Appreciative Inquiry Cycle

The Basics

Appreciative Inquiry aims to search for the best in people, their organizations, and applicable situations which affect each of their immediate worlds. It is a systematic discovery that allows a ‘best of scenario’ approach through the practice of asking questions that support an ecosystem’s positive outlook and the ability to increase its potential and harness positive forward momentum. AI assumes that every problem has a rich ecology of purely inspirational but untapped components. Instead of negativisms which spawn criticisms that often nullify opportunities, AI leads groups to iteratively discover, dream and design their own destinies. Appreciative Inquiry should also be applicable, provocative and collaborative.

In practice, Appreciative Inquiry is the art of crafting and asking questions that will strengthen the ability of an ecosystem to better anticipate, capture and amplify positive potential. ‘Positive change’ is the core of this practice which focuses on the following four processes:

1. Discover | The identification of organizational processes that work well.
2. Dream | The envisioning of processes that would work well in the future.
3. Design | Planning and prioritizing processes that would work well.
4. Destiny | The implementation (execution) of the proposed design.

A Case Study – OCADU

On June 09, 2010 I participated in a DwD session led by Dr. Douglas Reid, a strategy professor at Queen’s University School of Business. Our goal that night was to help OCAD with their rebranding.

In its past OCAD had difficulties in transitioning from the ‘Ontario College of Art’ to the ‘Ontario College of Art and Design’ and now they were faced with the new name of the ‘Ontario College of Art and Design University’. This problem was detailed by an OCADU Director and is best summed up by mentioning that there is great passion for the University at all levels.

So for the next couple of hours we spent the time determining the conditions, forces and factors that made OCADU a great experience. We thought about the process first and then decided that 3 characteristics would best help the challenge of creating a new identity for the school. These characteristics were:

• Receptivity to all ideas
• An iterative-based solution
• The idea of ‘fun’

In short we decided to take in everything that was said, we didn’t rush to conclusions because we knew the solution was going to be iterative and we fully embraced the process. We talked a lot about what OCADU was doing well and what it could do even better; we never dwelled on its mistakes, or invited any ‘blamestorming’. We worked hard at asking useful questions that helped to reveal more about the positive nature of the University and did so without having to justify (in a defensive position) anyone’s ideas. Very quickly we got to a common ground and even if it wasn’t always entirely on point, many of the tangents we went on were productive. What we came up with was the following:

Positive thoughts about OCADU

Our conclusion after this exercise was not about what needed to be done differently this time or what needed fixing. Instead the Appreciative Inquiry process lead us to name the positive attributes of the University and further distill which of these could best be harnessed for marketing the change from a College to a University label. The OCADU Director left with a plethora of thoughts and positive insights into the merit of the institution and now has a generous platform on which to begin the new marketing transition process.

On a personal note this is only the third or fourth time I have used this process but it certainly gave some of the best results I have ever witnessed. I believe the difference in this session was that the participating group signed on to the AI methodology and understood its potential from the start. Thanks to everyone who participated and thank you to OCADU for the real life challenge.

But very few companies see beyond these statements of the bottom line. They ask the ROI question from their perspective and often only pay lip service to their clientele. I am not suggesting the companies don’t want the best for their consumers; it’s just that the consumers are relegated to the second part of the equation. For all the common jargon used, companies want to sell you a product or service first and then help you second. And this may be a great strategy for the quick buck or impulse buy, (i.e. the Slap Chopper – can you still hear him yelling at you?) but it can be vastly improved upon by integrated services delivered via the internet.

One of the most frequently used statements I make to clients is that they must deliver a memorable user experience to their clientele. And along those lines I also state that they must increase the user’s ROI through greater relevance to receive more business. And here is the catch, companies must first increase the user’s ROI and in turn the user will increase the company’s.

Traditionally companies handed out promotional literature that contained their product or service information, the value proposition, the technical information and testimonials. This brochure was great propaganda for general usage and could be given out at any event. But times are changing and people are experiencing their first glimpse of products and services online.

However many companies are not changing their attitudes towards their clientele and are still delivering a sales approach to an online audience. For example how many online ads have you seen in the last weeks which interfere with your browsing? With so much more potential these companies are still yelling at you to get your attention in an increasingly crowded online atmosphere. And guess what? This tactic has become the digital version of static background noise.

