The Appreciative Inquiry Summit

International Journal of Appreciative Inquiry May 2012 Volume 14 Number 2 ISBN 978-1-907549-11-3

The Appreciative Inquiry Summit Explorations into the Magic of Macro-Management and Crowdsourcing Guest Editors: David Cooperrider, Lindsey Godwin, Brodie Boland and Michel Avital

Inside: Feature Choice: Jacqueline Wong on Re-Appreciating Inquiry Macro Management of Meaning and Identity The AI Sustainability Factory

Creating Change Ahead of the Curve

Big Change Fast A Participant’s Perspective

Improving Safety in a Steel Mill Taking Enough Time

Beyond the Room The Smallest Summit

The AG Summit

After the Wedding

AI Research Notes: Model for Intervention in Mutual Help Promoter

Tapping the Soul of Higher Education

Toward the Creation of a Positive Institution

AI Resources: AI Summits

Cover photo courtesy of Nextel del Peru

May 2012

AI Practitioner

International Journal of Appreciative Inquiry

Inside: 4

The Appreciative Inquiry Summit: Explorations into the Magic of MacroManagement and Crowdsourcing by David Cooperrider, Lindey Godwin, Brodie Noland and Michel Avital The power of ‘the whole’ brings out the best in human systems

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Feature Choice Each issue, a leading AI practitioner will present a topic of their choice by Jacqueline Wong Re-Appreciating Inquiry: The Dragonfly Framework as a Generative Metaphor for Planning and Change Jacqueline Wong writes about her own learning journey and experiences in applying AI

AI Summit Theory and Concepts

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Macro Management of Meaning and Identity: Communication Strategies for Collective Wisdom and Transformational Results by Diana Whitney If changes don’t make sense to people, they will not produce positive results

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The Sustainable Design Factory by David Cooperrider and Chris Laszlo

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The Appreciative Governance Summit: Designing the Social Architecture of Engagement, Innovation and Productivity by Bernard Mohr and Neil Samuels

Managers are turning to artists as models for collaborative design

AG summits engages large numbers of diverse stakeholders to make real-time decisions

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Tapping the Soul of Higher Education by Joan McArthur-Blair and Jeanie Cockell The elements, purposes and examples of AI summits in colleges and universities

Cases and Applications

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Creating Change Ahead of the Curve: How AI Summits Transformed the Culture of Hewlett Packard by Mary Peery The hardest time to lead change is when a business is at the top

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Improving Safety in a Steel Mill: Words Really Can Create Worlds! by Ronald Fry

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Taking Enough Time: Back to Basics of the AI Summit by Mauricio Puerta and Isabel Wong

What really causes or creates behavioral change?

Co-construction of a new organizational reality requires time

AIP May 12 The AI Summit: Macro-Management and Crowdsourcing

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International Journal of Appreciative Inquiry

Inside continued: 60

Toward the Creation of a Positive Institution: St. Peter’s College by Lea Waters, Mathew A. White and Simon Murray St Peter’s College, Adelaide, Australia, held an AI summit to elicit feedback from all 151 staff on the school’s draft strategic plan and mission

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Big Change Fast: Systemic Change and Sustainability in the US Dairy Industry by John Whalen What is required to drive innovation can be cost-prohibitive; industry-wide collaboration around a project is possible and works

Post-Summit and Beyond

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A Participant’s Perspective: The Experience of an External Stakeholder by Lisa Rees A first-time AI summit participant shares her reflections and perspectives

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Beyond the Room: Leveraging Collaborative Technology to Engage the Whole System by Lindsey Godwin, Pascal Kaplan and Kristin Bodiford Integrating technological advances to transform the entire globe into a summit setting

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After the Wedding: How to Plan For and Maintain a Successful Post-Summit Process by Molly McGuigan Critical steps for launching a successful post-summit process.

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Making Change Easy: The Tiniest AI Summit in the World by David Cooperrider

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Appreciative Inquiry Research Notes by Jan Reed and Lena Holmberg

Can the design of the AI Summit be applied to change by (and for) an individual?

