“Solving for Success” - One soldier’s simplified approach to Appreciative Inquiry.

Do team members and employees approach you with a plethora of problems, issues and complaints with the expectation that now that you have been informed you are responsible for fixing it and implementing change? (Of course they do!) In today’s busy work environment, it is common for individuals to conduct these “drive by drop-off’s” of unsolved issues at the desk of their managers and leaders in order to hurry back to their assigned tasks. The number of problems that need to be solved can pile up, becoming unmanageable, stressful, and creates ineffective and inefficient operations. Ultimately, the leaders feel overwhelmed, team members feel disillusioned, and as the problems persist the result is culture disassociation and low job satisfaction. So how do you change from problem focused to solution optimization?

One way is through Appreciative Inquiry, which focuses on the positive outcomes and leveraging the strengths of the individuals in order to implement change. Where problem solving usually starts at the end of an issue, Appreciative Inquiry tries to bring out the best in people to hedge off problems before they start. Sounds easy enough, right? If you have done any training or work with the concept of Appreciative Inquiry (AI), then you are likely aware that this concept is not an easy idea to present to team members or even managers. There are entire leadership courses dedicated to AI that often leave participants scratching their heads and confused. Rarely do these courses provide a road map as to how to implement this concept into the daily work environment. How do you explain AI to an employee who has just conducted a drive by drop-off? Chase him down the hall yelling “Wait Bob, I need you to think more positively about this and leverage your own strengths to fix this yourself!” Ok that might work in some cases, but mostly likely will result in an exasperated look of frustration or confusion from Bob.

Sometimes we need a simplified approach, hence, this idea of “Solving for Success.” I cannot take credit for this concept, it was something my husband implemented during one of his deployments and he shared the idea with me when I was running into problems at my own work. My husband Terry was serving as a team leader in Kosovo when he started using a form of Appreciative Inquiry wrapped up in a simple phrase “Solve for Yes.” Several of the missions that he and his team were responsible for conducting were done in a vacuum in which supplies and resources were hard to come by. Overseeing 400 soldiers, with an operation budget of $10 Million, responsible for millions of dollars’ worth of equipment, communications, and conducting patrols meant he had his hands full with every day leadership and operation tasks. When his team first set up operations, there were limited resources, equipment shortages, and outdated procedures. Daily, Terry heard back from his soldiers about the problems they were facing: Sir, we don’t have this and we can’t do that. The pile of problems and shortfalls began to pile up and the mission wasn’t getting done. Terry started guiding his team by replying back to them “I understand that you are telling me what we don’t have and what we cannot do, but tell me what we do have and how we can get to the end result. There are plenty of reasons for no, and so what are the ways we can Solve for Yes.” In other words, he taught his team to look at tasks based on the final desired outcome or larger objective. Maybe it couldn’t be completed the way it was originally conceived or directed, but if it could be completed in a different way than that is what he wanted his team to focus on.

He mentored them to make changes to their processes or behaviors that would not compromise safety or ethics but would still complete the task. He promoted cross training and knowledge utilization based on the strengths of his team members. He encouraged them to think outside of the box and to be resourceful. He empowered them to take back the problem-solving process and to be innovative.  After a while, whenever there was a problem he was able to shorten his guidance and simply say “Solve for Yes” and his team understood that they owned the solution. Change became much easier to manage and morale remained high even when things didn’t go as planned. Eventually, they stopped bombarding him with issues and problems and whenever his team created a new way to complete tasks and missions, they notified him that the changes were to “Solve for Yes.”

Thought innovators and those that study the art of leadership develop elegantly complicated leadership principals like Appreciative Inquiry. It is our job as leaders to find ways to implement these concepts in a real and meaningful way that achieves results and success. Leaders have to turn these concepts into something team members and employees can easily understand, recognize, implement, and repeat. For my husband, “Solve for Yes” became an easily repeatable phrase in which everyone understood the meaning of and when new members of the team came on board they could teach the concept to them. It became quotable and executable which is exactly what managers want from leadership principals.

Today in my own business, I have modified this phrase to “Solving for Success.” In my company, our structure is less rigid than the military and I don’t expect a ‘yes ma’am’ type outcome from my team members. We are still growing and evolving so I am more interested in progression than final destination. Ultimately, I am looking for the final outcome to be successful. Through innovation and autonomy, I am frequently amazed at the results my team achieves. There are times when the outcome is better than what was originally envisioned. So, we modified this term to fit our organization.

If you have been struggling with implementing Appreciative Inquiry in your organization, perhaps consider this more simplified approach:

1. What is the ideal outcome? Perhaps you have a specific goal you want to meet, but what if the ultimate outcome of that goal can be achieved through a different target or objective. Maybe the goal you set originally didn’t really achieve the desired outcome.
2. When have we done our best work? This is where you explore the talents and strengths of your team. When did they perform at a high level to achieve something. Usually it isn’t the tools or resources they had that helped them with this – it was the inter-dynamics of the group and creative implementation. Remind them of the assets they already possess.  
3. How do we change our thoughts and our behaviors so that we can reach success? You may need to create new processes or procedures. For managers that are controlling, you might need to ease up on the reigns a little!
4. Create a shared vision of how to move forward – everyone owns it and can repeat it. As a team you may decide to set new goals.

For my husband, using Appreciative Inquiry was a way to create a team that ultimately accomplished the mission, worked together, and had high morale. By the end of the deployment, whenever there was a challenging mission he would turn to his team and ask them “Can we get it done?” and the response was always “YES!”