The appreciative interview is a potent tool which serves to impulse change in organizations
The team of appreciative facilitators of Madavi, the YES Company, have just finished carrying out appreciative interviews with 67 directors regarding their learnings in an unknown situation such as the one lived during the pandemic, with really interesting results.
Download the document regarding these learnings
What is an appreciative interview?
The use of appreciative interviews to transform organizations has become today a worldwide phenomenon, especially in English speaking countries. But what is an appreciative interview? The appreciative interview is the art of posing questions that stimulate the positive potential of people and organizations.
We often analyze the situation of a Company or of a concrete situation with questions such as « What went wrong? » « What did we fail to do? »… These questions, focusing on the problem, deepen the error rather than find solutions.
If we put the focus on detecting problems, these grow, multiplying and solidifying. It is the paradigm of deficit, of scarcity, of what we do not want. But when we study the best moments, what we call in Madavi the “summit experiences”, these also multiply and grow.
This is the base of Appreciative Inquiry, developed by David Cooperrider and his colleagues at Case Western University, as a methodology to transform organizations and teams.
Fernando Iglesias, CEO at Madavi, with Cooperrider.
Appreciative Inquiry is to transform the culture and business of organizations in a simultaneous manner. It is based on a simple premise: Companies grow and develop at a greater speed as long as they investigate that which they DO have and what they DO want instead of investigating their problems.
To put this strategy into practice it is fundamental to inquire, that is to say, to search more deeply into the strengths of each, team or organization. Ask.
The questions lead to action and create change. And asking and change go hand in hand in a simultaneous and permanent process.
We find the path to success when we ask the questions that lead to this success. Because questions are what stimulate our thinking and provoke the results.
The appreciative interview is a very powerful tool to explore the potential of people and transform the culture of organizations.