Construction of a Model for Intervention in Mutual Help Promoter of Hope – Miampe

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Appreciative Inquiry Resources by Jackie Stavros and Dawn Dole

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About the August 2012 Issue Guest Editors: Joan McArthur-Blair and Jeanie Cockell Inclusive Spaces: Using Appreciative Processes to Transform Social Structures

96

IAPG Contacts and AI Practitioner Subscription Information

Appreciative Inquiry Summits

AIP May 12 The AI Summit: Macro-Management and Crowdsourcing

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Volume 14 Number 2 ISBN 978-1-907549-11-3

Lena Holmberg

Jan Reed

has a Ph.D. in Educational Research, worked as a consultant and manager in an IT company and started the AI consulting company Apprino. With Jan Reed, she was guest editor of the November 2007 issue of AI Practitioner which focused on AI and research. Contact: [email protected] lenamholmberg.blogspot.com

Ph.D. B.A, RN has been involved in research for many years. She has a nursing qualification, and teaches and supervises healthcare students at Northumbria University. She is well known for her ground-breaking book, Appreciative Inquiry: Research for Change. Contact: [email protected]

AI Research Notes

edited by Lena Holmberg and Jan Reed Appreciative Inquiry Research Notes carries news of AI research developments. We’d like to make it as collaborative and appreciative as we can – we know that many of you are working and thinking about the relationship between academic research and AI, and that you have news, comments and questions which we’d like you to contribute.

A Model for Intervention in Mutual Help-Promoter of Hope – MIAMPE Zaida Charepe

Margarida da Silva Vieira

Assistant Professor, PhD, Institute of Health Sciences Catholic University of Portugal [email protected]

Associate Professor, PhD, Institute of Health Sciences Catholic University of Portugal [email protected]

Maria Henriqueta Figueiredo

Luís Miguel Neto

Coordinator Professor, PhD, Porto Nursing College/ Portugal [email protected]

Auxiliar Professor, PhD, I nstitute of Social and Political Sciences / Portugal [email protected]

This study used a methodology centered in the principles of Appreciative Inquiry: the constructionist, simultaneity, poetic, anticipatory and appreciative principles. Appreciative Inquiry refers to the search for the knowledge that leads to the transformation of practices through involvement in a group, organization or society. Appreciative Inquiry was the most appropriate methodological approach for the co-constructed environment to be conducive to study. The area of interest was the exploration of best practices being implemented in mutual help groups, and their inclusion as future opportunities for action. The analysis of results from the different stages of research found stories of hope, and from them we established a design of change to build general proposals in the areas of collaborative practices in mutual help. Mutual help groups for parents of chronically ill children We had the following objectives: to explore the impact that the intervention of mutual help groups have in the development of hope for parents of children with chronic illness; and to build a model of intervention that seeks developing hope, taking into account the collaborative practices that occur in groups of mutual help among the health professionals involved with the groups and parents of children with chronic illness. The study population consisted of children with chronic illness parents and health professionals in the Lisbon area. Data collection included an interview to obtain data to prepare an eco-map and genogram of hope; an appreciative interview; participant observation in mutual help groups; and reflective discussion with experts (stakeholders).

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The Appreciative Inquiry method resulted in a set of empirically-created stages, guided by the 4-D cycle. The 4-D cycle began with the choice of subject of the intervention study, focusing on the first D – ‘Discovery’. This phase explored the appreciation and assessment of factors that give life to human systems, from individual involvement in dialogue and collective sharing of possibilities around the strengths, resources and best practices. At this stage, an Appreciative Inquiry is characterized by positive questions formulated about people, organizations and relationships. The construction of the script includes a selection of affirmative topics, which constitute the key themes of the research in question. The topics we used in the appreciative interview guide complemented the wording of the open questions, taking into account the aspects that make up a semi-structured interview. The questions evoked experiences and stories that helped participants identify what they best learned in the past, and issues related to the past that helped envision the best possibilities for the future. Table 1: Selection of affirmative topics


Affirmative topics

Guide for Appreciative Interview Questions

Optimistic moment enjoyed

Describe a time when you felt particularly optimistic in dealing with the illness of your son (daughter)? What made you enjoy this experience? What did you do so that this experience could take place?

Experience of mutual help (shared) rewarding, which gave value and usefulness to life

Describe an experience of mutual help (shared) in their relationships with other parents of children with chronic illness, which contributed to a feeling that your life had value and utility. What was the most rewarding aspect of this experience? What did you do to help?

Increased hope

In your view what factors do you consider responsible for the increase of hope when you feel faith, optimism and inner strength?

Contributions of mutual help group

What contributions did your mutual help group provide?

Moment of hope

Tell me about a special moment, which made sense with hope, in the experience (path) of the illness of your son (daughter).

Improved resources to support the child’s illness Objectives pursued Learning more about yourself

Imagine a World where all people have access to the best means or resources to support their child’s disease. What would be different? What resources do you consider necessary in order to pursue your objectives in taking care of your son (daughter)? What have you learned about yourself through your son’s or daughter’s illness?

