News
Go on, be a devil – hold an AI!
(That’s AI for ‘Appreciative Inquiry’, not ‘Artificial Intelligence’!!)
Most businesses solve problems by focusing on what to put right – they look at all the possible causes of failure and then put the icing on the cake by apportioning blame to specific individuals. I think we’ve all discovered that when you dwell upon all that’s wrong in the world, you simply get more of what’s wrong!
As leaders, it is our absolute responsibility to notice when people do things right. To then reinforce these positive messages so that people feel valued for being themselves is vital in bringing about a genuine feeling of excitement for their work. Ultimately, we see people taking full responsibility for meeting their own performance standards, achieving results to the best of their abilities and so developing their full potential.
It’s not rocket science to find that when we keep criticising people for everything they do wrong, they just keep making the same mistakes – individual creativity is stifled, team motivation dries up and the whole organisation remains stuck in a culture of dishing out orders, expecting people to simply follow the rules……not at all what’s needed if we want to be the industry trailblazers or, at the very least, stay ahead of the competition.
An Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is very different to the usual technique of problem-solving in that it focuses on valuing existing people and systems (appreciative) and exploring fresh possibilities for the future (inquiry).
The steps to holding an effective AI can be remembered by using the ‘5-D’ mnemonic, as follows:
Define – clarify the subject, problem, challenge or opportunity by defining it as positively as you can; give it a name that clearly represents what you’re dealing with and resonates in the affirmative.
Discover – consider what is good about current practices and what works well; encourage colleagues to tell stories about their positive work experiences whilst considering what might be missing, too.
Dream – build on what works well and creatively explore and imagine an even more ideal situation; brainstorm ideas and keep any evaluation you may have well away from this stage of the process.
Design – work out how the vision you have dreamt up together might just become a reality through new strategies to produce different systems and structures. The “What If….?” question always helps.
Deliver – put every aspect of the suggested design into action, keeping the end in mind, so remaining totally focused on the vision. Keep the desire burning bright and see your plan come to life!
You don’t have to turn into Pollyanna, but you could take a single leaf out of her book:
“Use your smile to change the world – don’t let the world change your smile”
….and the difference between a pessimist and an optimist?
A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity – an optimist sees an opportunity in every difficulty!