5.

1 The 4D Cycle

[MUSIC] Our work with this appreciative inquiry method has caused us to reach three big
conclusions about being a successful change leader. So, on this slide, I put out all three; and in
this session, we're going to focus a lot on the first one. So, one is having a Guiding Change
Platform that provides a shared roadmap for people. In other words, kind of a constant referral to,
where are we in a process? Where we've been, what's coming next. So the people see the pathway
toward outcomes or anticipated future changes. The second one is the skill what we call
management of continuity. This may come as a surprise to many, but it's just as important to pay
attention to what does not change in a change process as it does to focus on what's going to
change. People cannot change, they will not change, unless they can hold on to something, so that
there's a sense of constancy or continuity, while things are changing. And then the third thing we
discovered is that change leaders need tools or skills at creating what we called an imbalance of
hope and inspiration over despair and deficit in your conversations, in your interactions
throughout a change process. So we're going to talk about each one of these. In this session, we're
going to focus on this first one, a Guiding Change Platform. So the most typical way that
appreciative inquiry is illustrated Is with this cycle, referred to often as the 4D cycle. In a few
cases, it's the 5D cycle, and the middle is called definition of the topic or the focus. But it begins
with a topic. What is it that we're going to do the appreciative inquiry on? What is it that we're
going to study so that by studying it we start learning and learning promotes the change? And of
course in appreciative inquiry the topic is intentionally worded affirmatively. So it's not a gap
reduction, it's not making something go away. It's what is it that we want to be? What is we want
to become or what is it we want to be able to do in the future? So we have the affirmative topic
choice, and we'll talk about examples of that and how you get it. That leads to the beginning of
the inquiry. So from the affirmative topic, you decide who all needs to come together to talk
about that. Who needs to be in the room? Whose voices need to be party to an inquiry into that
topic. And we move into what we call the discovery phase. The intention of the discovery is not
to talk about the future yet, but to actually go in the past, and reconnect or discover what gives
life to when we are at our best? So, this is where we are appreciating our context. We're looking
for what is it that's already here that should be valued. And we do it by the interview questions
that you have already experienced. You can have a team together, you can have a whole work
department or a larger group of stakeholders the size doesn't matter. And you start by pairing
them off and having them share stories about their best past experiences with the topic, stories
about what is it they think are the core factors that need to be carried forward, the core success
factors, and also a future question. But in the discovery part, we leave the future question for a
moment and we just look at the first two or three questions that have to do with best past
experiences. We have people interview one on one, then we put pairs together, maybe in groups
of six or groups of eight, and we have them share, what were the common factors, underlying
success factors in their stories. And there's always common factors. Not everything will be in
common, but somebody in sales talking to somebody in the warehouse, they will have common
elements in their high point stories, in their best past stories related to the topic. And that, those
commonalities began to build what we referred to as the core strengths. And that's the base, that's
the foundation now that we're going to then ask people to dream about the future. When people
reconnect with their strengths, in the discovery phase, they see new possibilities almost
immediately. So their whole concept of the future broadens and becomes more daring, more of a
stretch, less incremental. Then we move to the dream stage, so now we go to the future question.
And again, the pairs talk to other pairs and we begin to look for, where are shared images about
the ideal future, or just unusual but very attractive imagery that might of come up in one pair.
Nobody else mentioned it, but once it was shared, everybody gloms on to it. It's just that exciting.
So again, the pairs stay together but they join other pairs and they look for what are the most
attractive future images that came up in the discussion initially, and now as a group, we develop
even further. And then we share the images that are most attractive to our group, our two or three
pairs, to the rest of the people in the room. So now you've filled the room with a lot of positive
imagery. You don't pick one you don't vote on one. The move from dream to designs is a shift to
imagery to actionable ideas. So the last question you ask in the dream phase, after everybody has
shared their images and they've filled the room with different imagery about possible future
related to the topic. Then the question is, now at these groups of pairings, these sixes or eights or
maybe four in some cases. What are actionable ways you can list that would move us toward the
ideal images that are most attractive to you? And we build what we call an opportunity map. Just
a whole lot, like a brain storm, of actionable ideas. Then we vote. Then everybody has a chance
to say, which of these actionable ideas would give us the biggest bang for the buck? Or, would
make the biggest difference in the shortest amount of time? Or, if we can only, really, staff two of
these, which two should they be? So the whole group gets to prioritize the actionable ideas and
the ones that raise up that get prioritized, become the new design targets. So there's a very
important shift between dream and design, where when you get these priority actionable ideas,
everybody then gets up and votes with their feet. They go to the one that they most want to help
make happen. And then they start what we call the design process. Design includes action-
planning, it includes process mapping sometimes. Sometimes it includes defining roles and
relationships as we move forward. And it actually includes design, creating prototypes, doing
brainstorming and creating rapid prototypes of some part of your intended change effort. Then we
move to destiny, which is the declaration of the whole change initiative. We had an actionable
idea. A certain number of people gathered around that, because they were most interested in it.
They developed an aspiration or a goal statement. They developed action steps, moving forward
from this meeting. They developed prototypes, and now they're pronouncing it. They're
announcing their commitment to implement that change initiative. So destiny is any number of
change initiatives related to the topic that are ready to be implemented. The two arrows you see at
the top there, most typically the change initiatives then move off into their own scenarios. Their
own continual learning and adaptation. Sometimes, the change effort leads to a whole new cycle
of appreciative inquiry. A more deep dive into a specific aspect of a range of actionable ideas.
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