1 Rethinking What Gives Life to Organizational Transformation Ronald E. Fry, Ph.D. Department of Organizational Behavior Case Western Reserve University

2 Appreciative Inquiry A collaborative search to identify and understand the organization ’ s strengths, its ’ potentials, the greatest opportunities, and people ’ s hopes for the future.

3 What is AI? Learn from the “best of the our past” to envision our future Celebrate and exploit our “Positive Core” Create bold, positive images of our future to drive organizational change Work together on ideas that most attract us

4 Who’s Using It? US Navy British Airways Roadway Express MacDonalds Dalai Lama Nutrimental (Brazil) Palestine/Jewish Entrepreneurs Avon Mexico American Red Cross Cleveland Public Schools

5 Los 5 Principios de “AI” El Principio Construccionista - El Principio Construccionista - Organizations move in the direction of what they most talk about. El Principio de Simultaneidad - El Principio de Simultaneidad - Change begins with the first question you ask. El Principio Poético - El Principio Poético - Anything can be studied in every social system. El Principio de Anticipación - El Principio de Anticipación - Deep change = change in our active images of the future. El Principio Positivo - El Principio Positivo - The more positive the anticipatory image, the more positive the change.

6 2 Key Questions… 2 Key Questions… What, in this particular context, has made (organizing) possible? 2. What possibilities exist, latent or explicit, to have even more effective forms of (organizing) in the future?

7 Background: US Navy: 6 AI Summits since 12/ persons each 3.5 to 4 days each Seaman to Admiral; External Stakeholders System-wide and community- centered Chief Naval Operations Family Services Third Fleet Command Ship Informational Professional Community - 2 Naval Reserves

8 Classic Leading of Change Unfreezing:Establish Urgency Form Coalition to Guide Changing:Create Vision Communicate Vision Empower Others to Act Plan/Create Short-term Success Refreezing:Consolidate Successes Eliminate Barriers Intro. New Opportunities Institutionalize New Approaches Decide…………Advocate…………Defend

9 Discovery Opportunity & Call Positive Core History Discovery Opportunity & Call Positive Core History Dream New Story Provocative Aspirations Dream New Story Provocative Aspirations Design 1 yr. Targets Actionable steps Design 1 yr. Targets Actionable steps Destiny People &Actions Learning & Improvisation Destiny People &Actions Learning & Improvisation AI Summit “4-D” Cycle Affirmative Topic:

10 An Emerging View… Unleashing Positive Change Affirmative Dislodgement of Certainty Elaborating the Positive Core Synchronous Experience of Positive Affect Centrifugal Processes of Attunement Tapping into “Passages” (Powley, 2002) Separation Initiation (Liminality) Aggregation (Reincorporation)

11 Propositions from our Experiences with AI Summits: Positive change begins with an Appreciative Dislodgement of Certainty Holistic (Re)Discovery through voice and storytelling Separation (Turner, 1969): detachment of the person either from a fixed point in social structure or a set of cultural conditions (a ‘state’)

12 Propositions… Elaboration of the “Cooperative Core” Creates a Holding Environment that Encourages Experimentation and Enables Further Exploration of the Unknown Positive Core is always rooted in cooperative acts Psychological Safety Experience of “Liminality” (Turner) – Transition between stable states; subjects are passengers through unknown territory where significant knowledge is revealed through sacred stories. Connection to “Communitas” (Turner)

13 What would you call it? (all these things taken together) Achievements Strategic opportunities Cooperative Moments Technical assets Innovations Elevated thoughts Community assets Positive emotions Community wisdom Core competencies Visions of possibility Vital traditions, values Social capital Embedded knowledge Financial assets

14 The “Positive Core” The “Positive Core” Complete Organizational Wealth— ”Well-being” An Incredible Energy Source of Continuity

15 Propositions… Synchronous Experiences of Positive Affect Generate Interest in Shared Possibilities Positive sentiment from AI conversations stimulates non- required activity and more interaction (self-organizing). (Homans, 1950) Cathartic Commitment derives from frame of mind and emotionality in which it is received; the Affirmative Topic offers a ‘business case’ and the Appreciative Inquiry interactions create positive affect (Sekerka, 2002)

16 Whole Organizational Connection to the “Positive Core” Elevates:elicits positive emotions of hope, inspiration, confidence, joy; raises intelligence; expands the language of life (internal dialogue); increases in appreciative interchange and mutually elevating relationships; heightens creativity, ignites decision making, increases collective capacity. Elevates: elicits positive emotions of hope, inspiration, confidence, joy; raises intelligence; expands the language of life (internal dialogue); increases in appreciative interchange and mutually elevating relationships; heightens creativity, ignites decision making, increases collective capacity. “Undoes” Negative Impacts: releases, makes irrelevant, finishes the residual of negative past. Protects: Increases health, resilience, accumulation of power - like an increase in immune system functioning.

17 The Idea of Positive Change  Any form of organization change, re-design, or planning that begins with comprehensive analysis of an organization’s “positive core” and then links this knowledge to the heart of any strategic change agenda.  Because human systems move toward what they persistently ask questions about, positive change involves the deliberate discovery of everything that gives a system “life” when it is most effective in economic and human terms.  Link the positive core directly to any strategic agenda, and changes never thought possible are more rapidly mobilized while simultaneously building enthusiasm, corporate confidence, and human energy.

18 Propositions… Acts of Positive Change are Spread and Sustained through Centrifugal Processes of Attunement Process of Inclusion; widening circles of dialogue about possibilities (Fry & Srikantia, 2000) Center-out (vs. top-down) Improvisational dynamics (Barrett, 2000) in egalitarian context

19 Call for an Appreciative Declaration of Faith Positive Change is fostered through an appreciative declaration of faith in the universal goodness of human groups and organizations. Recurring voice of possibility: James, Barnard, McGregor, Frankl…

Pioneering Research Across Many Fields Pioneering Research Across Many Fields An Emerging Vocabulary of “Positive Change”

21 Placebo Effect: Pygmalion Effect: The Role of Positive Emotions? Imbalanced “Inner Dialogue” Cultural Consequences Learned Affirmative Capacity Many Disciplines Positive Images of Future Drives Positive Change

22 What Good are Positive Emotions? JOY Play INTERESTExploration CONTENTMENTSavor & Integrate LOVEAll of the above Positive Emotions broaden our thought and action repertories… B. Frederickson

23 Empirical Support In the moment, Positive Emotions: Broaden Attention and Thinking (Fredrickson & Branigan, 2002; Waugh & Fredrickson, in prep) Undo Lingering Negative Emotional Arousal (Fredrickson & Levenson, 1998; Fredrickson, Mancuso, Branigan & Tugade, 2000) Fuel Resilient Coping (Fredrickson, Tugade, Waugh & Larkin, 2002; Tugade & Fredrickson, 2002)

24 Empirical Support Over time, Positive Emotions: Prevent depression (Fredrickson, Tugade, Waugh, & Larkin, 2002) Trigger Upward Spirals to Increase Well- being (Fredrickson & Joiner, 2002; Tugade & Fredrickson, 2002) Build optimism, tranquility, and resilience (Fredrickson, Tugade, Waugh, & Larkin, 2002)

25 Inquiry into The Appreciable World Advancing Expansion of Relatedness Low & Universal Capacity High Initiating w A Theory of Positive Organizational Change Elevation of Inquiry Fusion of Strength Activation of Energy