APPRECIATIVE

INQUIRY
FOR CHANGE
MANAGEMENT
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 APPRECIATIVE
INQUIRY
FOR CHANGE
MANAGEMENT
Using AI to Facilitate
Organizational Development

Sarah Lewis, Jonathan Passmore, Stefan Cantore

London and Philadelphia

Publisher’s note
Every possible effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this
book is accurate at the time of going to press, and the publishers and authors cannot
accept responsibility for any errors or omissions, however caused. No responsibility
for loss or damage occasioned to any person acting, or refraining from action, as a
result of the material in this publication can be accepted by the editor, the publisher or
any of the authors.

First published in Great Britain and the United States in 2008 by Kogan Page Limited

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism
or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this
publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic
reproduction in accordance with the terms and licences issued by the CLA. Enquiries
concerning reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the
undermentioned addresses:

120 Pentonville Road 525 South 4th Street, #241

London N1 9JN Philadelphia PA 19147
United Kingdom USA
www.kogan-page.co.uk

© Sarah Lewis, Jonathan Passmore and Stefan Cantore, 2008

The right of Sarah Lewis, Jonathan Passmore and Stefan Cantore to be identified as
the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.

ISBN 978 0 7494 5071 7

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lewis, Sarah, 1957–

Appreciative inquiry for change management : using AI to facilitate organizational
development / Sarah Lewis, Jonathan Passmore, and Stefan Cantore.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7494-5071-7
1. Organizational change–Management. 2. Appreciative inquiry. 3.
Management–Employee participation. 4. Organizational effectiveness.
I. Passmore, Jonathan. II. Cantore, Stefan. III. Title.
HD58.8.L494 2007
658.4’063–dc22
2007032743

Typeset by JS Typesetting Ltd, Porthcawl, Mid Glamorgan

Printed and bound in India by Replika Press Pvt Ltd
Contents

About the authors x

About the contributors xii
Acknowledgements xv

Introduction 1

Part 1 Understanding conversational approaches to change 5

1 Organizations as machines, workers as cogs and

management as a control process 7
Introduction 7
Organization as a group social skill 8
Taylorism and Scientific Management 9
Belief in the power of problem solving to change organizations 12
Belief in the power of naming problems to produce change 15
Belief in the power of instruction to achieve change 16
The belief that emotions are problematic 17
Belief in the power of criticism and fear to motivate change 17
Belief in the head and body organizational split 18
Belief in the power of separating elements to enhance clarity
and so the ability to act efficiently 19
Belief in a ‘right answer’ to the problem of design 20
Summary 21
vi  Contents

2 An alternative approach: organizations as living human

systems 22
Introduction 22
The organization as living 23
Organizations as human 24
Organizations as systems 24
Belief in the power of appreciation to promote growth 25
Belief in the power of inquiry 26
The power of talk to change things 27
The power of imagination to produce change 28
The power of positive emotional energy to achieve change 29
The belief that language is creative 30
Belief in the place and power of stories in organizational life 31
Summary 31

3 The development of conversational approaches to

organizational change 33
Where does the story begin? 33
What is the history of Appreciative Inquiry? 34
Why is Appreciative Inquiry becoming popular? 35
Postmodernism 36
Appreciative Inquiry and the information revolution 40
Appreciative Inquiry and globalization 40
Appreciative Inquiry and the human search for hope 41
Appreciative Inquiry meets a need for connection in
organizations 42
Summary 43

4 Appreciative Inquiry: how do you do it? 44

Introduction 44
Preparing for change 45
Define 48
Discovery 49
Dream 54
Design 58
Destiny 60
Summary 62

Part 2 Advanced ideas and practice 63

5 The power of the question 65

Introduction 65
 Contents  vii

Not locks and keys 65

Looking at questions 67
Summary 77

6 The power of conversation 79

Introduction 79
What is conversation? 79
The power of conversation to transform 82
The fear of conversation 84
Understanding the fears and ambivalence towards
conversation 84
Some issues for the conversational practitioner to consider 86
The ambivalence of organizations towards conversation 86
How can a conversational practitioner support powerful
conversations within organizations? 87
The inner life of the conversational practitioner 91
What will we as conversational practitioners bring to our
work with organizations? 93
Summary 94

7 Extending practice: working with story in organizations 95

Introduction 95
The common ground with the conversation-based approach
to organizational change 96
Using story 96
Working with story 101
Sense making: creating temporary moments of clarity in an
unclear world 112
Summary 114

