An Appreciative Inquiry workshop is focussed on appreciating what is going well. It's not the time for digging into failures or problems, but instead, is a time to focus on what is working.
These types of sessions are my go to when creating a strategy and goals.
They are a joy to run, a joy to be in and this is because they focus on the good. They focus on what’s going well. They park the problems for another time.
I may be over playing this a little, but the appreciative inquiry session really can get you and your team motivated.
It’s a session that is entirely focused around what IS working.
- What IS awesome right now?
- What is going well?
In other words, it’s about looking at what you’re doing well and what you should keep doing.
The power lies in the fact that you’re focusing on positive ideas, which re-enforce and provide feedback that you are succeeding. They bring out the good that is happening and they shine a light on the work that is positive – as well as giving people a chance to truly amplify this great work.
In this article I will explain how to run an appreciative inquiry based on many years of conducting these.
From Wikipedia:
Some researchers believe that excessive focus on dysfunctions can actually cause them to become worse or fail to become better. By contrast, AI argues, when all members of an organization are motivated to understand and value the most favourable features of its culture, it can make rapid improvements.
With an appreciative inquiry you’re looking to bring out the best in people and their work. It’s about acknowledging and appreciating value.
The goal is to ask positive questions to galvanise people around what is working, with the purpose of doubling down on what's working, learning from what is going well and creating strong connections between people and the good work being done.
Here’s how I run them.
Step 1 – Invite the right people
Invite only the people you really need in the session. The more voices there are, the harder it will be to facilitate and keep people on track.
Don’t invite people who don’t need to be part of the appreciative inquiry.
Book at least two hours for these sessions. Three is better. Preferably face to face if you can. It's not impossible to run these remotely but there's something nice about celebrating success together, in a room.
If you do have to conduct these remotely, then use a suitably good tool for capturing the ideas, something like Mural.
Make it very clear in the invite what the purpose of the meeting is and how people should come prepared (more on this later).
It's important to make it super clear that it's about positivity and appreciation. It's often worth pointing out that you're not avoiding the pain, problems or challenges - but those will be addressed with in other forums. This meeting is about appreciation.
Make sure you book somewhere suitable for the session that is light, airy and has a good feeling about it. Running an appreciative inquiry in a dingy back room without enough seats, light or air won't create the right ambiance.
Consider somewhere with natural element too. Here's an article on why nature is important to good work.
These sessions are highly interactive, so a good wall/white board will help and a decent space for collaboration will improve the meeting.
Step 2 – Plan Ahead
Plan ahead and make sure you have the right kit and everything ready to start the meeting on time.
Ensure you have sticky-notes and pens and a decent wall/whiteboard. Ensure there is sufficient space in the room. This is not a meeting for sitting down, so provide plenty of space for people to mingle. For online sessions plan a decent mural or other workspace ready.
Food and drinks help.
Ask people to come prepared to the meeting with positive observations, ideas and thoughts about what is going well in work.
It will run better if people prepare for it.
This is also a way of getting quieter people to contribute. If everyone comes prepared with one or two ideas of what is going well in their work, then everyone gets a voice. It limits the loud and dominant types – and creates a chance for everyone to contribute.
Some ideas to consider:
- What is working?
- What is excellent about your chosen area of discussion?
- What makes working there so awesome?
- If we won an award for being so great - why would that be?
Step 3 – Create A Safe Place
At the start of the session ensure you do something to create a bit of fun and safety. Although you are only covering positive aspects of work, it's still important to ensure people feel safe to share ideas.
I usually do one of the Perdue Creativity tests to get people warmed up, to highlight how creativity can be daunting and to provide a lot of laughs.
You want people to feel comfortable sharing so do a warmup game or activity.
Step 4 – Start with Discovery
You’re trying to discover what is currently going well throughout the session - and build on it.
Start by asking people to get their prepared ideas on the wall, or digital tool of choice.
I run this part of the session by asking people to bring their ideas to the board, one person at a time. As they do so, I ask them to read them out aloud to the rest of the room.
Each person gets their moment.
We group similar topics together as we work through this process – it’s always powerful to see how people see success. There will no doubt be overlaps and ideas that natural align.
Every person should contribute, even the quiet ones, otherwise why are they there? So, help anyone who is not so comfortable in the room and always be working on creating a fun, collaborative and safe space as you go through the day.
Then go through the ideas and discuss them. This can take some time, but it’s worth doing.
There are usually some very insightful observations. Let the conversations flow as you see fit. There is always a time for discussion and celebration but sometimes this will be stealing time away from later sections.
Step 5 – Dream
Move on to dreaming.
This is where the group are tasked with dreaming about even bigger and better. If things are pretty good already - as per the items on the board - then what do we need to do to amplify these even further?
This is a chance for them to look at the positive aspects raised and super charge them.
Anything negative, or a gripe, or some form of complaining, or a problem goes into a parking lot for a different meeting.
Here are some sample questions to get them going.
- If we won an award for best team within the company, what would our team, systems and process look like?
- What could we do to amplify or improve what is already working?
- How can we get even better?
- If we had no limitations at all what would our future look like?
- What kind of future would mean we would be unstoppable?
- How can we take what is going well and apply the same behaviours or thinking somewhere else?
