POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

WHAT exactly does appreciation mean? And what are we doing when we appreciate something? The interesting thing about the verb “to appreciate” is that it has several meanings which are relevant to our wellbeing:

Meaning 1: to be grateful or thankful for

Meaning 2: to recognise the value or quality of something

Meaning 3: to increase in value

Exploring the importance of gratitude, or by focusing on appreciation from a personal perspective, are relevant issues. This article concerns itself with looking at appreciation from a whole system perspective.

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a process for implementing and achieving change which was developed in the 1980s by two American academics, David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva. Although it predates Martin Seligman’s launch of positive psychology by over a decade, it is often drawn under the same umbrella. In short, AI is a strength-based approach to managing change.

Most change methodologies, whether personal or organisational, tend to start from a negative perspective – you identify what the problem is first, analyse it in detail and then find a solution. One unique attribute of the AI process is that it begins with a positive perspective. In other words, you start by looking at what is currently working well, and build on this information to develop a better, more effective and successful future.

The essence of the AI approach is that focusing on what works well generates the enthusiasm, energy and engagement necessary to recreate the positive and deal with the negative far more effectively than the traditional approach of focusing on the negative alone.

AI is built on five separate principles:

. “Words create worlds”, i.e. reality is not an objective fact, it is a subjective experience. This means that we can change how we view the world, and how we feel, by changing the way we describe our experience, and the stories we tell.

. Asking questions starts the process of change.

. Our individual experience is a story which can be reinterpreted and told in different ways.

. We can create positive change effectively by creating positive images of the future.

. An in-depth review of what went well and what is working now is significantly more enlightening than merely analysing what went wrong.

As its name suggests, AI is about appreciating or valuing the best – whether the best of ourselves, our families, the organisations we interact with, or the places we live in and so on. It’s also about promoting further exploration and discovery through being curious and asking questions. This requires us to be open to new possibilities, and creative about making the best of them.

How AI works

Before looking in more depth at the four-stage process of AI, a word of warning: it’s easy to be persuaded that change is a linear process, along the lines of “do X, get Y”. However, if you aware or have been engaged in organisational development or change management, you will know that it’s never that straightforward, otherwise the vast majority of change programmes wouldn’t fail. The beauty of AI is not just that it uses a simple four-stage process but that it approaches change at a systemic level, that is, it works on the relationships and routines that enable the system to work as it currently does.

This is why David Cooperrider insists on having the “whole system in the room” in order to make change. In practice this could mean a vast number of organisational stakeholders working on the same issue at the same time. Cooperrider himself has facilitated over 750 Nutrimental Foods employees and stakeholders in one room (a warehouse). New web technologies enable tens of thousands of people to participate – IBM’s “jam sessions” are a good example of this participatory process. It may sound chaotic, messy and unrealistic, but once the logistics are sorted out and the rules of engagement are clear, the AI approach to change not only sparks innovation, collaboration and engagement, it is quicker, more energetic and more effective than traditional top-down approaches.

The Four Stages of AI

As a change process, AI has four separate stages which begin once you have identified your “affirmative topic”, sometimes also called the “positive core”. In other words you don’t begin your appreciative inquiry by thinking about the problem that you want to solve, but by focusing on the positive future that you want to create instead.

You might have a goal, say, to diet or give up smoking. Rather than focusing on “stopping smoking” or “losing weight” you might think about saving money, becoming fit, healthy and more energetic, or being able to wear a new item of clothing. Exploring that goal in more detail, you might describe this positive future image of yourself as one in which you have a spring in your step every day, or by being able to run around the park with renewed energy.

Reframing business goals can be done in a similar way. Rather than focusing on “improving your management skills”, which implies a lack, you might re-frame the objective in terms of “becoming an inspirational leader”. The idea behind this positive re-frame is to find something to work towards. Approach and avoidance goals are critical in such strategies. Avoidance goals are goals with negative outcomes which we should work to avoid. The word “negative” can also mean different things in different contexts, including disliked, undesirable, painful and harmful.

Once you have identified your affirmative topic, you can proceed to stage 1.