8 Developing your conversational practice 115

Introduction 115
Common themes 116
The World Café 119
Open Space 121
Future Search 122
The Circle 124
A real-life example of using conversational processes to
achieve organizational rebirth 126
Bringing them all together 129
Summary 130
viii  Contents

9 Becoming an appreciative conversational practitioner 131

Introduction 131
Purpose 132
Working spirit-fully 132
Appreciative practice skills 138
Summary 144

Part 3 Using conversational approaches in the organization 145

10 How to introduce Appreciative Inquiry and related

approaches to your organization 147
Introduction 147
Guidance in getting started: commissioning conversations 148
Moving to the 4D cycle: common blocks and how to
overcome them 155
Summary 163

11 Case study: Using Appreciative Inquiry at BP Castrol

Marine 165
David Gilmour and Anne Radford
Introduction 165
The organization 166
The organization challenge 166
Selecting the approach 166
Appreciative leadership 167
Mix of AI and other methodologies 167
Objectives for the change process 168
Description 168
Introduction of appreciative leadership: managers and
regional sales teams 169
The Easy Business vision 170
Outcomes 176
Reflections and lessons learnt 179

12 Case study: Revitalizing corporate values in Nokia 183

Caryn Vanstone and Bruno Dalbiez
Introduction 183
The organization 183
The organization challenge 184
Selecting the approach 185
Description of the project experience 186
Outcomes so far 190
 Contents  ix

Reflections and learning 192

Summary 195

13 Case study: World Café 196

Arian Ward, Paul E Borawski and Juanita Brown
Introduction 196
The organization 196
The organization challenge 197
Selecting the approach 199
Aims for the change 201
Description 202
Outcomes 206
Reflections 207

14 Case study: Applying Appreciative Inquiry to deliver

strategic change: Orbseal Technology Center 210
Jacqueline M Stavros and Joe R Sprangel Jr
Introduction 210
The organization 211
The organization challenge 212
The role of decision making 213
Selecting the approach (why AI and SOAR framework) 214
Description of the project experience 217
The outcomes 223
Reflections and learning 224

Appendix: Resource list 227

References 232
Index 240
About the authors

Sarah Lewis is a chartered occupational psychologist who specializes

in individual and organizational change. After an early career in child
protection and management she established Jemstone Consultancy in
1993. She is a regular conference presenter and has published occasional
articles as well as her Jemstone Tidbits newsletter. An associate fellow of
the British Psychological Society and a founder member of the Associa-
tion of Business Psychologists, she can be contacted at sarahlewis@
jemstoneconsultancy.co.uk.

Jonathan Passmore is a chartered occupational psychologist, and is a

Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD). He
works with OPM, a London-based consulting firm, and the University
of East London. Jonathan has board-level experience as a chief executive
and company chairman and is a regular contributor to conferences and
journals, including the APA Consulting Psychology and the International
Coaching Psychological Review. He is the author of the popular guide to
coaching, Excellence in coaching, and has a second coaching book due
out in spring 2008: Psychometrics in Coaching. He can be contacted at
jonathancpassmore@yahoo.co.uk.
 About the authors  xi

Stefan Cantore held a number of senior posts before joining OPM

as a consultant. He has worked in health and social care, as a chief
executive and Workforce Director. He now works with OPM in the
areas of leadership and management development with an interest in
whole systems change in public services using Appreciative Inquiry
and World Café. He can be contacted at stefancantore2@tiscali.co.uk.
About the contributors

Paul E Borawski is Executive Director of the American Society for

Quality (ASQ) and is responsible for the operation of ASQ headquarters
with a staff of over 220 and a budget of over $46 million. As ASQ’s Chief
Strategic Officer, Paul leads their Living Strategy efforts and ensures
the strategy is implemented, tracked, and kept responsive to changing
environmental forces and member needs. Paul can be contacted at
pborawski@asq.org.

Dr Juanita Brown is a co-founder of the World Café. She collaborates

with senior leaders across sectors to create innovative forums for
strategic dialogue on critical business and societal issues. She is a
fellow of the World Business Academy, has served as a Research
Affiliate with the Institute for the Future and is the co-author of The
World Café: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations that Matter, with
David Isaacs and the World Café Community. She can be contacted at
inquiry@theworldcafe.com.