Again, group similar ideas together and give everyone a voice.
Go through them and pick out some of the highlights. Go through these select few in detail and find which ones resonate with the group.
Which ones are they most excited about? Which ideas will really move the business forward? Which ideas seem logical and reasonable to do? Which ideas will really make the business super effective?
It's not about making the business better for staff alone though - there needs to be business value in it.
That's why I use these three checks for anything being amplified and potentially brought through to any action stage:
- Benefit to the customers – we’re in business to add value to customers. Without customers we won’t have a business. Everything we do should, in some way, have benefit to the business and be aligned to our business goals.
- Business benefit – when we think about what it takes to run a business, or commercial awareness as I call it, we must understand that costs, profit, loss etc are all very real. As such, we should benefit the customer but not at the detriment of the business. There are plenty of good ideas that would cost too much money, or create problems elsewhere. We have a duty to use the company money wisely – as such, have this in your mind here.
- Team Benefit – our purpose is always for our customers, but we must also build a company that enriches the lives of all who work in it. We must retain our good staff and treat people like people – as such, we should not have business and customer value that will break our team.
Aim big though.
Don’t just pick ideas that are easy to achieve. Push yourself and the team. Choose one or two easy ones, and one or two stretch ideas.
Getting better is hard.
Step 6 – Design The Future
Now it’s time to start working through the ideas and bringing them to life.
An appreciative inquiry discovers what is working and asks people to think big. But, it’s not just about imagination. We now must be creative. We have to consider how to bring to life the very imaginative ideas we’ve come up with.
The design stage is where we put in place steps to make the best ideas a reality.
This is where we deep dive into the shortlisted ideas. We discuss the details.
- What would it take to deliver it?
- If we’re doing this work what else has to stop?
- What would be the outcome of doing this work?
- Can we measure it?
- How will we know when we finish?
- Who benefits from this work?
- Do we have all the people we need to achieve this?
- Do we have the skills?
- Does this resonate with the business goals?
don’t get into specifics of the plan, but aim for some high level answers to these types of questions. Dig deep enough to be able to visualise what it would take to deliver on the imagined ideas.
It's worth discussing how this work would make the team feel and act if achieved. Break the idea down and explore some of the consequences. Consider how it may not work (this is not being negative, it is critical thinking).
Step 7 – Plan & Deploy
A plan is now needed.
This is the deploy stage. The stage where the rubber meets the road so to speak.
You're looking for some next steps, actions and owners. How, from the ideas you've broken down, are you going to implement them - at least at a high level?
Ideally your plan would have the following:
- Who is leading this work (and it should not be the manager, unless it is a management initiative).
- Who is on the team.
- Who is doing what.
- When is the next milestone? (Not too far out – a week at most)
- What reporting mechanisms are we using?
The deploy stage is all about putting things into motion and building a team around it.
Consider though, that there still won’t be a huge amount of detail around the plan. So the next milestone is usually to flesh out the plan and come back together to align around it.
You may now have two or three initiatives in the plan. Don’t start too many though. Ensure everyone is part of an initiative. If you only have space, energy and attention for one initiative – then so be it. Don’t try to take on too many. Completing one initiative is better than starting 4 and not completing any of them.
I generally aim for one big massive initiative and a couple of smaller quick wins.
You'll also need to balance the fact that if you're doing these new shiny ideas, you won't be doing something else. Factor this in and plan accordingly.
Step 8 – Ensure Clear Outcomes
After pulling together a draft plan with a few milestones, it's time to thank everyone and outline the next steps. These steps typically include:
- Communications following the session capturing what was discussed
- A series of follow up sessions to clarify the plan further and align on clear outcomes
- Any work being added to your productivity system
Step 9 – Follow Up
Follow up with good communications, regular meetings and iterative planning.
This is now an active piece of work for you and the team. It now has to compete with other prioritise and work. It now needs progressing, leading, delivering and reporting.
Ensure your team are talking to each other and reporting progress.
- Are they stuck with anything?
- How is the plan going?
- What actions are happening?
In my experience every time I run an appreciative inquiry the team are energised and focused. But, as with all new initiatives, that energy and attention can wane over time as other pressures mount and the initial energy is lost. It’s on you and the team to keep momentum on this.
An appreciative inquiry is a wonderfully brilliant positive planning session because people are talking about what works. If it’s working and we make it better, we always see rapid improvements in that area of work.
We should, of course, look at what is not working and solve problems. But keep those discussions for other meetings.
The positivity from a good appreciative inquiry session is infectious and they are a joy to run. Appreciative inquiry sessions are a great way of engaging more with your team and they can bring about big change, but only if you build that plan and action it.
The biggest improvements I’ve ever seen made were off the back of an appreciative inquiry.
The hardest part of these sessions is avoiding talking about problems or challenges. Many people default to negative talk; who can blame them when most meetings are negative by default.
You need to provide a forum for open discussions though in a variety of settings – not everything should be an appreciative inquiry. It is important to address problems and challenges to understand them.
Running only appreciative inquiry planning sessions is not a good business strategy. It’s important to get a balance but don’t forget to double down on what works.
Let me know if you see success with appreciative inquiry meetings.
