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Facilitator: Indrani Choudhury, CPsychol
Date: 11th September 2007
Location: British Psychological Society London Office, Tabernacle Street, London
'The art of crafting questions is crucial.’ Bringing an Appreciative Inquiry (AI) approach to co-constructing her workshop, Indrani Choudhury suggests that instead of asking ‘What are the difficulties of having such a large group?’, a more powerful question would be: ‘What would we have done today that would make you tingle with enthusiasm?’
She describes AI as ‘a powerful, purposeful method of change, with roots in positive psychology’, and points out that, while the approach looks for ‘the life-giving forces of a system’, it is not simply ‘wishful thinking. We work from what is there: It engages the whole system. Data from the past is analysed for common themes (including data from the client’s conversations with selected colleagues).’ This establishes ‘What is’. The client then articulates ‘What will be’ and ideas are put into practice. These are energised with ‘stories, metaphors, vivid descriptions, doodles, provocative statements.’
While doing all this, we need to be aware that ‘what we focus on creates reality’ Five principles apply.
1. The Positive Principle
Positive questions amplify the positive core; and momentum for change requires positive affect and social bonding.
2. The Constructionist Principle
This includes the power of language (‘inappropriately worded questions can reinforce the client’s defence mechanisms, while we need to by-pass these’), and social context in which individuals and groups create their perceived reality.
3. The Poetic Principle
Which acknowledges that reality is fluid and that the same event or story can have endless interpretive possibilities.
4. The Simultaneity Principle
The moment we begin to ask a question is the moment we begin to make a change: inquiry is intervention
5. The Anticipatory Principle
Humans move in the direction of their images; Indrani Choudhury uses imagery of balloons tied to their arms to convince clients of this. This may be linked to ‘mirror neurons’ (Rizzolatti, 2004) which in primates are known to fire both when an animal acts and when the animal observes the same action performed by another. In humans, brain imaging experiments (using functional magnetic resonance imaging) have shown that the inferior frontal cortex and superior parietal lobe are active both when the person performs an action and also when the person sees another individual performing an action. Therefore, some researchers conclude that these brain regions are likely to contain mirror neurons (e.g. Fadiga et al., 1995).
David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastava (1987) developed the fundamental ideas behind AI at Case Western University as an Organisation Development method; application of the process to the individual is a more recent development. Under the guidance of his advisor, Dr Srivastava, David Cooperrider, a doctoral student in 1980, had the insight to shift from the identification and analysis of what was working and not working in a clinic he was studying to a focus on the identification of the factors that were contributing to the clinic's effectiveness. This became seen as the start of a paradigm shift in understanding organisational systems.
Indrani Choudhury leads her AI workshop participants through energising pair coaching exercises bringing to life the 4-D Model of Appreciative Coaching also outlined in Orem, Blinkert and Clancy (2007), in which the following three steps form a continuing cycle for coach and client:
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Discover: Appreciating that which gives life.
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Dream: Creating shared images of a preferred future.
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Deliver: Sustain the change.
Feedback from exercises suggested this form of strengths-based enquiry resulted in outcomes and learning not only for whoever was the ‘client’ but also for the ‘coach’, including a positive impact on motivation.
Broaden-and-Build
Indrani Choudhury refers extensively to the higher motivation and wider possibilities generated by a positive outlook and accompanying emotions.
In Appreciative Inquiry Coaching the focus on strengths and possibilities builds positive emotions while the questions of the coach further serve to expand the thought-action repertoires.
Jennifer Liston-Smith
SGCP Conference & Events Correspondent
References
Bateson, G. (1972). Steps to an ecology of mind: Collected essays in anthropology, psychiatry, evolution, and epistemology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Cooperrider, D.L. & Srivastva, S. (1987). Appreciative inquiry in organizational life. Research in Organizational Change & Development, 1, 129-169.
de Shazer, S., Berg, I.K., Lipchik, E., Nunnally, E. et al. (1986). Brief therapy: Focused solution development. Family Process, 25(2), June, 207-221.
Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L., Pavesi, G. & Rizzolatti, G. (1995). Motor facilitation during action observation: A magnetic stimulation study. J. Neurophysiol, 73(6), June, 2608-2611.
Fredrickson, B.L. & Branigan, C.A. (2005). Positive emotions broaden the scope of attention and thought-action repertoires. Cognition and Emotion, 19, 313-332.
Orem, S.L,, Blinkert, J. & Clancy, A.L. (2007). Appreciative coaching: A positive process for change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Rizzolatti G. & Craighero L. (2004). The mirrorneuron system. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 27, 169-192.
Watzlawick, P. & Weakland, J.H. (Eds.) (1977). The interactional view: Studies at the Mental Research Institute, Palo Alto, 1965-1974. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
This review appeared as an article in the The Coaching Psychologist Volume 4, Issue 2
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