“Buy me” instead of “Let me help you” is too often the message. But the internet allows one to ignore the shouts in ways the consumer could never do before. There is so much more potential to be had on corporate sales sites in which the products and services are pushed on the users with only basic information, i.e. description and price. Companies need to take advantage of simple tools to help their potential clientele:

1. Teach them how the product or service can help them solve an existing problem
2. Allow them easy access to any helpful internal training material
3. Explain everything in plain, every day English, not hyperbole marketing speak which only creates more confusion and sometimes distrust if the product or service doesn’t work as they imagined
4. Showcase ways in which others (professional or amateur) have solved their problems
5. Allow individuals to showcase their unique view on problem solving or allow them to ask questions of the community
6. Explain potential issues that may be confusing to the consumer (I cannot overemphasize this one; time and time again people have questions about the product or service because it is written from an advanced perspective)
7. Connect the dots to other products or services which may have to be used with the one they are about to purchase (again it may be obvious to your company but not to the individual; besides this is a wonderful opportunity to cross-sell)

As a side note, I purposely left off the content point which explains why this particular company’s product or service offering is better than an other company’s for the very simple reason that I know companies will always include this information in the basic description.

Depending on your company’s situation this list can be improvised and expanded. But what is important, is that the creation of content that pertains to your products or services should be tuned towards creating a more helpful and memorable experience for your potential clientele rather than the spec sheet and list price approach. Give your clientele something useful, create a community of knowledge around your offerings and invite them back to comment on their experience.

Your clientele should become your focus. Although it may sound old-fashioned, if you keep them happy they will keep coming back.

KAOSPilot’s Intelligent Ecology

Uffe gave us only a quick synopsis about KAOSPilot and referenced it as a school whose purpose is to ‘create positive societal change through personal growth and enterprise’. He also gave us a small diagram on where he believes KAOSPilot is situated. This he calls ‘The Intelligent Ecology’.

But for the majority of his talk Uffe Elbaek led a frank discussion for three hours on his experience of birthing an extremely large and socially sensitive project from point zero to fruition in a condensed time line of only two and a half years. During this time Uffe had to not only deal with the many third parties involved, such as the political organizations, vendors, sponsors, and citizens of the city of Copenhagen but also the very basics of putting together a team from scratch. I mention this because when he started the team it was only one person deep – himself. As the key organizer he had to start by resolving some of the key issues such as time, money and people. Was there enough time to get this event off the ground, was there enough money to support the event and who were the people that would support and participate in the Games to make them a success.

He viewed all these questions as if he was forging long-term relationships with every stakeholder that he encountered. He wanted his team to become the nucleus of a communications hub for lively two way discussions and not just a central hub where directives were given. He encouraged the organizational structure to help strengthen conversations between the stakeholders themselves. This he believed helped augment the stakeholders’ relationships within the greater Games community.

Because of his belief in openness Uffe didn’t start this undertaking with his own concept of what the Games should be but instead he developed a plan of action that he calls the ‘Dehok Project Model’.

It starts with the ‘idea’ and ends up with the ‘how’ – how to implement. You will of course notice in the diagram that the ‘concept’ does not get recognized until the ‘need, purpose and value’ get realized. As a side note he quoted a common saying in Denmark for ‘purpose’ which I will have to paraphrase: “Your purpose must be so succinct you can pee it in the snow”. (this one I will always remember)

Uffe believes that the Dehok model is useful to combat what he calls the ‘Project Paradox’, whereby most projects start with an ‘end date’ but very little accumulated knowledge with which to make proper decisions. Here the goal is to compress the gap between the decision and knowledge curve as best as possible.

The Dehok model allows the core team to realize an open outcome rather than a predestined one because it indulges varied experiences to manage change. More specifically, this model does not focus on the final concept but instead encourages the team to focus on a consensus allowing them to work together in an atmosphere containing less internal conflict. He believes, as do I (and most of us I imagine), that a cohesive team structure is best united to solve a set of problems when they all believe in their common goals. This process starts with an idea but consistently appreciates the requisite variety of ideas that develops through different personalities. Of course the end goal is a mutually beneficial outcome.

This talk was one of the better more comprehensive ones that I have ever been to. My suggestion would be to go see him if you have the opportunity. Thanks Uffe.

This particular night the workshop spent three hours on the topic of ‘Shared Leadership and Framing Big Questions’. Basically what this amounts to is asking the big questions that invite user participation. Accordingly, users then feel empowered because they have some personal skin in the game and this generates an open community for shared contribution.

