Page 81 - Appreciative Leadership

54 Appreciative Leadership

each other. You will be amazed by the amount of commonality previ-
ously estranged people discover. You will be amazed by the spontane-
ous restoration of relationships that occurs. And you will be amazed
by the ease with which collaboration emerges.

Creating a Culture of Inquiry

Appreciative Leadership fosters a culture of full-voice, high-engage-
ment inquiry. Meetings begin with positive questions. Analysis of
the root causes of success is the norm. All stakeholders are regularly
invited to participate in the Appreciative Inquiry processes of strate-

gic signifi cance. Affirmative topics are chosen such as first to market,

green product development, sustainable manufacturing, health care
reform, or collaborative advantage. And once the topics are selected,
hundreds or even thousands of people participate in the Appreciative
Inquiry 4-D process:

• Discovery: Together they identify strengths and core competencies,
and they “map the organization’s positive core.”

• Dream: They collectively envision positive possibilities for the
future, articulate a shared vision, and select strategic opportunities
to focus on.

• Design: They create aspiration statements for each opportunity

and design the processes and structures needed to achieve them.

• Destiny: They scope out a collaborative path forward and make
personal commitments to contribute their strengths and resources
to realize their shared aspirations.

By championing organization-wide inquiry on topics of strategic
significance, Appreciative Leadership sets learning and innovation in

motion. By inviting and including all of the organization’s stakehold-
ers, appreciative leaders ensure that the knowledge, ways of working,
and aspirations that are generated are meaningful to everyone.