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What's the best that could happen? – Appreciating what works in organisations.

by Geof Cox. Published in Executive Secretary magazine, Volume 10, Issue 1, March 1998.

Sandra Robbins wondered what more she would be able to contribute to the conference. She had booked the hotel and made all of the arrangements, taking particular care to ensure that all of the individual delegate needs were met, and double checking the details with the hotel. She took pride in her organisational and project management abilities. Every event that she organised was successful, from Management Committee meetings to VIP visits to the Annual General Meeting. But she had never participated in the events that she organised. She was the secretary and PA to the Director of a not-for-profit organisation, and the conference was all about the management and direction of the organisation in the future. “What do they want from me?” “What can I say that would be helpful?” There did not seem to be anything in the agenda that was remotely relevant to her job.

The first day of the conference met with her worst fears – the presentations and discussions were detailed and technical, so much so that she even had difficulty in staying awake during the talks on regulatory procedures, legal frameworks and finance. The second day did not look too promising either, the agenda was allocated to organisation priorities – probably more presentations from managers on their plans and proposed changes.

Within two minutes of the start of the second day there was a stunned silence in the room. The conference facilitator had started by asking a question: “What's the best that could happen from this session?” After a day of sitting and listening to presentations, it was quite a shock to be asked a question. Sandra waited for one of the senior managers to explain what was expected. It seemed that everyone was waiting to hear from somebody else as well, because no-one spoke. The facilitator eventually broke the silence by repeating his question: “If we all contribute our opinions on what is happening in the organisation and how we could work together in the future, what is the best that could happen from this session?”

Sandra thought quickly, if she was going to say anything, she would not want to say something that her Director would not agree with. What was the purpose of the conference? What would her Director expect her to say? Then she looked round the room – there were nearly 40 people present, and it would be difficult to hear from everyone. What would happen if everyone in the room did try to speak? It would be chaos. Many of the staff always criticised and moaned about the organisation. If they dominated the discussion, the whole conference would be ruined. So Sandra broke the silence: “The worst that could happen is that it turns into a massive moaning session and doesn't get anywhere...” Lots of other people then started to agree with this view and add their own thoughts on what could go wrong.

The facilitator held up his hands and exclaimed: “I asked what was the best that could happen, not the worst...” There was another stunned silence in the room – they were all good at identifying what doesn't work and what might go wrong, no-one had ever thought about looking for a best outcome and what works. The facilitator explained that as our culture focuses on problem solving, we are obsessed with learning from our mistakes and looking at every proposal with a critical eye to see what might go wrong. He went on to outline a different form of thinking – looking at things with an appreciative eye rather than a cynical one.

With the appreciative eye, you look for what works rather than what doesn't work; you focus on positive outcomes not negative. Whichever way we choose to look at things, we tend to emphasise and amplify that approach. So if we pay attention to problems, then we condition ourselves to look for problems. The facilitator posed another question to illustrate this point: “When you get a survey that says that 90% of your customers are satisfied, what do you automatically do?” Everyone agreed that you should interview the 10% of dissatisfied customers to find out what went wrong, so you can put it right. “What about asking the 90% what you were doing that made them happy, so that you could repeat that?”

Sandra thought this a very strange way to approach the serious problems and challenges that faced the organisation, and a little naïve. As if to read her mind, the facilitator carried on explaining about the assumptions and principles that lay behind his ideas.

First of all, he explained, what we think affects what happens. So a successful athlete will focus on winning and producing a perfect performance, not on losing or falling down. Sandra's Director was a keen golfer, and he immediately shared a story about himself: “On a particularly difficult hole on my local course, I kept telling myself to not hit the ball in the woods. Despite this, most of the time the ball seemed to go into the woods. Then someone told me to tell myself to hit the ball onto the fairway, explaining that when I say `don't hit it into the woods' the brain hears `hit it in the woods' and responds accordingly. My performance immediately improved – I don't hit it onto the fairway every time, but I certainly do it a lot more often that I did before.”

