[MUSIC] We ended our last session with this idea that in order to change something, we need to change the way we're talking about it. And for the leader, that means treating your questions and new questions like they're fateful. That they're actually steering the change or steering the direction of the group that you're working with. So in this session we want to dive deeper into this idea of the unconditional positive question, which is the real driving force behind this approach to change leadership. Let's just look at the two words, appreciate and inquiry, for a moment. If you look in the dictionary, to appreciate means to intentionally look at something from the perspective of, what is there to be valued here? What is there to be recognized, to be honored? So when we talk about appreciative leadership or appreciative management, we're talking about this orientation to whatever the situation is. What is it that is valuable here? What is it that's worth valuing? What is it that's giving life? Or, what is it that is providing meaning in the situation at hand? And then the other aspect of appreciation is that the more you put that lens on something, the more you appreciate or value something, the more valuable it becomes to you. The more you start looking for moments in your day that have value, that have meaning, your whole sense of your day starts to increase in value or in meaningfulness. Then inquire has this idea of an orientation toward discovery, towards studying but not studying in a diagnostic sense, but searching. Searching for new meaning, searching for new possibilities. Going at something with awe, with wonder. So we combine appreciate with inquiry, and actually appreciate is the adverb, and inquiry is the verb itself. So we want to search for new meanings, search for new ideas with a wondering kind of eye, a wondering kind of perspective, and we want to do it from an appreciative stance. It’s very important to focus on the inquiry and not just the appreciation. Sometimes the appreciation is very attractive because we kind of realize we’ve been sort of caught up in a deficit milieu or setting, and we don't really realize it. And then all of a sudden, people start appreciating or valuing or recognizing what we're doing. And that can become very seductive. It can draw us into, well, let's just be positive with each other. But this is really about inquiry. This is about generating new understanding about what gives life when we're at our best, so that we uncover new possibilities. And then we dig deep into how can we change to reach those new possibilities. Inquiry is the engine of change. One of the co-creators, with myself and David Cooperrider, of Appreciative Inquiry was Suresh Srivastva. He was a senior faculty colleague at the time and this was his contribution. Remember that inquiry drives change. There's no change without learning and discovery. And so this is about a particular kind of approach to discovery and learning, an appreciative approach. Now if inquiry is the engine of change, then again, we're back to this idea of the power of the question. That there is no such thing as a neutral question. Appreciative leaders face a situation, or find themselves in the situation, and there's two questions that have to be answered yes in order to really benefit from this tool or this set of skills that we're calling Appreciative Inquiry. So the first one is, you look at the situation in front of you and do you honestly feel that there is still something to be valued in that situation? Imagine it's an employee with the attendance problem that you've tried working on time and time again. And you're about to have a meeting with that person. Well, if you honestly look at that situation and say I'm just kind of giving up. I don't think this person is really capable of providing much benefit to the work unit or to the office. Well, then, it's not a situation where Appreciative Inquiry is something that you should call on. You need to be able to honestly say, yes, there's still something to be valued in the context or where I'm finding myself. The second one is, you need to honestly believe that there's more for you to learn in that situation. So, again, if I'm back with the employee with the attendance problem. If I believe I know all the different reasons for the attendance, or the lack of the attendance, and I've tried all the different solutions that anybody could possibly imagine, then I honestly may not feel there's anything more for me to learn. So again, that's a no-go point. To be an appreciative leader, you need to say yes, I do feel there's still something to be valued in the situation. And yes, I need to learn more about it. Then I'm open to inquiry, and I can use the appreciative approach to studying and understanding the situation. So if I say yes to both of these, then I'm immediately in front of, what's the question I can ask to change the way we've been conversing about this problem or this issue? Remember, if we go in the direction of what we talk about and how we talk about it. So what's the question that I can bring? And it's this intentionally affirmative question, or the unconditionally positive question, that we've seen be so powerful in helping change with this Appreciative Inquiry approach. So let me give you an example. We worked in the Navy with a pharmacy assistant on a carrier. And the assistant was telling us the story, where her job at the end of the process, after the prescriptions have been filled and she's asked the patient if there's any questions or clarifications about use and so forth, her last job is to make sure that they follow up with a call back to her office. And her typical request was please call me in 48 hours and tell me how you're doing. And she reported that a couple of months of that, it felt like about 50/50. Roughly half the people would call back and say the prescription's working, I'm feeling better. And about half would call back and complain that they were not feeling better, and that there were problems. When she changed her question, subtle change but a very important change. She said, I decided to experiment because I was surprised at how many people were calling back saying it wasn't working or it wasn't helping. And she said, so now I changed it to, please call me in 48 hours to tell me how well you're feeling or how well you're doing. Just a subtle change instead of, tell me how you're doing, a neutral approach. The intentionally positive question, tell me how well you're doing. And what she reported is after several weeks, that 50/50 had changed to about 80/20. About 80% of the people were calling back saying they were feeling better, doing better, the prescription was helping. And only about 20% were saying it's still isn't working or I still have the symptoms or there's problems. Now, which is real? They're both real in the sense of we have to assume people are being honest. We have to assume people are speaking the truth of their experience but it's the consequence of the questions we ask. So part of what you'll hear throughout this course and these sessions is coming back to this fundamental idea of treating your questions as fateful. Not just throwing them out there as well, it's just a request for data, or it's just a request for facts. I would argue there's no such thing as a neutral question. Even asking somebody what time it is is received as an interruption, a disruption, an opportunity to relate, an overture of wanting to build a relationship. There's a whole constellation of possible feelings that come with a simple request for a fact, what time is it? So it's that kind of weighting of questions that we encourage leaders to really take on, that your questions are fateful. What you get back from one question is just as real as what you get back from a different question. The difference is, if the question leads to future behavior then which question is more likely to take you in the direction you most want to go? [MUSIC]