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Affirmative topics

Guide for Appreciative Interview Questions

Moment of hope

How have your past experiences of hope (when you felt full of inner strength), helped to cope with your son’s or daughter’s illness? What have health professionals contributed? * In what situations? Who were these professionals? * Those who have a relationship with you in the mutual help group.

Desires to grow hope in acute exacerbations and hospitalizations

If you were granted three wishes, what would you ask to grow your hope in the face of acute exacerbations of the disease or future admissions of your son or daughter? In this sense, what would you do to help other parents of children with chronic illnesses to make themselves grow in their ability to hope in fighting the disease of their children?

The script of the appreciative interview was validated by experts in research areas related to Appreciative Inquiry and hope. Their review led to the inclusion of the concept of ‘hope’ in the script: including the values or meanings; a high point of an experience; factors that give life; and the three wishes. In the second D – ‘Dream’ – the results came from the creation of new and positive images of ‘what you want for the future’ being integrated into new possibilities. At this stage, we used data from interviews in the first D and identified the key issues, which were framed by participants’ hopes and aspirations. In the third D – ‘Design’ – the results obtained in the previous step were integrated as strategies for the desired action. In view of the intervention experiences of hope and dreams, they were articulated to frame the norms, values, structures, systems and relationships. The last phase – the fourth D referred to as ‘Destiny’ – was established as a call to transform the future through innovation and collective action, a coconstructive process. At this research stage, strategies were implemented to plan and carry out a training and a reflective process, with proposals for structuring and systematizing the interventions. The training process, a co-construction phase of the intervention model, aimed to contribute to the development of health care skills within an intervention around hope in mutual help groups. We used a mixed methodology of training, appreciating and valuing the best professional experience of the health care professional, envisioning what this experience might be in the future, talking as if it was an integrated approach in the hope of promoting mutual help groups. For this we used the expository and active methods, which had been used as a training strategy, cycle phases of the 4-D Appreciative Inquiry: Discovery, Dream, Design and Destiny.



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Phase I – Discovery

••Discovery of what gives life to mutual help groups when they are in the best of its operation.

••Discovery of what the health professionals involved consider to be

important, what they expected and wanted in order to improve their interventions with mutual help groups for the promotion of hope in parents of children with chronic illness.

Phase II – Dream

••Reflection and representation of ‘opportunities for action’ about what

the health professionals felt the mutual help groups did best, and what they would hopefully become in the future.

••Reconstruction of new and compelling images, translated into future intervention proposals that were discovered in Phase I.

Phase III – Design

••Reflection on ‘opportunities for action’ that emerged in Phase II, and its operation, through the discussion of an episode that resulted from the communication experiences of sharing in the mutual help group.

••Providing a collectively desired future, giving the possibility of

submitting proposals and ways to successfully translate the intent of the practices and beliefs associated with the assistance of the health professionals from the mutual help group.

Phase IV – Destiny

••Definition of resources and the establishment of priorities for the co-

construction of the intervention model, through personal and collective commitment among the health professionals. At the end of the training process, there was a need to redefine the intervention in mutual help groups, both in terms of its structure and in terms of specific content of different activities.

••Definition of intervention proposals, during the training process, so they could be addressed to the needs and aspirations presented by staff.

The intervention model in mutual help as a promoter of hope (MIAMPE) is a theoretical construction. The main goal is to provide guidance for intervention, organized around proposals, which includes rituals, activities and evaluation procedures; to suggest narratives to facilitate sharing, the facilitation of meetings and the revaluation of group work in mutual help groups. With the operationalization of the various rituals, the proposals suggested were categorized into: introduction, training, (re)-building of hope, and the management of social life of the mutual help group. The intervention model is the foundation of mutual help group meetings, allowing stakeholders to make decisions for the effective functioning of the group. Through the Appreciative Inquiry, the collection and subsequent analysis of data was flexible, with the main goal being the design of the research, which


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was continuously adjusted to implement the model of intervention in mutual cobuilt support. References Charepe, Zaida (2011) – O Impacto dos Grupos de Ajuda Mútua no Desenvolvimento da Esperança dos Pais de Crianças com Doença Crónica: Construção de um Modelo de Intervenção Colaborativa. Tese de Doutoramento em Enfermagem, Instituto de Ciências da Saúde da Universidade Católica Portuguesa: Lisboa. Available at: http://repositorio.ucp.pt/handle/10400.14/7328

Special AIP issues to be launched at the 2012 World Conference Two issues of AI Practitioner are being created for the 2012 World Appreciative Inquiry Conference in Ghent, Belgium in April.

