University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
Appreciative Inquiry for Change Management
Book

Appreciative Inquiry for Change Management

Using AI to Facilitate Organizational Development

Sarah Lewis, Jonathan Passmore and Stefan Cantore
Kogan Page, 2012
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Editorial Rating

7

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  • Applicable

Recommendation

As anyone who has worked in a large enterprise knows, organizations often fail to acknowledge and leverage the human side in their change initiatives, and they struggle mightily as a result. Psychologists Sarah Lewis and Jonathan Passmore, and consultant Stefan Cantore offer an overview of a variety of conversation-based change management methods in use today, with a particular focus on “Appreciative Inquiry” (AI). Because people create and exist in organizations, these collectives suffer the same conflict, chaos and endless complexity that human beings do, so it makes sense to bring human sensibilities into the business world. Though AI may strike some as pop psychology, this manual shows how it’s already at work in major businesses worldwide and how it can help your organization. getAbstract recommends it to any leader, manager, coach or consultant interested in alternative approaches to change management.

Summary

Why Change?

The Industrial Revolution brought profound change to society and to work. The mass migration from farm to factory introduced the need to manage large groups of employees doing routine, repetitive tasks. In the early 20th century, engineer Frederick Taylor popularized “scientific management” – the study of efficiency and productivity in the workforce. Companies adopted his approach, which posited the organization as a machine managing its staff through logic, directives and fear. Such top-down decision making worked in factories and assembly lines for many decades until the workplace shifted again, this time from the factory floor to the office tower.

Modern organizations still retain inappropriate vestiges of “Taylorism.” Some, for example, hang on tenaciously to the “command and control” style of leadership, coercing worker participation with rewards and penalties rather than inspiring employees through passion and purpose. Organizations plan and problem solve, measure endlessly and emphasize productivity while suppressing emotions, all in an effort to rationalize, optimize and analyze each element of a business. These methods, often unsuited to the 21st...

About the Authors

Sarah Lewis and Jonathan Passmore are occupational psychologists and consultants. Stefan Cantore is a consultant in leadership and organizational development.

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