Appreciative Inquiry, and structureret process design and
facilitationBy Kaj Voetmann
Appreciative Inquiry
Kaj Voetmann• Kaj Voetmann, born 1955 in Denmark. Master in Organization and
Leadership from Aarhus. Supplemented with Systemic Leadership, Organizational Development and Communication and Psychology. My specialty is Creating, maintaining and transforming organizations and I have been consulting, teaching and wring about that for the last 22 years.
• I have experience with public, private and nongovernmental organizations in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Colombia. My latest courses were on transformational leadership and generative planning.
• I work from Complexity theory (natural science) which is the foundation for social constructionism, Appreciative Inquiry and Dialogue as the main tools for human development. Traditional theories based on assumptions about one cause and one effect or on systems theories can explain how to create stability, but they have no answer to the mysteries of transformation.
• During my working years I have had many connections to the culture sector and especially the cooperation between culture, public institutions and business.
Kaj’s coat of arms
Complexity theory and processes
• The world consists of Complex Responsive Processes in Interactions that leave Physical (in each process and in the environment), Mental, Virtual and Social (in economy and in power distribution) tracks
• So we have to create interactions that has the quality and number that leaves the tracks we want to leave
The Simple Philosophy
What you give attention becomes your reality!
Talk about the things you want more of!
Not about the things you do not want!
It is the same things you look at, but the results are very different
Appreciative Focus• Is the cup half empty • Or is the cup half full?
Problems!
Successes!
Frustrated dreams!
The complex philosophy
Find what works
Investigate what makes it work
Find what doesn’t work
Find what you want instead (the dream)
Create a mental and physical image of your preferred future based on the best you have and your wildest dreams
Create a mental and physical image of the path to the preferred future
Start living the preferred future NOW!
The basic competences
• Appreciative interviewing
• Appreciative storytelling
• Appreciative observation
• Appreciative feed back and feed forward
Appreciative Inquiry CoachingInterviewer Focus Person Challenge
Internal dialogue
Witnesses
Tell about a challenge you already conquered for 2-3 minutesWhat was the best in this experience?What made it possible for you to have this experience? What did you or other people do? What was the circumstances and conditions?What could make the solution even better?What was or will be the visible results of the success?What is so important for you that it made you choose this story?
Note the positive properties the Focusperson demonstrates in the interview and give your feedback after the interview
Types of Questions
Linear assumptions
Complex assumptions
Get information
Create an effect
Exploratory questions
Circular questions
Strategic questions or statements
Reflective questions
Generative questions Connected
to the purpose
Points of view
Connecting the pieces
Human aspirations
• All people want to make a difference for themselves and other people by contributing constructively to the communities of practices they participate in
• All people want to have good personal relationships to the people in their communities of practice
Ethics in process facilitation
• You will be invited to support one person’s or group’s intentions against other people’s intentions
• You have to stay out of chosing who you support in public
• You have to see everything as a negotiation between multiple good intentions competing in finding a good mutual solution that dissolves the conflict between different intentions
Networks of Identity Formation
Parents
Grand parents
Siblings
Identity
FriendsWork
Leisure activities
Educa-tion
The identity is the stories we have about who we are. We have learnt them through our experiences in our Communities of practise. These stories develop through new experiences.
Communities of practise are the networks where we make our experiences. Through life we participate in many different communities of practise. Our experience grow when we participate in more and more communities of practise.
The stories about who we are – are different from one community of practise to another. These stories often defines the rights and obligations we have and the possibilities and constraints.
Defining the Mission of an organization
Clients
Banks Suppliers
Mission
OwnersUnions
Society Neigh-bours
Which Communities of practise are the most important for your organization?
Which stories do we need each of these communities to tell about our organization in order have a well functioning organization?
When you look across these stories which ideas, concepts, images and metaphors are common to the stories?
Put these concepts into the center of the star and formulate your mission statement
This is a way to understand the ValueCreationNetwork of the organization. And a simple way of creating a Brand or if you use the images and metaphors a Logo.
Appreciative Inquiry RAP
Nu kan det være nok
Ikke mere brok
George Bush danser salsa i en gade fyldt med guld
Osama danser med i en verden fyldt med fred
Pia Gårdskjær favner sin indre muslim
Mens Per Stig Møller spillet fint på violin
The PastWhat are your best experience with ….?
What made it possible for you to have those experiences?
What is life giving for you?
The FutureWhat do you dream was possible too?
If your wildest dreams came true – how would the perfect future look like?
Which bold steps do you need to take to make it come true?
Generative metaphores
”I have a dream!”
”Put a man on the moon!”
”Imagine Colombia”
The Language as a Creative Force
Central elements (questions) in a structured interaction
Which results do we want to achieve?
Which interactions do we need
to go through to achieve the wanted
results?
How do we organize the
participants, the sequence and the physical space?