Bruno Dalbiez has worked as an internal Organization Development

and Change consultant for over 25 years in multinational, multicultural,
high-technology companies in Europe and the United States. He is
currently a senior Organizational Development and Change consultant
with Nokia.
 About the contributors  xiii

David Gilmour leads a marine lubricant business in BP plc and has held
roles in sales and marketing. David became interested in Appreciative
Inquiry in his role as the Strategy Director in the marine lubricants
business: it gave him a new way of leading based on strength, continuity
and hope for the future. He can be contacted at david.gilmour@bp.
com.

Anne Radford guides consultants who want to more fully integrate

strength-based approaches to change into their practice, and works
with business leaders who need to change their leadership style to more
fully involve others in delivering results. She can be contacted at www.
aradford.co.uk, annelondon@aol.com. She also publishes and is editor-
in-chief of the online publication AI (Appreciative Inquiry) Practitioner,
which is available at www.aipractitioner.com, editor@aipractitioner.
com.

Jacqueline M Stavros possesses 20 years of strategic planning, market-

ing, international and organizational change experience. Jackie is
an Associate Professor for the College of Management, Lawrence
Technological University, MI, USA, where she teaches and integrates
Appreciative Inquiry in her coursework: Leading Organizational
Change, Strategic Management, Organization Development, and
Leadership. She uses Appreciative Inquiry to work with individuals,
teams, divisions, and organizations to build dynamic relationships and
co-create and facilitate strategic change initiatives. She has co-authored
two books, several book chapters and articles. She can be contacted at
jstavros@comcast.net.

Joseph R Sprangel Jr is an Instructor of Operations Management for

Ithaca College, NY, USA. Joe previously taught courses as an adjunct
professor for Lawrence Technological University and Spring Arbor
University, teaching Operations Management, Leading Organizational
Change, Organizational Development, Six Sigma for Managers, and
Strategic Management. He has 28 years of industry experience in the
areas of strategic planning, organizational development, leadership,
and management in a variety of organizations. He is a student in the
Doctorate of Business Administration programme at Lawrence Techno-
logical University. His research area of interest is the development of
a framework to move an organization from status quo to sustainable
development. His MBA is from Spring Arbor University and BBA
from Eastern Michigan University. Contact: +1 (607) 274 3940 or
jsprangel@ithaca.edu.
xiv  About the contributors

Caryn Vanstone is a Business Director with Ashridge Consulting. She

works with UK and global companies and non-profits, and is Faculty
on the Ashridge MSc in Organization Consulting. Caryn specializes in
complex projects of change focusing on issues such as culture, values,
engagement and performance, using high-participation, inquiry-based
approaches. She can be contacted at caryn.vanstone@ashridge.org.uk.

Arian Ward is CEO and principal coach/consultant for Community

Frontiers in Boulder Creek, CA. Arian has been working with ASQ
since 2002 on the evolution of their Living Strategy, as well as on
the organizational elements needed to support it, including ASQ’s
culture, business and communication processes, body of knowledge,
communities, and membership model. Arian is a co-creator and one
of the world’s most experienced facilitators of World Cafés. He can be
contacted at arian@communityfrontiers.com.
Acknowledgements

We would like to express our thanks to the many people who have
contributed to this book or made it possible. To the Kogan Page team,
particularly Viki and Charlotte for their support in developing the
proposal and in getting the book to print. To our case study authors
for their energy and dedication in telling their stories and dealing with
our challenge that we did not just want the sunny-side-up version,
but the whole picture of change including the difficult bits. To our
families and friends who have lost us for periods while we wrote,
met and talked about ideas, content and process. To our wide range of
colleagues, especially those at the Office for Public Management (OPM)
and Jemstone Consultancy, clients and friends who have helped in the
development of our thinking and understanding of conversational
approaches. We are particularly grateful to the Office for Public
Management (OPM) and Jemstone Consultancy for their support and
encouragement throughout this project.
In addition we would like to offer our appreciation to the faculty
at Kensington Consultation Centre. Many of these ideas have been
developed from their tuition over the years and it has not always
proved possible to trace ideas back to their initial source, and so be able
to adequately acknowledge individual faculty members. We would
particularly like to mention Christine Oliver, who has been an inspiring
colleague and teacher. We would also like to thank Debbie Barleggs,
xvi  Acknowledgements

David Lewis, Jordan Smith, Stewart Smith and Colin Brown for their
willingness to comment on early drafts. The work is much improved as
a result of their attention.
This book is dedicated to four special people who have influenced
our lives and helped us in different ways:

To Charlie and May Green

To Jenny Lewis for helping me believe ‘I can’.
To Zoe Nicholson for her inspiration and encouragement.