DEV Community: Cosima

Learning about Appreciative Inquiry

Cosima — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 11:38:10 +0000

A couple of years ago, I read about a combined approach of Agile and Appreciative Inquiry (AI) called Appreciative Agile on http://appreciativeagile.com ( <-- unfortunately that page stopped working meanwhile).

The much I am familiar with Agile the less I am with AI. The fact that it’s grounded in academia – especially in Positive Psychology – and my curiosity made me quickly research to learn a bit or two about it.

This article is here to share these initial learnings with you - as sharing is caring!

Kick-start into Appreciative Inquiry

You would like to get a quick overview of the basic concepts illustrated with a tangible example what Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is about? I highly recommend watching Jackie Kelms short (10min) video on What Appreciative Inquiry is.

You are searching for a kind of “definition”? I advice to go to the AI commons webpage that offers a book excerpt and describes Appreciative Inquiry:

“At its heart, AI is about the search for the best in people, their organizations, and the strengths-filled, opportunity-rich world around them. AI is not so much a shift in the methods and models of organizational change, but AI is a fundamental shift in the overall perspective taken throughout the entire change process to ‘see’ the wholeness of the human system and to “inquire” into that system’s strengths, possibilities, and successes. ”

Stavros, Jacqueline, Godwin, Lindsey, & Cooperrider, David. (2015). Appreciative Inquiry: Organization Development and the Strengths Revolution. In Practicing Organization Development: A guide to leading change and transformation (4th Edition), William Rothwell, Roland Sullivan, and Jacqueline Stavros (Eds). Wiley

What is essential in AI?

The very basics are one core assumption, five principles, a often-used process (4D-Cycle) and a format how Appreciative Inquiry often is done in organizations (AI Summit).

I will quickly go through those in this section also introducing the AI lingo.

Positive Core

First of all AI assumes that each organization has a so-called Positive Core. This encompasses e.g. all the strengths, best practises and positive attitudes of the whole organizational system.

Five Principles

There are 5 principles Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is based on:

Constructionist Principle: We co-create stories with our words. Those stories become our reality.

Poetry Principle: We can find whatever we want – the good (or the bad). What we focus on expands.

Simultaneity Principle: Change begins simultaneously with asking a question.

Anticipatory Principle: We create mental pictures. They influence what happens in the future.

Visualization can help to change those pictures so that we create images of what we want (more of).

Positive Principle: Focusing on the Positive Core creates an upward spiral.

This reminds of the Broaden and Build Theory (BBT) by Barbara Fredrickson. In short BBT tells us that focusing our attention raises our awareness for the things we actually want to have in our lives (broadening). This is turn enables us to personally grow, unearth and actually make use of all our resources (building). With that we can truly flourish as resilient human beings.

4D-Cycle

The 4D-Cycle is only one (not “the”) process for applying AI. It is built around the Positive Core and follows basically these four steps:

Discover: ask – about the best of what is (e.g. strengths, highlights, …)

Dreaming: imagine – what could be i.e. the ideal future (e.g. asking about people’s wishes or dreams)

Design: plan – what will be by synthesizing information from the steps before, decide what to change and what to do differently

Destiny: create – what will be by making it happen!

After the forth step, a new iteration in the process might be started.

Sometimes there is also an initial step 0 (called Define) that sets a certain direction.

Read more details about the 4-/5-D-Cycle here.

Appreciative summit

The Appreciative Summit (short: AI Summit) is the name of an all-hands meeting where the people of an organization walk all together through the AI process.

Often this is about big group facilitation of the steps:(Define,) Discover, Dream, Design and Destiny.

What’s next?

I found those two valuable resources to learn more:

3 Simple steps for applying AI in any situation (incl. personal change) by Jackie Kelms: https://appreciativeliving.com/the-aia-process/
Knowledge base on AI, the AI Commons: https://appreciativeinquiry.champlain.edu/

And, of course, I will dive more into Appreciative Agile to see how and where that fits into my professional “toolbox”.

What about you?

Are you already a pro in Appreciative Inquiry? What would you recommend exploring next?

Are you more of a newbie and curious like me? What would be interesting for you to explore next?

This article also appeared on: https://www.respectandadapt.rocks

Dogfooding with powerful questions

Cosima — Tue, 28 Nov 2017 22:02:00 +0000

Over the last months I stumbled across powerful questions for agile teams multiple times. Powerful questions help with emerging change, they are open for the client's mental models and they literally invite to introspection and new perspectives. There is a great overview and a resource list compiled by Deborah Hartmann Preuss which you can find here

I knew the concept of different question types and their different levels of powerfulness already from my coaching education; and I practised in that (private) context quite a lot. Of course I leveraged my knowledge within the professional context as well, but now I was looking for an opportunity to practise more regularly on professional topics and with that shape my skills even further.