“A great example” replied the facilitator. “What is possibly even more fascinating is the way that we filter information to fit our own set of assumptions. The Pygmalion effect is known to everyone who has been involved in teaching – in experiments, teachers were told that they had a mixed ability class: some were high IQ and expected to do well and some were low IQ and were expected to fare less well. At the end of the year, the pupils who were identified as high IQ were at the top of the class, and those identified as having low IQ were all at the bottom. Then the researchers told the teachers that the IQ numbers they had been given at the start of the year were randomly allocated. Some of the pupils with low IQ had in fact done well and were at the top of the class, some of the high IQ pupils were at the bottom of the class. It was the teacher's perception of the two different groups, and her expectations that made the difference. What we think really can affect what happens, not just in what we do ourselves, like the golfing example, but it can also affect others as well.”

Appreciative Inquiry assumes that in any organisation, something works. When facing the future, people have more confidence when they can carry forward parts of the past. If we do carry forward parts of the past, then they should be what is best about the past. If we only focus on problems and what might go wrong, then that is the reality that we take forward, so there is a good chance that is what will happen in our future. “One last example before we return to my original question for this session” – the facilitator summed up – “when sexual harassment started to become a real issue in some organisations, training programmes were started, the early ones of which tended to focus on what not to do. After the training, many organisations reported an increase in the number of harassment cases, and the relationships between the genders deteriorated. Learning from this, later training programmes brought men and women together to share examples of being treated with dignity and respect, to identify the circumstances and themes behind these examples, and then recreate these in the workplace.”

Sandra immediately started to think about how she brought up their children – it often seemed that whenever she had told one of them not to do something, they did it again soon after. She was always telling her daughter to be careful and not to fall over, and it seemed that every day she was treating cuts and bruises. Perhaps she now had the answer. The same process went on at work: people were always being told when they had done something wrong but rarely praised when they had done something right. Managers were always pointing out people's weaknesses not building on their strengths. It was not a surprise that the organisation was having problems, that was all they focused on.

“So I would like to return to my original question.” The facilitator interrupted Sandra's thoughts. “What is the best that can happen in this session?” Sandra was immediately on her feet. “The best that can happen is that we find ways to build on all of the things that we do well and can learn to work better as a team.” Other members of staff agreed and added other comments: “To find ways to use all of our talents.” “We build better working relationships.” “We break down the barriers between departments.” Suddenly, the atmosphere in the room was positive and the energy level rose significantly. People were enthusiastic and wanting to participate in creating a better future.

Next the conference leader outlined what they were going to do for the rest of the day. They were going to share examples with each other of what works in the organisation now. Then they were going to analyse these examples to identify the features that were present when they were successful, so that they could then repeat these in the future. One last question remained for Sandra and the group – would they be allowed to put into practice what they came up with, or would managers veto any proposals they did not like. The Managing Director responded immediately “We are here as equal partners in this process. We have grown the organisation over the past few years without changing the way we do things, and without thinking about the impact we have on others. I think this is a wonderful opportunity to focus on our strengths and start a new way of working together.”

So, with that commitment driving them forward, Sandra and all of the other members of staff started on a series of interviews with each other to identify their successes and what they valued about being part of the organisation. In small groups they then shared the themes and features of the stories, identifying the ones that seemed to be important. Sandra was struck by the fact that despite their very different backgrounds and jobs, they seemed to share many of the same characteristics and hopes. The final part of the process was to turn the list of important features into action. To do this the groups talked and dreamed about what could be, based on what has already happened, then created statements that would ensure that they established a climate that allowed them to do more of what works. The facilitator explained that the propositions or statements that they developed were grounded in the reality of what they already know and can do, and were therefore different from vision statements in that were often `blue sky' statements or wish lists that people found difficult to believe.

Sandra looked at her watch, and realised that they had come to the end of the session – never had four hours passed so quickly. She was already feeling positive about the future. She had been able to contribute, and her comments were valued and welcomed. She had learned a great deal about other people's jobs and responsibilities, and she discovered that they all had a lot in common. She had been amazed at how much agreement there was, especially between the staff and managers. She and her colleagues were enthusiastic about the future, and confident that they would be successful. And, not only had she found that she had learned a lot about what works in the organisation, she had also learned about a new way of looking at the world. From now on she would try to look at situations with an appreciative eye, to look at what works rather than what does not work, and to visualise success not failure. It would certainly help in discussions with her staff at work, it would help her to bring up her children; and who knows, she may even improve her tennis game.

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