Outside of academia, which is rightfully focused on theory and hypotheses, the workplace is about performance. Solo and group contributors are tasked with deliverables – products and services. They use routines, processes, guidelines and benchmarks to work alone or in collaboration with others to get this assigned work done. And as they go at it for a while, they develop a level of awareness of the nuances of these activities – what’s expected and inconsistent. No budget is charged for every insight. No time is specifically clocked to indicate when it took place. It’s just part of the day’s work.

Did you ever think of their potential to increase organizational effectiveness? Perhaps you should. Here’s evidence that it works. A hospital that launched an idea-generation program was rewarded immediately. A employee who assists in the operating room noticed that packages of 6 sterile towels were opened, and only 2 or 3 were used. Why package twice as many as were typically needed in surgery? From her experience, she knew this was wasteful. Her recommendation to cut the sterile towel package down to half its size has been implemented.

Who would want to overlook a knowledgeable employee? Such savvy folks are valuable. There is an inherent opportunity for their knowledge to be uncovered — and it’s time to put a framework in place for managers so they can support this every day. It’s the key that organizational learning, knowledge management, and organization development pros can use to change the perspective on where the learning takes place at work.

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Welcome to the world of positive change through Appreciative Inquiry! AI is a strengths-based process for intentional change. It identifies the best of “what is” to pursue dreams and possibilities of “what could be.”

Through it you can engage many people simultaneously or asynchronously, co-located or distributed across locations in:

* Vision Development * Strategic Planning * Organizational/System Redesign * Process & Service Enhancement * Improvement Initiatives * Group Culture Change * Civic/Community Development * Customer Relationship Management * Market Analysis * Product Development * and much more . . .

How did it feel to remember that story? If you’re like most people, recalling a high point is like reliving it. You experience the rush of excitement, the sense of accomplishment, the pride and joy of hard work, and the courage to know you can do great things against all odds.

Hidden in your stories and those of your clients, employees and vendors are elements of unrealized achievement, sub-atomic particles that when fused together create a powerful engine of success. Let me explain how.

About ten years ago, I came across an approach to business planning that has literally changed my life and my work. It’s called Appreciative Inquiry. Simply stated the approach begins by examining the best of what you have already done so you will come to understand your own integral patterns for high performance. This is not pop psychology; it’s research-based organization development. First identified by David Cooperrider at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Appreciative Inquiry has been applied globally over the last two decades in businesses like Avon Mexico, Roadway Express, Green Mountain Coffee, Hunter Douglas Window Fashions and the BBC. Some of the most well known NGOs, including Girl Scouts of the USA and the United Nations, have adopted this approach as they addressed respectively internal management consulting and world affairs.

The backbone of Appreciative Inquiry is the 5-D process. First, Define, with the assistance of a consultant and the sponsors of a project, what it is that needs attention. Second, Discover, through one-on-one interviews among stakeholders (clients, employees, vendors, etc.) their stories of exceptional moments in your company and glean them for trends that indicate core strengths that can be replicated and re-applied. Use those trends as the starting point to express a reality-based Dream that pushes the boundaries of everyone’s imagination. Reach agreement on a set of compelling, new operating principles that will be the inspiration and benchmarks for the Design and alignment of the people processes and structures, and technical systems that will bring your future to life. And Deliver on that vision by embedding the process of story-sharing, trend monitoring, benchmarking to operating principles and adjusting the processes, structures, and systems to stay the course.

Appreciative Inquiry helps teams and organizations discover and amplify the root causes of their success. It is a systematic search for what gives “life” to an organization – that which is most effective, most purposeful and which contains the most potential for mobilizing members’ energies for positive change.

The impetus behind Appreciative Inquiry is building from a position of strength. Focusing on what works within a system, the participants in an AI delve into the circumstances and elements that have brought about success in the past. They find the positive core that was previously unseen and base their aspirations for achievement upon it. Energized by confidence that they can bring about more of the excellence they have previously achieved, they design the practices, roles and parameters that insure achievement.

Instead of asking, “What are the problems; what hasn’t worked?” AI asks questions like: “Think of a time when this unit has performed superbly: What conditions were present at those moments? What organizational changes would allow more of those conditions to prevail?”

