REVISED White Paper: Creating Successful Change ...

3 downloads 49 Views 205KB Size Report
executed well, it could radically change the way we conduct business by simply utilizing ... important radical change; namely, GTE/Verizon (Whitney, Cooperrider, Garrison, .... our agency in that we no longer mirror the demographics we serve.
REVISED White Paper: Creating Successful Change at DCFS With Appreciative Inquiry: Ending the Era of Problem Solving by Harnessing the “Whole System” Change Process at the Speed of Imagination and Innovation

Initially Presented September 15, 2010 To Patricia Ploehn, LCSW, Director And the Executive Staff

By Colette M. Street, MSW, Doctoral Student, Fielding Graduate University

“In short, change can either be friend or foe, depending on the resources available to cope with it and master it by innovating. It is disturbing when it is done to us, exhilarating when it is done by us. It is considered positive when we are active contributors to bringing about something we desire…” (Kanter, 1983, p. 64). EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In the face of being outpaced by the very community it serves, DCFS could do well to utilize Appreciative Inquiry, a theory and mode of organizational change that employs a whole-systems approach.

Appreciative Inquiry rejects the archaic,

backward-looking method of problem solving (which suggests human deficit) and looks toward the life-giving core values of the organization.

Appreciative Inquiry asks

organizations to reflect on the moments when it has been at its best, and then brings the entire company together to co-create transformative processes and a desired future. Appreciative Inquiry, a form of action research, has been utilized by Government agencies and Fortune 500 companies, and has been called “the new frontier” of organizational development and change (Fitzgerald, Murrell & Newman 2001).

Introduction To Our Distinguished Executive Staff, and Colleagues: I would like to suggest, and re-introduce you to, an excellent model of change. If executed well, it could radically change the way we conduct business by simply utilizing our strengths and by focusing on what we do best each-and-every day – enriching lives through caring and effective service. This paper outlines the use of Appreciative Inquiry (Ai) as a theory and a practice for approaching change. The idea is to destroy the old paradigm of problem solving, i.e. find a problem, diagnose the problem, and find a solution, which in turn amplifies and

emphasizes the problem. Rather than the antiquated approach of problem solving, let us now utilize the new frontier of Ai. Ai will cause us to remember the things that gave DCFS life, success, and the healthiest connections to our community and stakeholders. It is an effective method to co-create our transformative process.

As Cooperrider, Whitney and Starvis (2008)

stated of Appreciative Inquiry, it is “important because it works to bring the whole organization together to build upon its positive core. Ai encourages people to work together to promote a better understanding of the human system, the heartbeat of the organization.” Background Several agencies larger than our own have successfully utilized Ai to bring about important radical change; namely, GTE/Verizon (Whitney, Cooperrider, Garrison, & Moore 1996), the United States Postal Service (Head, 2002), and the United States Navy (Tripp & Zipsie, 2002).

GTE/Verizon This Ai case study occurred after GTE merged with Bell Atlantic to become Verizon.

In 1995, visionary GTE/Verizon executives invited Mr. David Cooperrider

(Fairmount Minerals Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University and developer of Appreciative Inquiry) to their annual conference for a session on Ai. The visionaries knew that a fully engaged workforce is critical to remain competitive. The following year, management became alarmed at the results of the annual Employee Opinion Survey. The results for

front-line, hourly employees were either flat or down in seven of nine categories. Because the front line serves over 90 percent of GTE/Verizon’s customers, the executive team realized that something needed to happen to engage those employees positively. The answer was Ai. The goal was to engage all 64,000 employees in Ai, beginning with the front line. The objective became to discover innovative ways to share strategic information by actively involving the front line, to demonstrate management commitment, and to reward accomplishment. The outcome created a “Positive Revolution” based on four principles: 1. Unquestionable commitment to the front line – demonstrating confidence that the employees would do the right thing.

The front line led the change initiative.

2.

Willingness to invite and to innovate new forms of cooperation – employees from other departments such as public affairs, human resources and senior management joined forces to ensure quality and sustainability.

3. The development of a “storytelling,”

narrative organizational culture – The president of GTE Telops stated, “Culture is the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, and then we forget they were stories.” This “success stories” practice became common in the company’s weekly newsletter. 4. Commitment to Ai as an organizational change process – GTE embraced Ai as a core methodology in all initiatives. GTE invested in training “ambassadors” to go into the company and find ways to make a difference for their customers. There are currently several hundred Ai trained “positive change agents” within the organization. Two years later, GTE went through a second reorganization, but the Ai focus remained. Ai is woven throughout the company including frontline, management and leadership, and the union. What GTE learned throughout the process was: 1. The

power of liberation – employees discovered how they could make their company better. 2. The power of the positive question – employees allowed to explore their company’s life-giving positive core emerge with possibilities, which can bring the organization to life. 3. The power of discourse-centered change – the narrative approach takes the focus off people, and onto discourse, resulting in the way people engage in conversation as the focus. 4. The power of focus on the organization – people asked to bring forth their best for the benefit of the organization do so with enthusiasm. The idea of co-creating brings people high energy and excitement at the possibility of using their gifts.

United States Postal Service In an empirical study performed by Robert Head (2000), the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) utilized Ai to promote and create heterogeneous teams.