Leadership Choices

I am sure everyone can remember a time in their office environment where change was coming down from the top and this change seemed somewhat disconnected from the realities of the job at hand. With a good facilitator, this doesn’t have to be the case. For those who run their own businesses I am sure you remember every situation in which your clients basically got to the point of “How much?” and “How long?” far too quickly in your conversation. When this happens there is a feeling of loss of control and/or project ambivalence or unimportance. These how questions sometimes derail a project from the get-go because the task at hand hasn’t necessarily been framed in the best way to allow for innovative thought and therefore the project is stifled or even worse purposeless on arrival. The following ‘how’ questions are common enough but when used at the beginning of the conversation, inhibit a project:

• How do you do it?
• How long will it take?
• How much will it cost?
• How do we get people to change?
• How do we measure the success?
• How has this been successful elsewhere?

If the client asks these ‘how’ questions it is important to try and modify the conversation parameters. The main goal is ask open ended questions that make noticeable differences that invite participation to produce the best framework for a project. The following questions have been suggested by Peter Block:

• What is my crossroads in life/work?
• What is my contribution to this problem?
• What is my commitment to the solution?
• What refusal have I been postponing?
• What is the price I am willing to pay?
• What do we want to create together?

These are obviously somewhat obtuse to the previous set of ‘how’ questions but they do in fact invite participation and lead to better dialogue about the framework of a project. Each question is intentionally open and personal and each question leads to reflection with no immediate solution. Instead these questions initiate useful discussions about a project that open barriers and lead to group participation that increases mind share. As a result the company will get a more cohesive vision that ultimately serves them better and is much more than the result of an order being followed.

Of course there are other questions that can be asked which will tend to open the dialogue. Pictured at left is our groups contribution.

I found this exercise to be encouraging. As designed, people were opening up, the participants networked well and the ideas were taken seriously. I can honestly say that if this type of approach had been taken in previous projects that I or others had lead, the time would have been well spent and the project results would have been better.

Then the other day I was asked by a young designer what it takes to be successful and when I was thinking about my reply, I realized how much the requirements for success have grown over the years. So I told him to visit 418QE in a couple of days and this is my reply.

I have performed some due diligence and researched the qualifications for a ‘graphic designer’ on several employment boards and I have come up with the following list of descriptors, tasks and technologies that must be part of one’s abilities to be considered qualified.

• Descriptors: have initiative, be imaginative, be cooperative, be creative, be diplomatic, be a leader, be a good communicator, have good time management skills
• Tasks: be able to create groundbreaking designs; be able to understand and produce in the following formats which include magazine and newspaper layouts, brochures, print ads, banner ads, websites, e-newsletters, interactive and promotional collateral; understand digital and print production preparation; understand usability, information design, and GUI guidelines; have a thorough understanding of typography
• Technology: PC and MAC competent, proficient in QuarkXPress, InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, Flash, Dreamweaver, PowerPoint, Word, be fluent in HTML, CSS, XML and Javascript

To be assured the abovementioned skill base is important but not the end of it. The designer must also network. In order to network, it is best if they have a mobile number, an email account, and also communicate on LinkedIn and Twitter. There is an advantage to those who join their local provincial/state graphic design guild as these organizations arrange conferences and networking events. And last but not least, the designer may also want to have a regularly updated blog with their latest case studies and articles that best showcase their various ideas about the world of design.

Have I left out anything? Of course, but it suffices to say that the list of abilities that a great designer needs is going to be fairly long if they want to succeed. Thankfully time and experience takes care of most of these issues. Just ask anyone in the field with greying or no hair.

Remember that it is best to use the following symbols both within the text that you are editing and in the column of white space at the right hand side of the page. For the purposes of this article I will present the actual symbol, what it means and how to use it. Please note that this is not a comprehensive list but it does showcase the most commonly used.

Although there are several symbols, they are easy to remember and save everyone the hassle of guessing. This helps reduce miscommunication. Share this list with your coworkers and use it in your everyday communication.

Editorial Markup

Stages of a project

It may have taken me awhile but it should come as no surprise that large projects are not easy to entertain unless your company follows a carefully planned and detailed procedure that allows for every stage that a project will have to go through until completion. There are, of course, many different ways to accomplish the tasks within each stage of a project but an outline from concept to launch should be respected.

Clients also like structure as long as they feel that it enhances communication and doesn’t create an even larger independent project.

What follows is a (very) brief synopsis of some basic stages of a project. Within each of these stages there would naturally be a further breakdown of items such as roles, activities, entry/exit criteria, etc. It should also be noted that each stage of a project is a wonderful opportunity to collect knowledge and data within your own organization and if properly captured and organized it can be a used as a knowledge management tool – more about that in another article.

I have outlined a nine stage procedure that can be either expanded or contracted depending on the project but I believe it is a good guide to start with until you feel comfortable developing your own.

