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JAMES D. LUDEMA AND FRANK J. BARRETT
Appreciative Inquiry Summit
Great discoveries invariably involve the cooperation of many minds.
—Alexander Graham Bell
Cost, Quality, and Speed at John Deere
A few years ago, the new business unit leader for header manufacturing at John Deere Harvester Works, and Gina Hinrichs, the unit’s director of organization development, used an Appreciative Inquiry (AI) Summit to reduce costs, improve quality, and speed up new product cycle time. They took the whole system (wage employees, management, customers, suppliers, dealers, and representatives from corporate—about 250 people) off-site for five days through the appreciative inquiry 4-D process (discussed later in this chapter).
By week’s end, the group had launched ten cross-functional strategic initiatives to accomplish their goals. Over the next 18 months, they significantly reduced product cycle time, gained more than $3 million in cost savings, earned millions more in new market share, and transformed relationships between labor and management. Many participants shared that this was the first time they had the opportunity to sit down as equals with management to plan for the future. They talked about how searching for the best in themselves and others validated them and gave them a new perception of the gifts, strengths, and humanity of their colleagues. They said that they learned more and made more progress in five days then they typically do in five years. One participant said that this was the first time in more than 20 years that he had hope for the future.
The Basics
WHAT IS AN APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY SUMMIT?
The Appreciative Inquiry Summit is a large-group method for accelerating positive change in organizations and communities by involving a broad range of internal and external stakeholders in the process.1 It is typically a single event or series of events (usually three to five days in length) that bring people together to (1) discover the organization or community’s core competencies and strengths; (2) envision opportunities for positive change; (3) design the desired changes into the organization or community’s systems, structures, strategies, and culture; and (4) implement and sustain the changes and make them work. AI Summits range from 30 to 3,000 people, and include more using online technology. Because of the power of wholeness and democratic self-organizing, the closer summits get to including every member of the system, the more dramatic and sustainable the impact.
BENEFITS OF AN AI SUMMIT
Over the years, we have noticed several positive outcomes from summit interventions, including:
• Speed: Summits accelerate change by directly engaging the whole organization in envisioning, designing, and implementing the change.
• Energy: AI Summits begin by inviting people into a deep exploration of the organization’s “positive core”—its bundle of strengths, assets, capacities, capabilities, values, traditions, practices, and accomplishments that sustains its success. Access to the positive core builds energy and fuels innovation throughout the system.
• Intelligence: In any organization, knowledge is fragmented. AI summits connect people to the “big picture” and to other people who have critical information. They see how their individual contribution fits into the “logic of the whole,” and they can work smarter, more flexibly, and in support of the entire enterprise.
• Execution: As Marvin Weisbord says, people support what they help to create.2 When people define their own future, they implement with more passion and less resistance.
• Results: Summits focus on clear strategic priorities (e.g., market growth, product innovation, culture change, leadership development, customer service, process redesign) and align the whole organization to deliver results.
• Sustained Change: For any change to have long-term impact, it must be built into the organization’s “social architecture”—its systems, structures, strategies, and culture. Summits sustain change by involving people in designing high-performing systems.
THE AI SUMMIT START TO FINISH
When we refer to the AI Summit process, we include all the activities that occur before, during, and after the actual meeting. As a transformational process involving hundreds or thousands of people, an AI Summit requires thoughtful planning and committed follow-up.
Before an Appreciative Inquiry Summit
Presummit activities take three to four months and include: (1) enlisting active sponsor support, (2) forming a representative planning team, (3) selecting participants, and (4) creating a customized design.
One of the most important activities before an AI Summit is identifying a clear and compelling strategic focus. Positively framed, this focus guides activities during the summit. It is important to avoid framing the task around what’s wrong.
Consider this example: “PhoneCo,” a global telecommunications company, had experienced a downturn and felt energy and focus were lessening. Company leaders considered a survey to uncover the causes of low morale and lack of enthusiasm. After an introduction to Appreciative Inquiry, the steering group considered this “problem” from an appreciative perspective. They discussed what PhoneCo was like when operating with high commitment and sense of purpose. They discovered that empowered leadership and impacting others’ lives through technology were crucial catalysts for high commitment. With this in mind, their summit task became: “Inspired and Passionate Leadership: Transforming the Way People Conduct and Live Their Lives.”
