Abstract:

Aim:
The presentation will illustrate the usefulness of an appreciative inquiry (AI) approach and design in bringing about change. It reports on a case study of a review of a school within a UK higher education context using AI to engage staff, assess the need for change and make recommendations on this basis.

Background
Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a model for analysis, decision-making and the creation of strategic change, particularly within companies and other organizations. Initially developed by Cooperider and Shrivastva (1990), they felt that the overuse of "problem solving" as a model often held back analysis and understanding, focusing on problems and limiting discussion of new organizational models.
Although often used as a research strategy, the appreciative mode of inquiry often relies on interviews to qualitatively understand the organization's potential strengths by looking at an organization's experience and its potential; the objective is to elucidate the assets and personal motivations that are its strengths.
Accordingly, the purpose of this presentation is to outline the application of basic principles of AI to engage with staff in a School within the UK higher education context, assessing the need for change and making recommendations for future organisational structure and practice. The experience of conducting the review using AI is outlined, and lessons which would help in further developing the use of the approach for this purpose.

Methods:
Initial briefings were held to provide staff with an overview of the review process, followed by an information sheet prior to holding the focus group discussions. It was decided to hold discipline-specific, administrative or programme team meetings separately, followed by mixed group meetings to discuss emerging themes from the data. Throughout the process the ‘discovery, dream, design and destiny’ phases of AI were followed.
A range of the different areas/disciplines from which information were gathered, number of focus group discussions held and the numbers of staff that participated were fed back to participants over the period of the review. The aim was to achieve a minimum of 80% staff group contribution to the review and this target was exceeded. In addition to focus group discussions, one to one meetings were held for particular individuals eg Head of School, programme leads to obtain more detail about issues raised in the focus groups. Follow up focus groups with academic and administrative staff from different teams were held for further exploration of themes derived from previous data collection. This was achieved over a period of six months.

Outcome:
Overall the process appeared highly successful, participant commented on positive aspects, sensitive areas but on the whole left felt valued by the process.
Specific outcomes of the review included: Creating and maintaining a positive culture, recognising the need for structural change and demonstrating the value of individuals’ contribution to the School success. In addition the role of the Senior Management Team in taking forward recommendations for change was outlined.
This presentation will describe how AI concepts were applied in reviewing the School, and discuss the key factors that contributed to its successful implementation in a strategic visioning process.

Keywords:

Appreciative Inquiry, organisational change.