Stage 1: Initial/Continuing Contact
The identification and qualification of a new or continuing business opportunity. Evaluate the goals and objectives of the client, as well as your own objectives and abilities for the project. Note: the goal of this stage is to accept or deny a new business opportunity based on an evaluation.

Stage 2: Proposal
The goal of this Stage is to understand the client and the project enough to create and deliver a proposal for a business opportunity.

Stage 3: Evaluation
Research, analysis and synthesis of all data collected must be performed before you begin.

Stage 4: Project Specifications
Refine the estimate for the development of the project, complete any creative and editorial goals and finalize the technology needs. (these examples differ with each project)

Stage 5: Construction and Implementation
Actual creation of the site, including initial unit testing.

Stage 6: Systems and Integration Test
System and integration testing and development of training materials for client.

Stage 7: Deployment
Delivery and initial operation of the site. Training may also be a factor.

Stage 8: Post-Deployment
Final documentation, project closeout and transition to operations and maintenance.

Stage 9: Project Assessment
External and internal assessments of the project are completed. This step is extremely important and you should be as honest as possible because if you had any faults or errors along the way they should be corrected before your next engagement.

Besides from multiple signoff points, that is it. Believe me it becomes easier with time and more intuitive. And there is an added bonus. You can track your accomplishments easier and figure out what works for you best. Remember you will be forever honing your skills because you will always encounter new surprises.

The organization of content

Content is one of the most important resources a company has. When shared online, this content helps define a company’s message. Web sites are fundamentally about sharing information; their goal is to deliver the right message to the right person in the right way. This is of premiere importance. Without careful organization or attention to usability, content becomes irrelevant and without a solid media plan, companies lose their ability to be discovered by a potential client. It would be nice to believe that every company has a carefully thought out plan but a quick tour of internet will reveal otherwise.

Before you begin

The following are important issues that should be defined before venturing online:

1. The company’s business: e.g. current business model, core competencies, strengths, weaknesses, points of differentiation, unmet needs, etc.
2. Reason for going online: e.g. how will it better your business, improve your customer’s experience, integrate with your overall strategy, etc.
3. Your competition: e.g. who are the existing and potential competitors, does a competitor currently provide the internet experience you seek, what are they doing to provide increased awareness and loyalty, etc.
4. Business goals: e.g. short, mid and long term, barriers to reaching these goals, growth and exit strategies, etc.
5. Marketing goals: e.g. what market do you need to fulfill, existing and potential partners, previous brand awareness efforts such as advertising, direct marketing, banner advertising, internal and external marketing plan for the site, etc.
6. Your audience: e.g. who is your core audience broken into demographics, psychographics (opinions and attitudes, etc.), geographics and behaviors, key messages to be delivered to each segment, what information would you like from them, etc.
7. Site content: e.g. does it already exist, what is the tone, what are the colours, sounds and typography of the brand, is there collateral material, an internal style guide, etc.
8. People resources: e.g. who will be responsible for the production and maintenance of the site, will there be a need for outsourcing, etc.
9. Engineering and technology: e.g. is this requirement internal or external, what are the foreseeable security issues, are there statistics that need to be collected, hardware and software purchases, amount of bandwidth, etc.

Of course this is a basic list and there are a number of questions under each point. Nevertheless, this is a good start for most companies to consider and at the very least, should help a company deliver a consistent message to its employees and vendors, from planning stage to launch.

Technically, the purpose of these procedures is to ensure that any change that is requested and or implemented is fully assessed in terms of its impact, both time and money and to ensure that when implemented it has received the appropriate sign off from the client. But realistically good change management has to do more with proper communication so that neither you, your company nor your client are at odds sometime during a project’s lifetime.

Each company will have its own comprehensive internal procedure for handling change management and therefore I will not endeavor to replicate one here. It suffices to say that different projects require different teams with different expertise. But for those of you new to this idea I do have one piece of advice: you need to create a change management document. Fortunately it is a fairly standardized signoff sheet and in my following example can be produced on a single page containing three major areas.

1. The first being the request originators portion that should contain the name of the project, the date of the change request, the priority of the request, the area of the project affected and the group that is requesting the change. You will also need a description of the issue and the desired or best method to fix it. And may even want to include categories of change for easy reference such as, ‘technical’, ‘strategic’, ‘structural’, ‘graphic’, ‘functional’, or ‘database’, there are others as well.
2. The second portion of this document would contain the Project Managers information such as the risk analysis of the change, the cost, resource and delivery implications of the change and if the client is billable or not.
3. The last area of this document is used for signoffs of all party heads involved with the change, perhaps it may even contain a recommendation area as to whether the change should be made or not and the reason behind such a decision. And of course your client must sign and date the form as well, after all your client is the reason you designed this business procedure in the first place.