This simple shift in perspective constitutes a powerful intervention in its own right that can begin nudging the organization in the direction of those questions – and toward significant innovation. AI comes out of a belief that what we ask about we get more of, a commitment to the crafting of “unconditionally positive questions” which have the power to enable members to develop visions for their organizations which surprise them in their boldness and which elicit their best energies and creativity as they design and plan ways to bring those visions to life.

The momentum for changing the course of a business, and ultimately, the outcomes it achieves, begins in the Definition phase. During this pivotal moment, the topics that will be explored during the Appreciative Inquiry are co-defined by a team of internal leaders who will work side-by-side throughout the process with the external consultant. Together they write the opening questions for the inquiry, understanding that the questions they ask are fateful to the future of their business. The format of the AI is also selected from among many options, from a series of small group experiences, to intensive retreats, and summits that involve hundreds of participants for a couple of days. In this phase, readiness for change, corporate culture and opportunities for involving a cross-section of the company’s stakeholders are considered.

During the Discovery phase, the emphasis is on finding the best of “what is” — peak moments when the unit has excelled in the past and is doing well in the present. Stories or critical incidents are collected about best practices and the unique conditions, which enable them. In the words of Bernard Mohr, “Through this process new insights emerge about what drives the organization, what its capabilities are, and what contribution its members can make to the world.”

As participants are involved in the Dream phase, they are looking for the possibilities, expressed and latent that provide opportunities for more vital, successful and effective forms of organization. Unlike many visioning exercises, these images of the future are grounded in the organization’s proven capabilities and past successes.

Moving into the Design phase, the task is to look for the kinds of structure, systems, roles, procedures, work processes, leadership, relationships, measurements, etc. are needed to assure implementation of the dream. Participants identify the high-leverage changes needed to support the vision.

Delivery (also sometimes called Destiny) is more than a phase; it’s the work of implementation and continuous improvement. The focus is on creating the future that was envisioned and delivering on the new images of the excellent performance. Participants develop specific action plans and commit to who will do what by when.

The AI process is elegant in its simplicity and useful across the business cycles and functions that are familiar to many companies. Corporate and functional (marketing, HR, finance, R&D, etc.) strategy is an ideal fit with Appreciative Inquiry. As are design of systems for technology, distribution, customer service, or communication. The process will work practically anywhere there are three components: a group with a shared history related to their work; the desire to come together around an energized vision, to innovate, or to increase performance; and people with stories of their individual successes to share. Once participants have experienced the 5-D cycle in a program guided a facilitator, applying the steps around projects and routine work that their teams are responsible to accomplish becomes natural as they are coached to adopt this strengths-based approach.

If you are curious about the effectiveness of AI, here is some information you may find interesting. Using stories to drive results has lots of evidence. When Wegmans was named the top employer in the 2005 Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For® list, Jack DePeters, SVP of Store Operations cited storytelling as a practice that the supermarket chain used to build its high engagement culture. Katalina Groh, Executive Producer of the video series Real People, Real Stories, tells us that storytelling works because it provides a way to communicate quickly, naturally, clearly, truthfully, collaboratively, persuasively, accurately, intuitively, entertainingly, movingly, feelingly, and interactively.

Creativity in expressing a vision and crafting new approaches to work is within the capabilities of a business when it brings people with different backgrounds together. This is confirmed by Tom Kelley, CEO of IDEO, who writes in The Ten Faces of Innovation that plunging into positive change requires “new insights”, “new viewpoints” and “new roles”.

In the end, the bottom line is a measure that demonstrates the impact Appreciative Inquiry has had on business. Roadway Express CEO, James D. Staley, tells the story of one California truck driver who attracted a quarter of a million dollars in business as a direct result of his involvement in AI. In Michigan, Tendercare Nursing Homes and Assisted Living Centers increased its patient census by 7.5% within six weeks and its workforce chose to be decertified from their unions in the year following its AI process. Hunter Douglas Window Fashions reported that in 2001 that division estimated over $3.5 million in savings following AI-based business process improvements that took place in the prior year.

There is hidden power in every organization to achieve its greatest dreams of success. Positive change is within your reach. It doesn’t happen on its own, but with the right process you’re up to the challenge. Appreciative Inquiry has proven to meet the needs of large and small businesses. With the leadership of senior managers and business owners at the helm, a clear path to a future of exceptional achievement can be paved with the shared intentions and proven capabilities of the people who are already involved. It’s up to you to engage them. Are you ready?