Sales/Finance and Appreciative Inquiry: Positive Images, Positive Action, Positive Results Guest editor: Ralph Weickel, principal of Performance Management

Special Video Essay Issue: Innovation² and Appreciative Inquiry: Positive Images, Positive Action Guest editors: Joanne Daykin, Lisa Hirsch and Ada Jo Mann of Innovation Partners International

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Jackie Stavros

Dawn Dole

DM, is Associate Professor and DBA Program Chair, College of Management at Lawrence Technological University, has co-authored books, book chapters and articles including Thin Book of SOAR: BuildingStrengths-Based Change. She consults and provides training using strength-based whole system approaches. Contact: [email protected]

is Executive Director of the Taos Institute and the Knowledge Manager of the Appreciative Inquiry Commons (http://ai.case.edu). She also consults with schools, businesses, churches and non-profits to bring about positive and collaborative change. Contact: [email protected] www.taosinstitute.net

AI Resources

edited by Jackie Stavros and Dawn Dole Appreciative Inquiry Resources features a rediscovery of classic and new resources for your use. Resources will include list-serves, books, journal articles, book chapters, DVDs, websites, blogs, podcasts, etc. … all in one place useful for learning more about AI to help with your consulting practice, internal work, teaching, training and extending your knowledge base and resources.

This May 2012 issue of AI Practitioner is about Appreciative Inquiry (AI) Summits. Web-based Resources on the AI Summit To learn more about the design of AI summits, we invite you to visit the AI Commons at http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/practice/toolsSummit.cfm. Here you will find many resources and examples of the AI Summit process. AI Commons Project Packs The resources on this webpage include: http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/practice/packs.cfm This represents the pulling together of all the materials used with a particular ongoing AI project. All of them have conducted AI Summits. You will find a comprehensive set of tools in a long-term AI effort from a single organization or company. Feel free to take and adapt these resources and materials for your own projects. We wanted to include a few video clips that have been helpful to those designing summits (you should be able to just click on the links or cut and paste the links into your internet browser search engine): Fairmount Minerals – Creating Sustainability Here is a 10-minute video clip from the Fairmount Minerals Corporation, part of Business as an Agent of World Benefit (BAWB) that actually shows the impact of the AI Summit. This organization has been using AI for over a decade. http://media.mindgrabmedia.com/fairmount/Minerals/Fairmount%20 Minerals.html

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United Nations – Change on a Global Scale: The Global Compact This is a 20-minute video clip of 1200 organizations involved in the UN Global Compact. An AI Summit was held in Spring, 2004 with the Global Compact at the United Nations, including Kofi Annan. Go directly to this link to see the full description of the summit. Video link: http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/intro/commentFeb05.cfm (Back-Up Link: http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/practice/toolsFilmDetail.cfm?coid=7198) After the introduction, scroll to the bottom of the article (it is under the category: Additional Resources) and you will find ‘Watch Video’: click on it. This is a very good illustration of AI and its application in global change agendas. If you are interested in the triple bottom line and sustainability you will find this an interesting case study. Northern Essex Community College (NECC): AI and Strategic Planning: SOARing to Regional Excellence This is a wonderful AI summit with a community college where the president and his senior leadership wanted to bring in the whole system (as many representatives as possible) to co-create the Strategic Plan for 2008-2010. http://www.necc.mass.edu/about/institutional-initiatives/appreciativeinquiry/ NECC is home to a strategic plan based on the principles of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) and the SOAR framework where they held an AI Summit in June 2007. Today, AI continues to provide a foundation for the work done at NECC. Books and Articles A classic article by Diana Whitney and David Cooperrider on AI Summits is’The Appreciative Inquiry Summit: An Emerging Methodology for Whole System Positive Change’ http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/intro/classicsDetail.cfm?coid=357 The first book written on AI Summits is The Appreciative Inquiry Summit: A Practitioner’s Guide for Leading Large-Group Change (2003) by James Ludema, Diana Whitney, Bernard Mohr and Thomas Griffin. It provides a comprehensive guide to the methodology and highlights the many organizations that have gone through the summits including McDonald’s, U.S. Navy and Save the Children. This book is a classic! (CA: Berrett-Koehler) ISBN: 1-57675-248-9 The Wisdom of Crowds Surowiecki, James. (2005) New York: Anchor Publishers ISBN: 0385721706 In The Wisdom of Crowds, James Surowiecki explores a deceptively simple idea: large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliant – better at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future. This book ranges across many fields from a popular press culture book to economics, politics and organizational behavior.



