Purpose and Description of Appreciative Inquiry

(This is the second of three blogs describing an Appreciative Inquiry process that can bring positive change to the Lay Servant Ministry system.)

The Purpose of Appreciative Inquiry: All organizations have purpose and must continually examine themselves and promote change to meet their purpose.  Peter Drucker says that it is the task of organizational leaders (that’s the Conference and District Directors) to “to create an alignment of strengths in ways that make a system’s weaknesses irrelevant.”  Appreciative Inquiry is means of organizational change which does just that and is ideally suited for leading change within organizations like the church.

Why Appreciative Inquiry?  “The Appreciative Inquiry and change are not separate moments, but are simultaneous. Inquiry is intervention. The seeds of change—the things people think and talk about, the things people discover and learn, and the things that inform dialogue and inspire images of the future—are implicit in the very first questions we ask.”  (Cooperrider and Whitney, Appreciative Inquiry, see reference below).

In other words, as soon as the Lay Servant interviews (inquires of) a pastor, parishioner, another Lay Servant, or other stakeholder in the ministry about the best and most positive impacts of Lay Servant Ministries on the congregation, both the inquirer and the interviewee begin to create seeds of positive change going forward.  The power is unleashed when as many parts of the whole system and as many stakeholders as possible are engaged.  Stakeholders can include conference, district, church, laity and clergy.

Further, Appreciative Inquiry (AI) encourages interchange at all levels, one of the things we do not do well, i.e. to engage in dialogue about our ministry with all the stakeholders around us with the intention of furthering the best results in leading, caring, and communicating in our congregations.  Wouldn’t you like to see everyone talking positively about Lay Servant Ministries?

References:

·         David L. Cooperrider and Diana Whitney 2005. Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Revolution in Change. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

·         Sue Annis Hammond 1996. The Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry. Bend, OR: Thin Book Publishing.

·         Diana Whitney, Amanda Trosten-Bloom, Jay Cherney and Ron Fry 2004. Appreciative Team Building: Positive Questions to Bring Out the Best in Your Team.  Lincoln, NE: iUniverse, Inc.

·         *Daina Whitney, Amanda Trosten-Bloom, 2010, The Power of Appreciative Inquiry: A Practical Guide to Positive Change, 2^nd Edition. San Francisco: Berret-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

·         Appreciative Inquiry Commons, Case-Western Reserve University.  http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/

* Most up to date and complete reference.

A concept of AI for the Lay Servant Ministries community is suggested following the description below:

Background: Appreciative Inquiry began in the 1980s as a doctoral dissertation of David Cooperrider at Case Western Reserve University, grew to acceptance in the 1990s as it was used by major corporations, institutions and non-profits to bring positive change including bottom-line results.  Details can be found at the website shown above.

The concepts of AI can be compared to the Quality Circles and Kaizen Teams of the 1970s and 1980s where companies focused their energies in supporting the decision-making of teams seeking better manufacturing and business processes with the important difference that AI focuses inquiry on what the organization does well rather than of what is going badly.  “Through an inquiry which appreciates the positive and engages all levels of an organization (and often its customers and suppliers) it seeks to renew, develop and build on this.” (Wikipedia)
Words form our future and positive words form our future positively.

Description: Two concepts are common, the original called a 4D system, Discover, Dream, Design, and Destiny (or Delivery) which all focus on an “Affirmative Topic.”  The second is a 5D system which begins with Define, giving the definition of the “Affirmative Topic” its own step in the process.  Since selection of the Affirmative Topic is “the most strategic decision in the process,” (Cooperrider, ibid.), the 5D process is the one described below.  Consider if we were to inquire about the very best practices to prepare Lay Servants for the new role of Lay Speaker, or find the best ways that Lay Servants can lead their congregations to reduce poverty in the local communities, we would achieve dramatically difference answers, both good, but dramatically different.  The first step, Define, is a critical step.

Define: Selecting the “Affirmative Topic” or topics (no more than four to five) for the inquiry.  This is always homegrown and can be anything that brings “life” to the organization.  They are the compelling, inspirational topics that will serve as the focus for in-depth inquiry, learning, and transformation.

Discover: In this step, interviews take place to discover the best of our organization.  The affirmative inquiry interview is the heart of the AI process.  It first involves selecting questions to be asked in affirmative interviews (inquiries), next selecting the interviewers, and lastly those to be interviewed.  The latter should include as many stakeholders as possible.  If you want a person or an organization to change, he, she or it need to be involved in the Discover process. 

Dream: Given the affirmative themes that immerge from the Discovery, the team or teams imagine a valued and vital future.  “The dream phase calls for people to listen carefully to moments of organizational life at its best and to share images of their hopes and dreams for their collective future. As possibilities for the future are articulated and enacted they come to life.  One aspect differentiating Appreciative Inquiry from other visioning or planning methodologies is that images of the future emerge out of grounded examples from an organization’s positive past.  Good news stories are used to craft possibility propositions that bridge the best of what is with collective aspiration of what might be.” (Cooperrider, ibid.)

Design: It involves the sorting, sifting, and serious choices about what will be.  Key up-front decisions to consider are what, who and how of design.  Congruence between the change agenda (affirmative topic) and the design target is essential.  It can be accomplished with a core team or a whole-organization.  “The methodology involves people sharing stories of the organization at its best and then writing statements of the ideal organization.”  (Whitney, The Power of Affirmative Inquiry)  What you choose also dictates the organization and resources to implement it in the next phase.  Design objectives are often stated as “provocative propositions.” (see next blog).

Delivery (Sometimes called Destiny because it shapes our future): Delivery celebrates what has already been accomplished, generates, self-organizes and executes design ideas for action, tracking the actions to tangible results, and stimulates an ongoing process of continuous improvement through the systematic application of Appreciative Inquiry throughout the entire organization.