Appreciative Analysis of Practices “Everything you pay attention to grows”

What is Wanda? (Valuing – Analyzing – Doing)  Co-reflection method (group) (Bove, 2009; Mortari, 2009)  Critical analysis of practices from different perspectives

Goal Gaining new insights and new practices → improving quality for children, families, staff (wellbeing) through a reflection process

Wanda in practice

Wanda = 5 steps to reflect on a situation from different perspectives Within one session of 1,5 -2 hours – every 4-6 weeks A guided process by a facilitator Working on confidentiality and safety (process) Accentuating professional and institutional change Part of a bigger process

Phase 1: Looking back  What do we still remember about the last session?  What did we learn from the session?  Did we put anything in practice?  Contributor  Group  Only applicable after the group has already done at least one previous session

Phase 2: Selecting a case  Situation that “moved/surprised/shocked” something inside the person  Concrete case (like explaing a photograph)  The group decides which case will be handled  Urgency  Group value  The contributor is the “owner” of the case and has a specific question (can still be undefined in this phase)

Phase 3: Questioning  Explorative open questions ( who, where, what, when, how ) to make the case more clear  Questions about all the people involved and the context  No interpretation or judgment  Try to find out why the contributor selected this case, what is his need?  We don’t change the others, we change our perspective on the situation  Try to define the positive learning question of the contributor

Phase 4: Collecting ideas  What are the possible different perspectives, usefull in this case?  Use glasses, or any other method to help participants to take the position of somebody else  What are all the possible different hypothesis’s  It is not about who is right or wrong  Contributor listens

Phase 5: Giving various kinds of advise  New possible ways to proceed with this situation  Advice on different levels:  To the contributor,  To the team,  To the organisation  Not ‘the’ solution but opportunities to explore  Contributor chooses which advices he wants to put into action