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Exploring Appreciative Inquiry and the University Summit Concept as Frameworks for Following up on your LibQual+

(tm) DataJoan Cheverie, Georgetown University Libraries

Martha Kyrillidou, ARL

Positive Organizational ScholarshipWashington, DC

November 8-9, 2004

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“22 items and a box”

Martha KyrillidouAssociation of Research Libraries

Positive Organizational ScholarshipWashington, DC

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ARL New Measures InitiativeARL New Measures Initiative

• Collaboration among member leaders with strong interest in this area

• Specific projects developed with different models for exploration

• Intent to make resulting tools and methodologies available to full membership and wider community

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“22 items”

2000 2001 2002 200341-items 56-items 25-items 22-items

Affect of Service

Affect of Service

Service Affect Service Affect

Reliability Library as Place

Library as Place

Library as Place

Library as Place

Reliability Personal Control

Information Control

Provision of Physical Collections

Self-Reliance Information Access

Access to Information

Access to Information

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Survey Structure – Page 2(Detail View)

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Key to Radar Charts

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Key to Bar Charts

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LibQUAL+™ 2004 Summary Colleges or UniversitiesAmerican English

(n = 69,449)

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The Box

About 40% of participants provide open-ended

comments, and these are linked to demographics and

quantitative data.

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Exploring Appreciative Inquiry

Positive Organizational ScholarshipWashington, DC

November 8-9, 2004

Joan CheverieLauinger Library

Georgetown University

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Appreciative Inquiry (AI)

• A positive revolution in change.

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What is Appreciative Inquiry?

• AI is a methodology that allows leaders to focus on the positive instead of the negative.

• Rather than focusing on problems, AI elicits solutions.

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What is Appreciative Inquiry?

• Change Management theory - What problems are we having?

• Appreciative Inquiry theory - What is working around here?

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Problem Solving Model

• Identify problem

• Analyze causes

• Brainstorm solutions and analyze

• Develop action plans

• Assumption: An organization is a problem to be solved.

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Appreciative Inquiry

• Appreciating and valuing - What is

• Envisioning - What might be

• Discussing - What should be

• Innovating - What will be

• Assumption: An organization is a mystery to be embraced.

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Appreciative Inquiry Model

Discovery• Strategic Context

• Positive Core

Dream• Purpose

• Vision

Destiny• Structure

• Implement

Design• Relationships & Organization

4-Step Cycle

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How To Do It

• Begin with the topic.– If what we focus on is magnified by our

attention, be sure we are magnifying something worthy.

• Create the questions to explore the topic.– Focus on questions that will find out what

works.

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The Art of the Question

• What’s the biggest problem around here?

Rather …..

• What possibilities exist that we haven’t thought about yet?

• What’s the smallest change that could make the biggest impact?

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Basic Elements of the AI Question

• Positive introduction to the topic.

• Then questions such as:– Describe peak experience or high point– Things valued most about the experience– Image of desired future

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What Makes AI Questions Important?

• Positive language used

• Focus attention

• Create energy to answer

• Opportunity to think creatively

• Break automatic thinking about problems

• Alter internal dialogue and storytelling

• Specific positive future envisioned

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How To Do It

• Conduct the inquiry or interview.

• What to do with the information generated.– Share with larger group to discover common

themes of success.– An iterative process that takes time.

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Next Steps

• Provocative proposition– Does it stretch, challenge, innovate?– Grounded in examples?– Does it bridge the best of “what is” and “what

might be”?– Is it stated in affirmative, bold terms?

• Provocative proposition moves from individual will to group will, which achieves more than the sum of the individuals.

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Remember …

• Appreciative Inquiry does not work as a technique within the problem-solving model.

• Appreciative Inquiry is a transformative process because it helps us derive the future from reality.

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The Transforming Nature of AI

• We can see it, we know what it feels like, and we move to a collective, collaborative view of where we are going.

• Unlike other methodologies that can be recipes, the results are invented with experience that lead to innovation and to action.

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Resources

The Appreciative Inquiry Commons(http://www.appreciativeinquiry.org/)

Cooperrider, David L., et al. 2003. Appreciative Inquiry Handbook. Bedford Heights, OH: Lakeshore Communications, Inc.

Hammond, Sue Annis. 1998. The Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry. Bend, OR: Thin Book Publishing Co.

Whitney, Diana, et al. 2002. Encyclopedia of Positive Questions. Euclid, OH: Lakeshore Communications, Inc.