Change management takes time to implement but it saves frustration due to miscommunication.

eCRm foundations

The following should be considered when developing a realistic strategy:

1. Offer a clear value proposition: A clear value proposition needs to be offered by a company to its customer. Both sides of this equation must be satisfied. First, the company must clearly define its vision for a long term customer relationship. They need to make sure that they have the supporting marketing and technology strategies in place to be able to define its key metrics (ROI – return on investment, LTV – LifeTime Value of a customer) and establish a measurement process to gauge its success. Second, from the customer perspective, a web site needs to offer a compelling reason for them to make the return visit a habit. So if the company wants more information out of a user they better not just clearly define that value to the user but demonstrate it. (explaining to them in text is not proper justification, better sites will offer something tangible for this information)
2. Deliver a clear brand message: This is key. A web site is usually just one contributing factor that builds brand awareness for a company. Therefore the material presented must maintain a consistent voice and “look and feel” with the rest of the company’s communications efforts on or offline. (e.g., TV, print, direct mail and internal communications).
3. Adopt a user friendly privacy policy: The company must define and publish a privacy policy that covers any collection and use of a user’s data. This policy should be written in plain English using proper terminology and a tone appropriate for the user and be backed by proper data security and quality control practices. If needed a permission based practice (opt-in for e-mail communications) is recommended.
4. Capture information on users: As technology evolves so does this point. Implicit data (user’s click stream) should be captured from multiple touch points which will allow a more complete user profile over time. Also explicit data on users such as their preferences, registration information and collected data from past interactions including site visits, transactions and customer service inquiries or their posted comments can be captured. However if this is done, this information must be clearly defined in the privacy policy and stored securely. There is no worse PR than a breach of security.When properly analyzed, this data will allow the company to create specific customer segments. Then the move from ‘one to everyone’ towards ‘one to many’ towards ‘one to one’ marketing may take place. Of course this is where the cycle now resets, as targeted contact strategies and marketing campaigns can be further refined for each specific segment.
5. Customize the content and message: Companies may choose to customize content and messaging to different degrees. Depending on the data collected messages can be addressed to different groups within the site’s audience, or a company may use this collaborative filtering to make recommendations based on ratings of products and online selections or purchase histories. A company may also include personalization by using the available data to greet customers by name then anticipate the customer’s needs and deliver content, offers and services. A further effort can be made to provide special services to high value customers. Also it should be kept in mind that customers are outside the corporate wall and do not necessarily understand your lingo, make sure that they are spoken to in a manner and with language that they understand.
6. Enable e-business transactions: A company must offer a ‘call to action’ for potential customers and provide current ones with the ability to access their complete purchase history online.
7. Leverage promotion and cross-sell opportunities: If possible the company should provide a range of offers that include both ‘soft’ advice and ‘hard’ offers (e.g. discounts). Also the introduction of related products and services based on visitor data should be included.
8. Contact and keep strategies: A company may need to encourage users to visit a site for the first time through targeted ‘drive to web’ direct mail campaigns based on defined customer segments. Of course, once there, the company needs to continue to build relationships even if the user is offline by encouraging some type of dynamic feedback through email by the way of site, article, comment or newsletter updates.
9. Create site stickiness: Using interaction, a site may encourage visitors to return by supplementing product information with other useful content such as tools and ‘how to’ advice. A community environment may contain standard features like bulletin boards to post their own experiences and moderated discussions to figure out problems and even event listings for helpful live demonstrations.
10. Offer customer service: This is the single point in which all the tremendous hard work performed by your company may come to ruin. And I cannot say this enough, ‘to be successful from a customer relationship perspective, you absolutely must have the infrastructure in place to grow a healthy relationship’. That means simply respond to your customer in a timely manner, with accurate information that is consistent and listen to them in a genuine fashion.

I originally helped write this document over ten years ago, and although I have made a few changes due to the improvement in technology, the basic tenents are still valid. And from personal experience, and most likely yours as well, companies are still faltering on points 3, 5 and 10. It seems that although the technology may be in place, the customer etiquette may be lacking.

As a final suggestion I would encourage all executives in charge of these efforts to place themselves in the customer’s shoes for a day or two and use the various facilities afforded by your company and see how the process actually works. Do you agree with the privacy policy, is your new offer valid, is friendly help easily available and do you get a consistent message? I can virtually guarantee that just because you have finished the process and followed all the best practices it does not necessarily mean that it works, or it is accurate or friendly.

Best of luck, this is a very difficult task to accomplish successfully.