A Calling for Change
Author: Pamela Babcock
Society for Human Resource Management
Date: 09/01/2005
Volume: 50
Issue: 9
Annotation: Seeing a Brighter Future
At Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Kathy Brooks uses Appreciative Inquiry (AI), a dialogue-based model of positive organizational change developed by David L. Cooperrider, a professor at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
“It’s a great business tool and has unlimited applications,” Brooks says. “I’ve seen people go in and start changing things just for change’s sake, and it is much more productive to stand back and learn about the organization, understand what’s working, and implement change in a way that can be embraced by everyone.”
The AI model has four components that encourage companies to take a positive view of their system before implementing initiatives. For example, the 620-employee coffee roaster doesn’t use the turnover rate as a measure, but rather looks at the retention rate because “it’s a more positive vision that frames what we want to achieve,” Brooks says.
First, the model invites people from all areas of an organization to discover the best traits and strengths through a process called “discovery.” The goal is to explore what’s working by asking questions like, “What does it look like when the company achieves a 99 percent call center answer rate?” vs. “Why aren’t we getting that other 1 percent?”
In the second phase, “dream,” creativity is used in group exercises to expand people’s thinking beyond normal possibilities and to use strengths of the organization that have been identified to envision the future.
Third, groups of all levels of employees and often external stakeholders begin to develop plans in the “design” phase through a collaborative process and deep thinking about how resources can be applied to make the collective dreams come true for the company, Brooks says.
In the final phase, “destiny,” everyone works to find ways to fulfill the identified goals by asking, “How do we sustain the change in the organization?” Brooks says.
—Pamela Babcock
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Online Article: A Calling for Change
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