Another Look at Appreciative Inquiry

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Writing about:

• http://caseyleaver.wordpress.com/2007/07/25/appreciative-inquiry/
•  Using Appreciative Inquiry to drive change at the BBC - Berrisford, Sam. Strategic Communication Management, Apr/May2005, Vol. 9 Issue 3, p22-25, 4p, 1bw; (AN 16676140)

The last is particularly valuable at it explains AI in action in a given context.

‘Making it Happen used the application of appreciative inquiry in a complexe employee consultation exercise called “Just Imagine”.’

Basically a large series of conversations seeking to solicit ideas for change from staff.  For this it sounds like an effective methodology.  “A way of asking questions building from a base of positivity.”

So, in essence, a giant suggestions scheme based on the concept that your staff know best what needs to change and how.

I’m all for a practical application!

Not a million miles away from Warwick’s Future (an extended and polished version of):

Professor Nigel Thrift arrived as Warwick’s new Vice Chancellor in June 2006 and wanted to strengthen the culture of staff involvement in decision-making.  Serendipitously the University’s strategy document was due to be updated in 2007 giving an opportunity to involve all staff in a matter of institutional importance.

 

In October 2006 he set the Internal Communications Team the following challenges.

 

Objectives

By the meeting of the University’s Senate, the supreme academic authority of the University, on Wednesday 14 February:

1. Generate ideas about future projects or collaborations and improvements to processes from front-line staff, Heads of Departments, students, and everybody in between.
2. Design and implement a transparent process for assessing the ideas so that the best ideas can be included in the University’s strategy document.
3. Create enthusiasm for and buy-in into the strategy creation process.
4. Associate the new Vice-Chancellor with an open culture of two-way communication.

Evaluation and Measurement of the Campaign

 

Number of ideas received	356
Number of departmental responses	18
Number of attendees at discussion day	280
Number of page views of the website	9363
An additional 1500 copies of CommUnicate, the internal newsletter, had to be printing owing to extraordinary demand.

 

• 76% of attendees who gave feedback said that the discussion day was of value to them personally.
• 85% of attendees who gave feedback said that the discussion day was of value to the University.

	Pulse – 2005 Staff Survey	Warwick’s Future Discussion Day Attendees	Percentage Increase
The values and aims of the University are moving in a direction that I support	74% of respondents agreed	76% of respondents agreed	2%
I am confident that my ideas or suggestions will be listened to	52% of respondents agreed	61% of respondents agreed	9%
The style of management in the University is generally open and consultative	45% of respondents agreed	56% of respondents agreed	11%

 

Implementation

 

• In November the Vice-Chancellor’s consultation document was published in a special edition of the University’s internal newsletter (CommUnicate), a dedicated intranet site and weekly all staff and Students’ Union member ezines.
  • Copies of CommUnicate were distributed to all staff, Staff-Student Liaison Representatives (students) and Students’ Union Society and Sports Club Presidents
  • The consultation process was also advertised on WarwickBlogs, Facebook, the Students’ Union website and the intranet homepage.
  • All Heads of Department (academic and non-academic) were requested to discuss the aims and generate ideas by holding departmental meetings
• University members were asked to submit ideas using on-campus suggestion boxes; an online form; a hard-copy form in the newsletter to put in the internal post; a dedicated voicemail box or through their line manager or Head of Department at a Team or Departmental meeting before the deadline of 31 December 2006.
• A large, externally-facilitated, discussion event was held on the afternoon of Wednesday 17 January (a non-teaching slot)
  • Over 400 staff and students were invited, drawn equally from those who had made submissions; subject specialists; and the Personnel database at random
  • The attendees split into seven groups which discussed all the submissions by topic highlighting recurrent themes and voting for their top three exemplar ideas
• A Primary Panel (composed of ten middle-ranking academics and non-academics) received comprehensive notes from the Discussion Event to inform their review of all the submissions against a set of pre-approved criteria
  • Each submission was sent to two members of the Panel along with the departmental responses
  • Each Panel member reviewed the ideas using a form provided and the Panel met once on Wednesday 24 January to discuss and resolve any areas of disagreement
• The Senior Panel reviewed those ideas referred to them by the Primary Panel.  They reviewed the ideas afresh, against the same pre-approved set of criteria and using the same process.
  • The Senior Panel was made up of members of the University and Students’ Union senior academic and management team.  A member of the Primary Panel was also present to provide continuity.
  • Each submission referred by the Primary Panel was sent to every member of the Senior Panel along with the departmental responses and the notes from the Discussion Event.
  • The Senior Panel determined which ideas will be included in the University’s draft strategy.
• A presentation of the Warwick’s Future headlines was given for discussion at the Heads’ of Departments Forum on Tuesday 13 February and at the meeting of Senate on Wednesday 14 February.

• A presentation was given to the University community by the Vice-Chancellor at an Open Meeting in the Spring Term
• Feedback from every level of the assessment process was collated to allow the Internal Communications team to ring every individual who submitted an idea with personalised feedback.

Future Steps

 

• The possibility of continuing a modified, scaled-down, ideas generation process
• The need to consider appropriate integration with the University’s financial planning process
• The creation of routes for acting on smaller good ideas not suitable for inclusion in the strategy

Creativity

 

The creativity in this submission is demonstrated in meeting the brief and delivering the required outcomes in a very short space of time with less than one month’s planning and lobbying.

 

The challenge was twofold:

1. To make as big an impact as possible within the first few weeks to encourage people to:
   1. take part and,
   2. meet the 31 December submission deadline.
2. To create a transparent and simple ideas assessment mechanism allowing the ideas to be sifted in an efficient and democratic way.

In Internal Communications a lot of creative energy is spent in making things happen: enlisting people from different parts of the organisation to help and aligning political allies.

 

But most of all the creativity in this process came from the staff and students themselves in generating such a volume of useful, innovative and well thought-out ideas.

 

Budget – inc. staff/retainer time

 

This project was accomplished within the budget band £10,000-£50,000.

 

The expenditure, including salaried and retained staff, was approximately £30,000.

 

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