1.5 - About University

✔✔Real communication is possible only when groups value their differences.The language we use influences our reality—the way we see things. Leaders who lookfor problems will find problems. Leaders who look for successes will find successes.“… three umpires disagreed on the tack of calling balls and strikes. The first one says, ‘I call them as they is.’The second one says, ‘I calls them as I see them.’ The third and cleverest umpire says, ‘They ain’t nothing ‘till Icalls them.’”—H. W. SimonsAppreciative inquiry differs from traditional visioning work in that the envisioned futureis grounded in past and current successes. In this way, the system maintains the best of the pastby articulating what has been achieved, then continuing and adapting these successes into thefuture.H OW TO USE THIS LEADERSHIP TOOL“While traditional problem-solving processes separate, dissect, and pull apart, appreciative inquiry processesgenerate affirming images which integrate, synthesize, and pull people together.”—Tom Pitman and Gervase Bushe, OD PRACTITIONERAn organization has been through a number of tremendous changes in a period of three years:a merger, a restructuring, and an accompanying downsizing. People have become disillusionedat even the hint of further change. Yet you, as a leader, have been told, and you know instinctively,that further change is needed. Instead of using the traditional leadership processes thathave been used over the past three years (asking, “What problems are you having?”; focusingon deficiencies; defining problems; and fixing what’s broken), you may want to use appreciativeinquiry (asking, “What’s working well around here?”; multiplying hope and energy by surfacingthe organization’s history of success).WEB WORKSHEETUse the workspace provided here to plan your approach to a difficult organizational issue usingan appreciative inquiry process.How might you approach the system (the group, department, and so on) in order to:• Build working relationships with group members?SECTION 5 TOOLS FOR LEADING CHANGE 167