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A Guide to Open Innovation and Crowd Sourcing: Advice from Leading Experts Ed. Paul Sloane (2011) London: Kogan Page ISBN: 0749463074 Concepts such as ‘open innovation’ and ‘crowd sourcing’ are popular topics in strategy and management today. The concept of capturing ideas in a network of collaboration with these key constructs is what the book brings to our global world. This edited volume includes over 33 international contributions that explain how to use the power of the internet to build and innovate, and to connect buyers and consumers around the globe. The book has several corporate case studies and best practice advice for open innovation. 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 Tripp, Paul and Zipsie, Mark (2012) Kindle (Sold by Amazon Digital Services) This thesis documents the introduction of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) within the U.S. Navy and discusses applications of the AI-based large group intervention (AI-LGI) within Marine Corps Logistics’ strategic planning, implementation and organizational change. It is a follow on from David Nystrom’s thesis ‘360-Degree Feedback, Leadership, Leadership Development, Performance Appraisal’. This thesis introduces AI, discusses its history and describes the history of change efforts within the Navy. The thesis documents events leading up to and including the AI Summit, the introduction of AI within the U.S. Navy and qualitative analysis of stories that address issues of leadership.

About the August 2012 AI Resources The August 2012 issue of AI Practitioner will explore the ways in which the practice of AI fosters and opens inclusive spaces in organizations of all kinds. If you have any suggestions of resources that could be included, please forward the details to Dawn Dole at [email protected] or Jackie Stavros at [email protected].



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Joan McArthur-Blair is a writer and speaker who grounds her Appreciative Inquiry and leadership work in herlove of words and in the possibilities of higher education. Her background is in higher education, a world where she spent 28 amazing years, most recently as a college president. Joan and Jeanie co-authored the book, Appreciative Inquiry in Higher Education: A Transformative Force. Contact: [email protected]

Jeanie Cockell ‘makes magic’ through engaging her clients in collaboratively co-creating appreciative and transformative relationships. As a presenter, writer, facilitator, teacher and consultant, she inspires individuals and organizations to respond effectively to change by building on strengths and successes. Contact: [email protected] www.jeaniecockell.com

About the August 2012 Issue Inclusive Spaces: Using Appreciative Processes to Transform Social Structures This issue is devoted to multiple viewpoints on using AI to create inclusive spaces in organizations of all kinds through Critical Appreciative Inquiry, an emerging theory grounded in AI, critical theory and social constructionism.

In this special issue of Appreciative Inquiry Practitioner, readers are invited into multiple viewpoints on using AI to create inclusive spaces which transform social structures based on race, religion, age, culture, ability, language and so on. These viewpoints illustrate elements of Critical Appreciative Inquiry (CAI), an emerging theory grounded in AI, critical theory and social constructionism. The contributing authors share their passions for working with AI through social justice and emancipatory lenses. Their stories range from community policing in New Zealand to capacity building of racialized youth and residents of a large city in Canada. This issue focuses on how the practice of AI fosters and opens inclusive spaces in organizations of all kinds. Authors illustrate ways in which working for emancipation around diversity, power, privilege and difference intersect with the practice of AI. The co-editors present Critical Appreciative Inquiry (CAI), an emerging theory grounded in social constructionism, the principles of AI and which draws into that work critical theory and transformative practices in order to create inclusive spaces. They began to work with these ideas because of their background in diversity and inclusion dealing with issues of power and difference based on race, gender, age, ability, social status etc. There is an opportunity to expand the already inclusive nature of AI through a strong focus on critical social issues that may influence participation, topic development and outcomes. Writers from around the world bring to this issue an examination of their work in areas from religion, policing, language acquisition, development of nongovernment agencies, the L’Arche movement, intergenerational dialogue, immigrant parents, and racialized youth. Every author brings to their writing a deep commitment to creating inclusive spaces. They illustrate how, in their contexts, they align AI with their own practices and how it can transform in arenas where social differences are a powerful influence on the process.


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Purpose of AI Practitioner This publication is for people interested in making the world a better place using positive relational approaches to change such as Appreciative Inquiry. The publication is distributed quarterly: February, May, August and November.

AI Practitioner Editor/Publisher The editor-in-chief and publisher is Anne Radford. She is based in London and can be reached at [email protected] The postal address for the publication is: 303 Bankside Lofts, 65 Hopton Street, London SE1 9JL, England. Telephone: +44 (0)20 7633 9630 Fax: +44 (0)845 051 8639 ISSN 1741 8224 Shelagh Aitken is the issue editor for AI Practitioner. She can be reached at [email protected] AI Practitioner © 2003-2012 Anne Radford


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