Stage 1: Discovery – What’s Best?

The discovery stage of AI involves asking further positively-framed questions about your affirmative topic, and reflecting on the answers that you come up with. If you’re working with others, discovery also involves sharing positive stories related to the topic. Through being curious and asking questions, you begin to create a landscape which will enable a more positive future to emerge.

Scenario: Imagine you’re feeling demotivated and in need of some inspiration. You’re fed up with the organisation you work for, but you want to recapture the positive elements of the role that so inspired you to take up this career in the first place. You would like to reignite the sense of excitement you had when you first joined the company or organisation.

Try asking yourself the following questions and jot down your responses in your wellbeing journal:

. Think about your recent experiences. Recall a specific incident or event that made you feel extremely satisfied. Describe it briefly, including your role in it and how you felt.

. What initially attracted you to join this profession/engage with this organisation/do this role?

. Without being humble, what do you most value about yourself?

. What do you feel are the most important qualities and strengths that you bring to your role?

. In what ways does your role contribute to the organisation’s success?

. Think of someone else in a similar position who you consider to be a role model. What does he or she do that you would like to emulate?

Your responses written down in your wellbeing journal will start to lay the foundations for creating a vision in which your role is fulfilling, engaging and energising.

Stage 2: Dream – What’s Next?

This is where you create a positive and compelling vision of the future, which will be based on the descriptions and commentary revealed by the discovery stage. It answers the broad question, “What might be?”

If the discovery phase is about identifying “the best” of what you want, and what you most value, the dream phase is about projecting this image into the future, envisioning something which will be even better and starting to create the conditions where this future might start to exist.

Think forward to a future date, maybe six months from now, when you now feel both satisfied and motivated, and you have a real energy and excitement about what you are doing.

What is now different? How has your performance changed? In your wellbeing journal, write down three things that have happened to realise these changes?

Psychologists use what is known as the so-called “miracle question”. This helps their patients visualise clearly what this positive future looks and feels like, as well as to start to imagine the part they will play in it.

The miracle question is this:

Imagine that in the middle of the night, when you are fast asleep, a miracle happens and the problems you have been having are solved just like that. But since the miracle happened in the middle of the night, nobody tells you that it happened. When you wake up the next morning, how will you notice that the miracle has happened? What will be different?

You might like to reflect on the miracle question for a few minutes, and note down your responses in your wellbeing journal.

Stage 3: Design – How Might We?

In stage 3 of the AI process you concentrate on answering the question, “How can it be?” Remember that AI differs significantly from other change methodologies in that it is rooted in positive images of the past rather than its problems and difficulties. This point is significant, since it helps to ensure that the vision you create in stage 2 is grounded, yet both challenging and motivating. Supporters of AI often like to say that you get more of what you focus on.

Putting this into context, focus on your image of the future role that you most want, and ask yourself the following questions and record your answers in your wellbeing journal:

. What exactly is happening?

. What are you doing differently?

. What parts of your role would you keep? What would you let go? What would you do differently? What new things would you do?

. Who else is involved? What part are they playing in supporting you? What are they saying or doing?

. What does this positive future look and feel like, in detail?

Stage 4: Destiny – What Will We?

This is where you start the practical work of turning your vision into reality. In AI theory, focusing on the positive creates its own momentum, and when it’s used in an organisational setting, people will spontaneously progress the topics that they’re passionate about. In practice, it may require a project manager or “AI champion” to keep all the developments on track.

The important message for readers to take away is that there is no one right way to carry out this stage, hence “destiny”. Organisations which adopt an AI approach to change frequently develop the capacity to improvise – spontaneously developing and improving by always building positively on what went before.

In Summary:

. AI is a way of making change which is motivational, inspirational and energising.

. AI is often used within organisations, can be used by people to explore relationships, and by individuals to instigate personal change.

. AI is used by public and private organisations the world over, including Wal-Mart, British Airways, Boeing, the US Navy and the United Nations Global Compact.

. AI has been around since the 1980s, but it’s still widely accepted as a key positive psychology change tool.