Page 70 - Appreciative Leadership

The Wisdom of Inquiry 43

Together the three parts of an appreciative question establish
focus, build rapport, and identify results-oriented patterns of success.
To learn more about how to craft Appreciative Inquiry questions,

we suggest you read The Power of Appreciative Inquiry. This book pro-
vides a clear overview of the Appreciative Inquiry process in action,
along with a bevy of practical and useful tools for applying Appreciative
Inquiry in organization and community settings.

Inquiry: The Fast Track to Engagement,
Risk Taking, and Results

Inquiry is the most direct, simplest, and fastest way to foster engagement
and generate responsibility for the future. Asking a question is an act of
engagement. Listening to people’s ideas and opinions validates people,
supporting the only real kind of empowerment—self-empowerment.

When leaders discover and affirm people’s strengths and potential con-

tributions, they demonstrate confidence and inspire self-responsibility.
When asked to share their ideas and opinions, people get engaged

and commit to action. The more that people are invited to contribute
their thoughts, ideas, and opinions, the more they will contribute both
actions and results. Asking leads to action. Leading with positively pow-
erful questions is a way to accelerate engagement and energize teams,
departments, and whole organizations to make a positive diff erence.
In our work as executive coaches, we frequently hear frustration
about the lack of engagement and responsibility in organizations.

Executives spend significant amounts of money on employee engage-
ment surveys, only to learn what they already knew: that their work-
force is neither engaged in nor committed to the organization and its
goals, strategy, and leadership. When we ask these executives what

they have been doing to stimulate engagement, we often discover that
they have been preaching rather than practicing engagement.
Telling adults what to do does not motivate them. Telling people
to be empowered, to take ownership, to be responsible, or to have