We assist organisations in Wales, the UK
and beyond to improve based on an Appreciative Inquiry approach.
Contact us now and learn more!
Clip of Roger Rowett talking about Appreciative
Inquiry at PSMW
(Public Service Management Wales) Summer School (12 minutes)
APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY
Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a way of looking at things that
takes the best of the past and uses it to build a positive and meaningful
future. Wikipedia
defines AI as- 'A particular way of asking questions and envisioning
the future that fosters positive relationships and builds on the
basic goodness in a person, a situation, or an organisation. In
so doing, it enhances a system's capacity for collaboration and
change.'
Traditional models of organisational evaluation, either external
or internal, focus on action plans arising out of weaknesses and
deficiencies. These can have a short term impact, but in the long
term individuals will typically gravitate towards old practices
and ways of working; their heads will have been moved but not their
hearts.
Appreciative Inquiry has long term impact because it engages people
in conversations about what has worked for them; it has meaning
and resonance. The basic idea is to build and develop organisations
around what works, rather than trying to fix what doesn't. It is
the opposite of the traditional problem solving approach. Instead
of focusing on gaps and inadequacies to find blame and remediate
skills or practices , AI focuses on creating more of the occasional
exceptional performance that is occurring.
In practical terms AI can be used in many ways including:
A framework for a self evaluation process
A review of the efficiency and effectiveness of services and
systems
As the basis of a thematic review (e.g. customer service or
equal opportunities)
As a catalyst for cultural change
To structure a supervision process
To facilitate person centred working and planning processes
To see a selection of comments from participants on our AI workshops
click here.
Appreciative Inquiry is being used increasingly in the UK within
statutory, voluntary and private organisations. It has also been
successfully used within multinationals such as Nokia, Halfords,
and British Airways. To find out more about:-
Appreciative Inquiry and how you can use it- click
here
Articles and papers on Appreciative Inquiry - click
here
Thank you for an energising and informative
day - a great mix of theory and practical experience which
has shown the value of AI. I'm buzzing with ideas of how we
can apply this approach across the organisation and we will
be setting up an AI collaborative of the attendees at the
workshop to explore all applications and cascade the techniques
across the museum. Thank you Roger for your expertise and
experience in leading us through this invaluable day and for
setting us off on our journey.
Head of Policy & Planning, National
Museum Wales (2011)
The task of organisational leadership
is to create an alignment of strengths in ways that make a
system's weaknesses irrelevant.
Peter Drucker
AI can be used as an evaluative technique,
but its main purpose is to identify good practice, introduce
and implement change successfully.
NFER report
If the only tool you have is a hammer,
you tend to see every problem as a nail.
