re-discovering themselves at their best.

Let’s contrast it briefly with the traditional approach: The traditional approach to change is often deficit-focused. It comes from the belief that organizations are problems that need to be solved. That all we need to do to “fix” the problem is to identify the root cause of failure and then develop and implement solutions to close the gap. Often, experts are called in to diagnose the problem and “prescribe” solutions.

Appreciative Inquiry’s new theory of change is that broad-based participation and collaboration focused on purposefully exploring for and enhancing that which gives life to an organization when it is performing at its best is much more effective and efficient in shaping the future. Or as David Cooperrider (the originator of AI) put it: “AI is an exciting way to embrace organizational change. Its assumption is simple: Every person, every team, every school, every organization has something that works right – things that give it life when it is most alive, effective, successful, and connected in healthy ways to its stakeholders and communities.”

Therefore, the Appreciative Approach means we direct our questions away from deficits and gaps. We focus instead on what gives energy, and support leaders, their teams, and their organizations on remembering and re-discovering themselves at their best. As a result, a powerful vision for, and commitment to, an energizing future emerges.

You can learn more about Appreciative Inquiry here. Or ask me a question via email or in the comment section below. I look forward to your feedback!