AI - It might not be what you think?

When we think about AI it often elicits a sense of either fear or excitement or maybe a touch of both - a lot of this is driven by what I see as two critical elements one being as with all new technology a limited understanding of what an AI enabled future looks like and two what does it mean for human interactions and our ability to connect at a meaningful human to human level without the intermediation provided by technology - having said the above my technology game is as thin as the finest rice paper - so, I thought I'd take us back in time and introduce us to what I consider to be the OG (Original Gangster for those of us over 50) AI and share why I think this model known as Appreciative Enquiry is as important to our future as humans as it's 21st century tech based name sake.

Appreciative Inquiry has it origins in the learnings delivered by American Professor and management consultant David Cooperrider and is a strengths-based learning and change model that focuses on leveraging the positive core attributes of people and organisations.

The model applies a 4-D Cycle of Discovery, Dream, Design and Destiny.

• Discovery - identify the strengths and the best of "what is" within the current situation. The skill to open up the discovery is in the crafting of a positive open question allowing for the recipient to frame a positive response - an open question might look like - What are the best elements of the processes we follow? The question invites the recipient to think about those elements and draw out the positives conclusions.
• Dream - following on from discovery and now being aware of the positive elements. The dream process can anchor to and build out from these positives elements and use this foundation to think about the greater and bigger positive possibilities ensuring that the direction of travel is both uplifting, expansionary and aspirational.
• Design - in this phase we can merge the successes of discovery with the aspirational elements of the dream and work towards designing the bridge that gets us across. Focussing on the prior achievements we can explore the demonstrated successes and look for repeatable aspects that can give life to "what might be" based on "what has already been achieved"
• Destiny - stepping through the process of Discovery, Dream and Design lays a solid foundation for the realisation of desired outcomes for all parties. We have identified the good that has been, we have dreamed about how it can be improved and we have designed what the process/actions steps are to further exceptional outcomes. Our destiny space also allows for an openness and flexibility to continuously learn, adjust accordingly whilst sharing the common goal of moving toward a positive future state.

Appreciative Inquiry is a very human framework that can not only be applied to the change programs within organisations it can also be used at the micro level to improve positive communication between individuals in organisational and everyday settings.

By simply taking a more curious view of your interactions and then using a positive based open question framework the chances to minimise conflict and open up opportunities grows - it also provides for and allows a circular approach that when needed can be taken back to the discovery phase to re-explore the best of "what is".

The Appreciative Inquiry approach fits nicely into the ENS process step of diagnosing needs.

To find out more about how the ENS negotiating and Influnece model can deliver better outcomes to your organisation feel free to reach out for a chat.