After utilizing the

Group Style Instrument, the Ai team had the sharpest drop in self-directed behavior, and the steepest increase in team-affiliated behavior. A statistically significant, strong, positive correlation was found (r(34) = .74, p < .001) between group image and performance: The more positive a team’s self-image, the better it performs.

This

supports the theory that Ai can assist in improving how groups view the future, which also assists groups to develop and perform.

United States Navy In the case of the US Navy, long lasting changes were necessary to enable lower ranking personnel to make decisions due to the availability of information via

technology. It is necessary for people at all levels in an organization to produce and use knowledge for making decisions, and to function well in an ever-changing environment. The navy utilized the Ai Summit to create change effectively, and in a short period. The Navy combined two methods: 1. Large Scale Change, where a small representative sample of the Navy (260 people) were invited to participate in a room (Summit), 2. Ai, where that sample engages in discovering the best of what exists, and then gain access to core values and competencies. The Summit addressed the need to develop leaders at every level of the organization, from Seaman to Admiral. Doing so began a conversation, which lasted four days. Each participant wore civilian clothes, which removed ceremoniousness, and engendered a less hierarchical, more open atmosphere. During the four-day Summit, the participants explored the “four D’s of Ai”, respectively: The Discovery phase revealed the positive core of the Navy. The Dream process enabled participants to imagine possibilities when the Navy is at its very best. The Design phase, created “provocative propositions” by inspired decision-making (all levels of the Navy participated in the design process).

The Destiny phase is a

discussion about how leaders can develop and enact the skill set necessary to move forward.

The Summit resulted in 30 pilot projects toward leadership development,

including a Center for Positive Change. Four separate summits will follow, to tackle issues that are more complex. The power of the summit is that all levels of the Navy were listened to; the senior personnel listened with interest to the junior personnel.

The fact that the summit

happened signaled to all willingness and a readiness to change.

Utilizing Appreciative Inquiry at DCFS Currently, DCFS is in a precarious position, as the Los Angeles Times attempts to sway public opinion and force organizational change due to pressure from its external clients and stakeholders. The reality of the matter is that the environment is outpacing our agency in that we no longer mirror the demographics we serve. According to the Red Queen Principle (Principia Cybernetica Web, 2010), for an evolutionary system such as DCFS, continuing development is needed in order to maintain our fitness relative to the systems we are co-evolving with. Therefore, advantage or outpacing by the environment we serve is leading to our decrease in fitness. In the light of the principle, the only way to maintain our fitness is to improve our design. As we improve our design, however, we must also be aware of how we improve. Suboptimizing only portions of DCFS will not lead to optimal performance of DCFS as a whole, resulting in an exhaustion of shared resources due to competition between the subsystems. Enter Appreciative inquiry.

INTERVENTION The previous success stories are but a handful resulting from the use of Ai. The past paradigm of problem solving is now in the shadow of Ai – the whole- system change process that “lets go of problem solving” (Cooperrider, 1996).

Cooperrider

states that problem solving is no longer in accord with today’s reality in that it always looks at yesterday, rarely results in new vision, and usually creates defensiveness. Using Appreciative inquiry as the catalyst for radical change at DCFS could be the difference between lasting success and the frustration of continual failure.

Using

Appreciative Inquiry can help DCFS get to the root of all past failures. With hope, the message construed by this paper will engender urgency in exploring the benefits of Appreciative Inquiry. Data Collection Data collection occurs after asking the main question of “What is DCFS like when at its best?” The resultant stories will contain the new and generative ideas that create change. More information on Appreciative Inquiry, and how it will radically change the operations of DCFS, can be found at http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu.



WORKS CITED Cooperrider, D. L. (1996). Resources for getting appreciative inquiry started. OD Practitioner. Retrieved September 14, 2010, from http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/uploads/Resources_for_AI.pdf Cooperrider, D. L., Whitney, D., & Stavros, J. M. (2008). Appreciative inquiry handbook: The first in a series of AI workbooks for leaders of change. Brunswick, OH: Crown Custom Publishing. Fitzgerald, S. P., Murrell, K. L., & Newman, H. L. (2001). Appreciative inquiry – the new frontier. In J. Waclawski & A. H. Church (Eds.), Organization development: Data driven methods for change, p. 203. San Francisco: JosseyBass Publishers. Head, R. L. (2000). Appreciative inquiry as a team-development intervention for newly formed heterogeneous groups. OD Practitioner, 32(1), p. 59. Kanter, R. M. (1983). The Change Masters. New York: Simon and Schuster. Red queen principle (2010). In Principia Cybernetica Web. Retrieved September 14, 2010, from http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/REDQUEEN.html The problem of suboptimization (2010). In Principia Cybernetica Web. Retrieved September 14, 2010, from http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/REDQUEEN.html Tripp, P., & Zipsie, M. (2002). The introduction of appreciative inquiry to the U.S.. Navy using appreciative inquiry interviews and the large group intervention with applications to U.S. Marine corps logistics strategic management. Storming Media Report number A976304. Retrieved September 14, 2010, from http://edocs.nps.edu/npspubs/scholarly/theses/2002/Mar/02Mar_Tripp.pdf Whitney, D., Cooperrider, D. L., Garrison, M. E., & Moore, J. P. (1996). Appreciative inquiry and culture change at GTE: launching a positive revolution. Retrieved September 14, 2010, from http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/uploads/chapter_7_GTE.pdf