Carol A. Watson 

The Appreciate Inquiry intervention that I was a part of was with the Prodigious group. I was particularly excited about working with this organization for a few reasons. They represented the type of organization I am interested in consulting with in my organizational development practice. Prodigious represents a creative, technology driven and young organization that is growing quickly and looking for help in building the culture and leadership that would support the changing dynamics they are facing. Working with Prodigious was an extension of my work in the advertising agency industry. Building relationships outside of the US in the same industry ads to a portfolio of experiences in cross-cultural advertising organizational development.

 

The Omicron Prime team working with the Prodigious group was a team that had not worked together previously but was composed of a valuable mix of personalities, working styles and strengths. We invested time prior to meeting using the skills, tools and assessments learned and spent time talking about our styles and experiences. As the third client assignment there seemed to be a much lower level of anxiety and fear in the group. There was much more confidence as a result of past successes that created a more relaxed experience for us throughout the AI intervention.

 

The design of the overall group AI learning at the Holiday Inn was extremely powerful. It allowed us to experience many different organizations at once while we slowly got to know our clients. More than any other session the large group experience provided valuable learning about all of the many clients participating and offered first hand exposure to various dynamics at the same time.

 

The three representatives from Prodigious were extremely enthusiastic and engaged in the process. They were midlevel line managers and a learning and development coordinator. The line managers were extremely invested in the experience and had a clear vision for how they could leverage the experience. They selected participants very carefully. They selected participant based on a diversity of functions and roles, their leadership in the organization and ensured that there was diversity in personalities participating. The clients were also extremely thoughtful in who they partnered certain participants with. They wanted our team to facilitate but wanted to be engaged in the group to keep it moving along. I was hoping for a larger group given the four MSOD students involved but the size turned out to be a manageable size to practice the AI intervention.

 

There was learning in our preparation and in co-creating with the client. The art of balancing their knowledge and perspective with what works most effectively is just that, an art. Clients know their cultures, norms and personalities best and being flexible and aware and respectful is crucial. Gaining the trust of the client and knowing how much to nudge is probably a life long learning process as I gain more confidence and experience to draw from. We would have benefited from better preparing the front end. Learning the styles of the facilitators and building in more time for a run through would have improved the roughness of the opening. The actual experience unfolded beautifully. We worked well as a team and were able to make important decisions in a decisive yet, emergent style. From the room used (we decided to change rooms for the second part of the intervention), timing, tools, the flow, etc.

 

What surprised both the client and was a learning for me was the creative expression that unfolds for those that don't have traditionally creative roles. Seeing how co-workers express their jobs and companies creatively is unexpectedly inspiring. Seeing technologists and engineers uncover their creative expression and engage in the process enthusiastically surprised the clients and really delighted me. These participants were quite shy and introverted and it provided a voice of inclusion for them in a way that gave us all much joy and a feeling of accomplishment.

 

The most unexpected part of the experience was the kindness and relationship building of the client participants. Two of the participants reached out and came to the hotel and met the rest of the co-hurt at the barbecue. One of the clients also came on the last night and joined a group of us at a local restaurant. They wanted to make sure we enjoyed their country and went above and beyond to reach out and make sure we were well taken care of during our trip. The client mentioned that one of the participants were so enthusiastic about the AI experience that a follow-up meeting she took the initiative to change the questions planned for an upcoming team meeting to be appreciative. Truly an unexpected consequence.

 

The connecting point of view from the experience in Costa Rica with the cohort, the client and LaCarpio is the importance of giving voice to uncover the various dimensions and perspectives. There is not one story. Whether it is the perceived leader or lower level participants, it is a quilt of perspectives that tell a complex story of any system. Creating change requires the opportunity find space for the various expressions. It also requires a process that moves a system forward with a collective vision while allowing for individual expression. Expression can take and should take many forms to be embedded. Visualized, spoken and written forms of expression allow for different perspectives, allow for the interpretations and integration in complex systems. The variety and investment in digging deeper and allowing space and time to unravel, unpack and unfold honor the complexity of systems and the perspectives that build the past, current and visioned story that organizations are moving towards.