Progression in processes
Tid
Progression
Projects and processesUnknown set of solutions
Known set of solutions
Unknown set of rights and obligations
Known set of rights and obligations
Development projects
Negotiation projects
Technical projects
OperationslDoing the assigned tasksEmpowerment
Design process
Neg
otia
tion
of h
ow t
o go
on
in a
mea
ning
ful w
ay
Focus on interactionsTasks
Physical environment
Virtual environment
Customers
Colleagues• Same profession• Other professions
Management• Closest manager• Higher up
Partners of cooperation• Internal• External
Friends• In the workplace
• Outside the workplace
Family• In the workplace
• Outside the workplace
Private economy
Life changes• Death among close
relations • Marriage• Divorce
• New living place• New work
• Disease
DialoguingConditions
Collective
Individual
Discussion and DialogueWhen you discuss in order to reach
agreement
The result often is that the disagreement becomes visible
And you end up with with a community based on consensus
based on the lowest common denominator
When you invite to diversity in telling points of views and intentions
The results often is that a community base on much more than
the lowest common denominator become visible
And you end up with a community based on shared knowledge,
tolerance towards diversity and knowledge of the resources of the
community
Scientific proofs
• Placebo-effect: If you believe in it yourself it works better than if you don’t
• Pygmalion or Rosenthal-effect: If you have mutual positive expectations things work better than if you don’t
• Mental training: By training to change your mental patterns to patterns where you are in control of your own situation you can influence your immune system to become better at coping with diseases
• The Balance between positive/negative dialogue: An overweight of positive inner dialogue influences your performance for the better
• A culture influenced by a positive image of the future thrives and a culture influenced by a negative image of the future declines
The Methods
• Originally Appreciative Inquiry was a research method, where the researcher should make her own research design and the specific questions that should be asked
• Therefore practitioners combined the philosopy with know methods and ideas: TQM, The Learning Organization, Therapy, Systemic thinking
• Today the 4D-model is the best know, but not necessarily the most effective in specific applications
The Secret of Change
Improved Results
Improved Interactions
Improved Language
Improved
Relationships
Improved
Communication
Methods
Competitiveness
Resource utilization
Employee Satisfaction
Customer Satisfaction
What is it process leaders offer to their clients?
• I/we can help you to find a better set of solutions to the challenges you are facing now and in the future based on your knowledge of your organisation/community!
• And I/we can give you inspiration from the best practices in the world!
• You just have to help me define the challenges you are facing and invest the time and ressources that is necessary or possible to find the set of solutions!
Affirmative topic choice
• Identify the part of the network that should be invited
• Identify the pat of the network you can invite• Find a title that has these qualities:
– It is oriented to the future– It is including all the parts in the network that should
have been invited– It should be a creating a new community of practise– It should be formulated positively inviting to better
future options for everyone
Development Processes that Create New Realities
Peter Senge’s 5 Disciplines
Mental models
Personal mastery
Mental models
Shared visions
Individual worldview
Collective worldview
Team Learning
Systems Thinking
Personal mastery is to have the ambition of becoming as competent as possible
Mental models are the ideas we live by and we need to know them and know what they do to us
Shared visions are based on the interweaving of the individual visions in the personal mastery
Team Learning is to have a dialogue that makes it possible to share visions and mental models in order to coordinate visions and mental models
Systems thinking is to know the whole so well that you know how to play your role to make the whole work
Generative Planning
Promoting forces
Bold steps
Opposing forces
Vision/Preferred future
Golden steps
Appreciative Force Field Analysis
Promoting Forces Opposing Forces Preventive Actions
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Storyline process documentation
Activities
Valuation
1 2 … N
What worked well?
What made it work well?
How could it have worked even better?
The Process Design
• What would you like to be able to do when we finish?
• Which improvements do you need in your relationships to each other and other people?
• Which communication situation can you systematically use to change your language and relations?
• How can we design a series of interactions that can create these improved Results and Relationships that will make it possible for us to use our Resources in the best possible way?
The Mental Training
• Individual mental training• Visualizing as a method
of training• Coal-Diamond strategy
(see the KaosPilot book)• Competence
development takes place through improvements in the connections between braincells
• Collective mental training• Communication and
physical visualizing as a method of training
• Provocative propositions• Competence
development takes place through improvements in the connections between human beings, mainly through communication
The Summit• Appreciative Inquiry Summit is a large-group
intervention, where you invite everyone who has to implement the solutions after doing your strategic planning
• It is recommended to use 3-5 days on the process – it is the TRAINING in applying Appreciative Inquiry that creates the Results and Relationships that makes it possible to utilize all Resources in the best possible way
• The Results are fantastic if you dare implement Appreciative Inquiry in all communication situations, where it is possible to train it
The Life Style
• By training Appreciative Inquiry your view of the world will change– You become good at using a constructive language
instead of a destructive (Results and Relations)– You become good at inviting people to be empowered
(joint responsibility)– You become good at creating a spirit of cooperation– You become good at engaging everyone– You become good at communicating clearly
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