On a personal level, the power of positive thinking has long been touted as an effective life-enhancing activity. Take it to the corporate level, however, and you may see the door in a hurry.
That is, unless you’re willing to put some money where your Pollyanna smile is.
That’s what Green Mountain Coffee did when they became one of the first organizations to implement Appreciate Inquiry Approach (AI) in the late 1990s. The company was just expanding into a major enterprise and CEO Bob Stiller knew that if they didn’t reduce costs quickly, they could go under. Striving toward the “25 cents challenge”, the coffee roasters used AI processes to successfully reduce the cost of coffee by an amazing twenty-five cents per pound.
Theory
AI seeks to help an organization change on a large-scale basis by using the art of asking questions to tap into its positive core. Amanda Trosten-Bloom, co-author with Diana Whitney of The Power of Appreciative inquiry, describes this core as “the collective wisdom, knowledge, strategies, attitudes, skills, and capabilities of the organization at its best.”
Assuming that every organization has hidden positivity (strengths, potential, innovative ability, etc.), AI believes that when tapped, this positive core can dramatically mobilize a company and increase its bottom line.
The Big Four
AI uses a four-pronged approach, consisting of the following elements:
Discover
Dream
Design
Delivery or Destiny
The Green Mountain Coffee team first determined to discover the “best of what is” by identifying which processes worked the best. Then they chose to dream or envision “what might be” or what those processes would look like if they worked best at all times. Next, they designed “what should be” by defining and refining perfect processes. The delivery (creation and implementation) of their design created their destiny, or future prosperity.
Implementation
AI can be used formally in process development and organizational change or informally in your own personal development. Two key ways to put AI to use in your organization formally are through mass interviews (sometimes called “Stay Interviews”) or through an official Appreciative Inquiry Summit, supported via an acquired guide.
Informally, you or your team can simply choose to ask questions to help you discover and focus on your strengths.
Action Steps
To make the most of AI in your organization, creating the right questions is critical. Follow these tips to develop the perfect questionnaire.
Work with a team to construct and test your questionnaire. Collective minds guard against bias or poorly constructed questions.
Ask yourself if you already know the answer to each question. It’s not a true appreciative inquiry approach, if you already know.
Remember that every question has either a negative or positive an underlying assumption. Ensure your assumptions are solution-oriented rather than problem-oriented.
Test your questions to see which ones encourage creativity and open-mindedness the most.
Use positive terminology and be sure to ask about future concerns.
For example:
What do you value the most in your organization?
What gives life to your team?
What are your hopes regarding the future our company?