Connecting Continuous Improvement and Appreciative Inquiry

My recent foray into Appreciative Inquiry was spawned by Ankit Patel, principal partner with The Lean Way Consulting firm. While doing some work with the Cleveland Clinic, he discovered Appreciative Inquiry and saw an opportunity to blend it with his work in Continuous Improvement. I found the work fascinating and this is the subject of next weeks podcast. For an introduction you may want to listen my most recent podcast, Accentuate the Positive, Eliminate the Negative with Sara Orem, co-author of Appreciative Coaching: A Positive Process for Change (Jossey-Bass Business & Management).

An excerpt from the upcoming podcast:

Joe: When you talk about problem solving, people think of it very much in linear terms. The things that I’ve read on Appreciative Inquiry, they’re talking about circular questions. Is there a difference in that thinking? Is there a basic difference between the two?

Ankit: I would say that traditional process improvement is a little bit slightly more linear, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all. I think that’s actually a very needed skill set. I think where the AI process really excels is at non?linear type, breakthrough type of issues. So if you want continuous improvement, traditional continuous improvement tools are great for that. If you want serious breakthrough types of initiatives, there are some tools in the continuous improvement belt that help with that. AI seems to work much, much better for that because of the non?linear nature. It allows folks to break free of necessarily what they think is possible because it lets them just think bigger. So you do end up getting much, much larger types of initiatives.

So I’ll give you an example. Roadway Trucking. They did an Appreciative Inquiry, what they call, Summit. They actually had their own drivers come up with their initiative for a specific depot that could save $1 million. I think that was, if I’m correct, for Roadway Trucking, about 40 percent of a total revenue. It was an extremely aggressive goal, but they came up with that goal because of this whole process.

Now would they have achieved that otherwise? Possibly. It might have been an edict from the top down, but because they came up with it they were actually able to achieve it and get a lot of good cultural outcomes from that as well. People felt more empowered. People felt more engaged. You get less turnover from your folks. People are happier to be at work. It’s just a really, really neat way to approach any kind of problem or opportunity.

What I have found is that I am actually applying many of these methods through Lean and my continuous improvement efforts. I tis actually not that much of a shift. David Cooperrider, who is generally credited with coining the term Appreciative Inquiry had told Ankit that Toyota is currently using AI in their Hoshin Planning or Strategy Deployment efforts. Recently, I published my My Engagement Strategy – Appreciative Inquiry and discovered it was very Appreciative friendly.

The real attraction of AI to me is that it may provide a better way for cultural change. It may provide a stronger pathway in changing culture in a Lean Transformation. If you think we are already applying the best method or best path, I encourage you to participate in this LinkedIn discussion: When Lean fails, most people draw the wrong conclusion and assume it is Leadership. They blame leadership as being shortsighted. I think this view is not only wrong but it is dead wrong.