I was in Germany last week, working with a group of “high potential” European employees. Their organization had identified these professions for intensive leadership development. It was quite an event, beginning DOG SLEDDING as the team-building event the night before my session started. (Although a challenge for this Californian who doesn’t even own snow boots, it was great fun.)

During my program (on Creative Collaboration) I talked about Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as one of my favorite strategies for finding strengths and positive qualities that already exist in a team, and building on those.

AI was developed at Case Western Reserve University by David Cooperrider, professor of Organizational Behavior. I use my own version of AI - tailored for my clients and focused on collaboration and knowledge sharing. While I also work with gap analysis and After Action Reviews, I especially like AI’s shift from identifying problems to looking at successses.

AI can be used in a personal self-inquiry model, with questions such as:
• Think of a time in your career when you were the most engaged and collaborative.
• What were the circumstances/elements that made collaboration so successful?
• How could you replicate some of these circumstances/elements in other situations?

In a team setting, the leader sets the stage by stating the goal: “Our goal is to create a highly collaborative team experience.” Questions are posed to the whole team:
• When is it that this team is the most collaborative and engaged?
• What do we agree are our greatest strengths and successes?
• Building on these strengths, what would an ideal future look like?
• What are the principles and behaviors we need to focus on to make this future a reality?

If you haven't used this kind of process before, you may be amazed by the positive energy for change that it unleashes.