During a Typical Four-Day Appreciative Inquiry Summit
Summits are designed to maximize wholeness, strategic visioning, learning, and relating. They require large, arena-type spaces with eight to ten diverse participants clustered in each group. Everyone helps address tasks, also taking responsibility for their own utterances, actions, perceptions, and feelings. Members do not stay in the same groups for the entire summit, but assemble into various stakeholder groups—departmental groupings, customers, suppliers, and others. Although each AI Summit is unique, all are designed to flow through the appreciative inquiry 4-D cycle of discovery, dream, design, and destiny (figure 1).
Day 1: Discovery—discovering and connecting the many facets of the organization’s “positive core”—the strengths, assets, competencies, capabilities, values, traditions, wisdoms, and potentials that fuel and sustain its success.
Day 2: Dream—envisioning the organization’s future in bold and specific terms.
Day 3: Design—designing the “social architecture” (e.g., strategies, structures, systems, culture, processes, partnerships) to give form to their dreams.
Day 4: Destiny—planning for action. Individual commitments are made, innovation teams formed, strategic initiatives launched, and large-group dialogue promotes organizational alignment. Additionally, the next steps in the change process are launched.
Figure 1. Appreciative Inquiry Summit 4-D Cycle
After an Appreciative Inquiry Summit
Summits generate numerous ideas for action and high commitment, making follow-up important. Action groups often name facilitators or leaders who coordinate group activities and follow-through.3 In one example from the U.S. Navy, 13 action groups met regularly through virtual teleconference meetings and after six months held a face-to-face meeting. They tracked successes and helped to organize a follow-up summit. Successful teams seek and receive support and involvement from organizational leadership, plan regular meetings with rich communication, and have synergy with their regular responsibilities.
Table of Uses
About the Authors
Dr. James D. Ludema ([email protected]) is a professor in the Ph.D. Program in Organization Development at Benedictine University and a principal in the Corporation for Positive Change. He is author of many articles and books on appreciative inquiry, including The Appreciative Inquiry Summit: A Practitioner’s Guide for Leading Large Group Change. Jim is an internationally recognized consultant whose practice focuses on the use of Appreciative Inquiry for large-scale corporate change initiatives.
Frank J. Barrett, Ph.D. ([email protected]) is associate professor of systems management at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, where he is also director of the Center for Positive Change. He has lectured and written widely on Appreciative Inquiry, including his most recent book, Appreciative Inquiry and Organizational Transformation. Frank has consulted to various organizations including Nike, Boeing, the U.S. Navy, Ford, General Electric, British Petroleum, Nokia, and Johnson & Johnson.
Where to Go for More Information
REFERENCES
Barrett, F., D. Cooperrider, and R. Fry. “Bringing Every Mind into the Game to Realize the Positive Revolution in Strategy: The Appreciative Inquiry Summit.” In Practicing Organizational Change and Development: A Guide for Consultants. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005.
Fry, R. E., F. J. Barrett, J. Seiling, and D. Whitney. Appreciative Inquiry and Organizational Transformation: Reports from the Field. Westport, CT: Quorum Books, 2001.
Ludema, J. D., D. Whitney, B. J. Mohr, and T. J. Griffin. The Appreciative Inquiry Summit: A Practitioner’s Guide for Leading Large Group Change. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2003.
ORGANIZATIONS
Benedictine University’s Ph.D. Program in Organization Development (OD)—www.ben.edu/odhome
One of the largest behaviorally oriented management programs in the United States and one of the top-rated graduate OD programs internationally.
Center for Positive Change at the Naval Postgraduate School—www.nps.edu/Academics/CPC
Their mission is to support positive change and Appreciative Inquiry within the U.S. Navy and other government bureaucracies.
Corporation for Positive Change—www.positivechange.org
They apply Appreciative Inquiry for transformation and innovation in business, government, and nonprofit organizations around the world.
1. J. D. Ludema, D. Whitney, B. J. Mohr, and T. J. Griffin, The Appreciative Inquiry Summit: A Practitioner’s Guide for Leading Large-Group Change (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2003).
2. M. R. Weisbord, Productive Workplaces: Organizing and Managing for Dignity, Meaning, and Community (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1987).
3. F. J. Barrett, D. L. Cooperrider, and R. E. Fry, “Bringing Every Mind into the Game to Realize the Positive Revolution in Strategy: The Appreciative Inquiry Summit,” in Practicing Organizational Change and Development: A Guide for Consultants (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005).