To Begin Anew: Using Appreciative Inquiry to reimagine your post-pandemic organization

Join us on June 3 from 11:30AM-12:30PM EST for an informational webinar to explore this topic further. Pre-registration required at the following link: https://bit.ly/3bocdaB

As many businesses around the country begin to re-open their doors, one critical question should be at the forefront of every leader’s mind: How will my organization begin anew based on what we’ve learned through this experience?

Let’s first look at the definition of anew: In a new or different and typically more positive way.

We have experienced a major life event. I say this at the very most personal level, but we can’t deny the impact this has on organizational life. Why? Because your organization is a human engine. And the humans that power your engine, and the humans your engine serves, have been changed. Thus, so must your organization.

Business leaders have a real opportunity to lead transformational change as we work together, throughout all levels of the organization, to reimagine a new path forward. A different path forward. Your new normal. If your organization is not pivoting in some way right now, you are not remaining relevant.

That brings us to the How? How do we lead organizational transformation? It begins with inquiry.

Exploring the right questions,

that will uncover the meaningful stories and ideas,

that will identify opportunities for positive change,

that will chart your path forward.

We do this through the process of Appreciative Inquiry (AI). One of the most widely used approaches for igniting positive change, Core has been using AI since its beginning to help teams and organizations evolve and innovate. AI’s signature 4-D process provides an applicable framework for exploratory, collaborative conversation that results in a preferred and productive way forward.

The 4-D Process

Defining the Affirmative Topic

Defining an affirmative topic is the launch pad for further exploration. And since language influences mindsets and creates our reality, word selection is of critical importance. You’ll want to identify the problem you’re trying to solve, but then reframe it as the desired future you want to create (the positive opposite of the problem). Whatever affirmative topic statement you land on will become your team’s entire focus for the remainder of the 4-D process. I’ve included a few examples below.

Traditional Problem Statement Reframed AI Affirmative Topic
Sales have been hit hard. How do we save Q3 and Q4 and keep the business alive? Generating near-term financial growth opportunities that fuel our company’s long-term sustainability.
Managing uncertainty and lack of resources to re-open schools this Fall. All students thrive in Fall 2020.

 

Step 1: Discover

During this phase of AI, you reflect on the best of what is and has been through the process of inquiry and storytelling. During each phase, you stay laser focused on the pre-defined affirmative topic. Discovery often takes place in the form of interviews and/or small group discussions but can be done in a variety of ways. Building off the same examples above, this is what a few Discovery questions might sound like:

Traditional Problem Statement Reframed AI Affirmative Topic Discovery Questions
Sales have been hit hard. How do we save Q3 and Q4 and keep the business alive? Generating near-term financial growth opportunities that fuel our company’s long-term sustainability. Reflect on and describe a time when you received positive customer feedback in the past 6-12 months. Ask yourself:

·     What made them so happy with our services?

·     How did we add value?

·     What are our customers’ needs right now, and what do we uniquely have in our wheelhouse to help them?
Managing uncertainty and lack of resources to re-open schools this Fall. All students thrive in Fall 2020. Think about a “highpoint” with your students’ distance learning over the past 8 weeks. Describe that experience. What made this moment successful?

Step 2: Dream

In this phase, your team explores the possibilities of what could be. Building off the key themes uncovered through the Discovery phase, you begin to dream about a preferred future. Skies the limit; this is not a time for identifying barriers to those dreams (we will get there, I promise). Questions during this phase sound like this:

  • What could we do at our organization to ensure those “highpoints” sustain?
  • What happened to allow for this kind of success? What could that look like moving forward?
  • If you could wave a magic wand, what is one, single impactful action you would take to make (insert: affirmative topic) a reality?

Step 3: Design

This phase looks at the practicalities needed to support the dreams, as you explore what should be. Team members choose the ideas and images from the Dream stage that are most attractive and applicable. This is the phase I’ve nicknamed short-listing. You start to drill down to the types of systems, processes, and strategies that will enable the dreams to be realized. See which dreams “have legs” so-to-say. Start transforming ideas, feelings and dreams into achievable blueprints.

Step 4: Destiny

The final stage of AI is spent getting very concrete about what will be. This is the implementation phase, and it requires more detailed planning, preparation and progress check-ins. Destiny typically involves specific goals and objectives, role allocation, and timelines for the collaboratively created path forward.

This all sounds great, but where do I start?

The great thing about AI is you can tackle one piece at a time! In the very near-term, you’ll at least want to capture the Discovery phase while the COVID-19 “transformational moments” are fresh in your team’s minds. From there, you tackle it the way you would go about eating any elephant – one bite at a time.

Curious to learn more about Appreciative Inquiry and how your organization could use this model to reimage your new normal? Click here to register for an informational webinar on June 3 and/or reach out to our team at PowerPotential@contact-core.com.