From the moment Jason entered my office, I could tell something was amiss. I knew he had taken some recent losses in his account, but at a hedge fund that was not necessarily a big problem and I knew he was profitable on the year. But big problem was written all over him. His brow was furrowed, his shoulders slightly slumped. He plopped down on the sofa and let loose with a barrage of questions. "Why do I keep making the same mistakes? What is wrong with me? Every time I get a good idea, a headline comes out and I'm stopped out. Can I really be that bad?"
I was tempted to respond to his questions, but held myself back. The problem was not a lack of answers, but the questions he was asking--and his lack of awareness of his own query process. He was inquiring, but it was more of a Spanish Inquisition than an appreciative inquiry. What Jason didn't realize is that our answers are shaped by our questions. He came to me hoping for answers, but what he needed was a different frame and mode of inquiry.
The Power Of Questions
Citing David Cooperrider, Michelle McQuaid has written about how each of our actions is preceded by a question. Take a very simple example: We wake up in the morning and might immediately check our email and begin chipping away at the day's to-do list. That seems constructive and productive. The question we're implicitly asking is, "What can I get done now?" Our focus is on doing and whittling down that list.
Imagine, however, that we start the day by asking questions such as:
- "What one important thing am I going to achieve today?"
- "How can I best contribute to my team today?"
- "How can I maximize my energy level throughout the day?"
- "What one special thing can I do for my spouse today?"
- "What will I do today that will push my boundaries and make me grow?"
Notice that these questions are not implicit. They frame one's use of time, and they begin with overarching priorities and values. When the implicit question is about "What can I get done now?", we are pushed by the demands of the present. When the question is "What will make today special?", we are pulled toward our priorities.
Jason's questions are both reactive--responding to recent frustrations--and negative. Asking why you are so bad cannot lead to answers that make you feel good. As McQuaid observes, in a very important sense, our realities are shaped by the questions we ask.
When our questions are implicit, we are not aware of how we are shaping our reality. We are much more likely to act on habit than conscious intent. In my forthcoming book, a topic that I emphasize is that we cannot achieve excellence in any facet of our lives without committing acts of excellence in our daily lives. A string of ordinary efforts does not result in the extraordinary: ordinary workouts will not result in becoming a weightlifting champion; years of ordinary driving won't culminate in our dominating the race track. When our implicit questions ask about "good enough", is it any wonder that we fail to achieve "better than"? And, if like Jason, our questions focus on shortcomings, can we truly expect great things to be forthcoming?
Want to know about yourself as a questioner? Look at your daily planner. If it's not in your doing, it doesn't become part of you. A string of routine tasks on our calendar leads to routine days, not breakthrough achievements.
Want to know about your organization? Look at your business meetings; look at your employee evaluations. As David Cooperrider emphasizes, if we are not concentrating on our strengths and asking questions about opportunities, are we likely to reach breakthroughs? No amount of micromanagement brings us to successful macromanagement.
What Is Appreciative Inquiry?
Appreciative inquiry (AI) has two important elements: becoming mindful of the questions we ask and directing those questions toward strengths and positive outcomes.
Solution-focused counseling can be viewed as a form of AI, in which we ask questions based upon the reverse-engineering of our successful experience. Our trader Jason was frustrated by his recent losses, but was nicely profitable on the year. He obviously had to be doing some things right. Solution-focused work would ask him to reflect upon the ways he has made money. From his successes, he could begin to abstract best practices--and those could lead to fresh, proactive questions.
AI also finds expression within teams and broad organizations, as Cooperrider notes. The Appreciating People group describes a 5D cycle that embraces AI:
- Definition - selecting the right topic;
- Discovery - focusing on the best within that topic domain;
- Dream - envisioning possibilities;
- Design - creating prototypes of what should be;
- Destiny/Delivery - innovating and improvising fresh solutions.
Suppose I point out to Jason that, at times, he engages financial markets with world-class talent and process. That definition of his results leads naturally to discovering his best practices; dreaming of how those could be extended; designing those practices as robust processes, and then delivering them as quality-based checklists in subsequent trading.
Imagine, on the other hand, a coaching session devoted to addressing the questions that Jason brings to the office. By focusing on why he is so hapless, we would never get to the point of best practices.
It is no coincidence that appreciate inquiry begins with defining relevant issues. Research observes that highly creative people are good problem-finders: they ask incisive questions, focus on promising observations, and thus arrive at better answers. In no small measure, AI is creativity applied to individuals and organizations. The focus away from routine and away from weaknesses leads to fresh questions and answers about assets and strengths.
Appreciate Inquiry And Leadership
By now we are all familiar with Gallup's findings of low levels of engagement among the majority of employees. Quite simply, the majority of workers do not feel personally connected to the missions of their organizations. This results in diminished productivity and lower levels of customer satisfaction.
Consider the leadership embedded within three employee evaluation processes:
- The benign neglect policy - No news is good news; evaluations are pro forma annual exercises that are filed away, rarely if ever referred to, but used to possibly justify occasional bonuses, raises, and promotions.
- The whip 'em into shape policy - Evaluations are used as tools to highlight employee shortcomings and areas for needed improvement. They serve a warning function and may be used to eventually justify terminations of employment.
- The appreciative policy - Evaluations are used to highlight positive areas of employee performance and anchor concrete goal-setting to maximizing strengths and using those to shore up weaknesses. The evaluation is prospective, collaborative, and hands-on rather than retrospective, unilateral, and pro forma.
It isn't difficult to imagine which form of leadership will result in the greatest employee engagement. What is difficult to imagine is that an organization can achieve visionary goals if there is no vision in managing human resources.
Successful leadership, from an AI perspective, embeds that 5D cycle throughout organizational processes, from the setting of strategy to the management of employees. No number of management coaches and consultants can help us achieve positive results if we lack awareness of the questions that premise our behavior.
The implications are clear: The questions we ask become our tasks. Our directions are shaped by our inquiries.
