Appreciative Interviews

Discovering and Building on the Root Causes of Success

Five Structural Elements – Min Specs

1. Structuring Invitation

“Tell a story about a time when you worked on a challenge with others and were proud of what you accomplished. What made success possible?”

2. Space and Materials

• Chairs for people to sit in pairs face-to-face; no tables needed.
• Paper for participants to take notes
• Flip chart to record the stories and assets/conditions

3. Participation Distribution

• Roles include host [tech host], interviewers, and interviewees.
• Minimum group size is two.
• Everyone has an equal opportunity to contribute.
  

4. Groups Configuration

• Pairs
• Then groups of 4.
• Then whole groups
• Encourage groups to be diverse

5. Steps and Time Allocation

Intro: Share the structuring invitation. If this activity is linked to a project or theme, specify what kind of story participants should tell. Display the Structuring Invitation. (3 min.) Storytelling: In pairs [breakouts of three], participants take turns interviewing and telling a success story, paying attention to what made the success possible, and taking notes. They may need to dig a little to identify conditions or assets that supported success. (7–10 min. each; 15–20 min. in pairs; 21–30 min. in trios) Retelling (F2F only): Pairs join to form quartets. Each person retells their partner’s story. Everyone listens for patterns in conditions/assets that supported success and writes them down. (15 min.) All-Together Sharing: Everyone returns to plenary. A few people share insights and patterns. Note key insights on a flip chart. (10–15 min.) Dig Deeper: The group reflects on how to invest in the conditions that foster success. Ask: How are we investing in the assets and conditions that foster success? What opportunities do you see to do more? (10 min.)

WHY? Purposes

• Generate constructive energy by starting on a positive note.
• Capture and spread tacit knowledge about successful field experience.
• Reveal the path for achieving success for an entire group simultaneously
• By expecting positive behaviors, you can bring them forth (Pygmalion effect)
• Spark peer-to-peer learning, mutual respect, and community building.
• Give permission to explore complex or messy challenges
• Create a new exciting group narrative, e.g., “how we are making order out of chaos!”
• Repeating interviews in rapid cycles may point to positively deviant local innovations
  

Taking it online

Use 1-3-All to save time and avoid having to combine groups.

Tips and Traps

• Encourage participants to notice judgments or ideas that arise while they listen and let them go.
• If participants tell stories about unsuccessful efforts, end the negativity by asking, “When have we succeeded, even in a modest way?”
• For F2F, sit knee-to-knee for the interview.
• Do not share your own experience when interviewing.
  
  

Riffs and Variations

• Ask people to give a title to their partner’s story.
• Graphically record stories in a large space like a whiteboard.
• Publicize some of the most inspiring stories.
• Do a second round to find positive deviance (i.e., behaviors that enable some individuals to find better solutions to common problems than their peers without additional resources).

Examples

• For bringing customer focus to life with “stories when you had a creative and positive interaction with a customer”
• For revising college courses with “stories when a course or learning experience had a profound influence on your life”
• For repairing a relationship between a patient and a doctor with “stories when you were able to accept openly responsibility for making a medical error”
• For building trust and morale in an NGO with “stories when you experienced here in the office the esprit de corps of work in the field. What made that possible?”
• For looking beyond the launch of a transformation initiative with “stories of first successes in the field that can guide our strategy for the next two years”
  

Optional String

Dive deeper into appreciation with Positive Gossip. Support making changes that build on conditions and assets with What I Need from You (WINFY) and Purpose-to-Practice.

Attribution: Liberating Structure developed by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless. Inspired by and adapted from professor David Cooperrider, Case Western Reserve University, and consultant Dr. Tony Suchman.

Source: Liberating Structures