The EYODF idea

Call me crazy if you want... but I thought: before randomly throwing powerful questions on people (of course I won't do that ;-)) - why not eating my own dogfood? Do dogfooding and go practise with my very own topics. There I am the only one in charge of doing it regularly. Furthermore it would help me to develop my personality even more.

So what I did is...

I print out a deck of powerful question cards, drew a nice envelope for it and placed that at a well-visible place in my flat.

How do I use the cards you might ask?

Everytime I find myself thinking hard about a certain topic I quickly reach the point where I tell my mind "Stop right here!". I use that moment of awareness and take a random powerful question from my "question dispenser". Sometime the question doesn't fit into that very moment - then I just take another one. Most often these "think hard" moments occur right after coming home from work or short before leaving to the office in the mornings. With that I can try out the powerful questions on work-related topics and on my own mind and mental models.

And the benefits?

Actually after three weeks of running this kind of experiment, at last the second question always hit the nail. It helped me approaching each and every topic from a different perspective like before. It feels almost a bit "magical"... but of course it's not. The powerful questions are just working as expected.

Also I already experienced that my way of asking questions to other people changed. Of course it's not scientifically proven but I hear more often feedbacks like "that's a good question" or "that makes me really think" during the last weeks.

And by using the questions as a self-coaching tool I tackle the switch from work to private life in the evenings quicker than before.

note: this blogpost also appeared on blog.cosima-laube.de

Regular personal retrospectives? - Experimenting with celebrating success and personal goal setting

Cosima — Sat, 11 Nov 2017 08:30:00 +0000

It is been around 6 weeks ago. To be honest, I felt emotionally cringed and generally not in a too good shape back then. Close friends told me, that from an outer perspective this was totally understandable... . A lot was happening all at once - the third moval within a year and a sad yearday - just to name two.

As cognition alone did not affect my emotions sustainably I thought of taking dedicated time to step back and reflect.
To see and celebrate possible successes.
To identify and prioritize possible improvement areas.
To then take meaningful next step(s).

Sounds like a retrospective, doesn't it?

With that an experiment was born: instead of doing just another "big" personal retropective once a year I asked myself: Why not start doing smaller retrospectives throughout the year?

Six weeks ago I just started by jotting down all the good stuff (the 'heart side'). Surprisingly I remembered a lot I normally quickly forget during the daily grind. After that I wrote down the stuff which I wanted to change and improve (the ++ side). I identified three improvement areas and chose two to approach next. To make sure I could tackle them, I added two concrete actions each to be able to check (or even: measure) progress.

Four weeks ago, these "personal retro postits" moved first to my new home. Of course they are at a visible place to let the successes sink in more.

Yesterday I celebrated the first month in the new home. A perfect occasion to have the next retrospective today...

How about you? Do you do something like personal retrospectives? I would love to hear your stories and thoughts!

note: this blogpost also appeared on blog.cosima-laube.de

Bringing a young dog to a fitness studio? How it is like to do strength training mindfully...

Cosima — Sun, 29 Oct 2017 10:30:00 +0000

Recently I got in contact with Patrick Sauerwein and it turned out that we share Meditation experience. Exchanging with him on that boosted me with such energy that I decided to invest in an experiment: doing mindfulness practises more regularly again. To be even more precise: I will practise mindfulness on a daily basis for the next six weeks.

I took a Mindfulness based stress reduction training a couple of years ago. There I learned about formal and informal kinds of practise. Informal practises are things you can include into you daily life 'easily' because the fit somehow naturally. For example today I happened to stand a couple of minutes here:

I could have been angry because I had to wait. I could have read on my mobile. I could have thought back and forth. Instead I actively decided (take a photo :-) and then) to stand there, feel the air and the temperature onto my skin, listen to my breath and just be.

Another great occasion for informal practise is my regular strength training which takes about an hour in a minimalistic indoor studio. There is no distraction like music or video. Just me and one machine after the other which is to be trained super slowly. Perfect occasion for my mind to.... paaaaarty!

Yes, I do think about the work day or plan the evening or both. Usually that's totally okay and after the hour my mind magically is calmer than before, somehow more sorted. On the other hand that hour is also the perfect occasion to train my mindfulness muscle. It goes like that: everytime I find myself pondering about something and not being in the moment I kindly invite myself to come back to the room... feel my body working at the current machine... listen to my breath... get deely in touch with my muscles at work... just until my mind goes thinking again... and I start inviting me to come back again... . Like you would do with a cute, tiny, young dog who wants to play all day long.

And what is formal practise you might ask. That is basically everything more formalised like different kinds of meditation, mindful bodywork like easy yoga exercises, breathing exercises, bodyscans and much more. For me the formal stuff is the real tough part. Here I will give a smartphone app another try for the next five days; the fallback is just doing my yoga routine and breathing on a daily mindful basis - and timeboxed to have some numbers and get myself into some habit again.

What about you: Are you into mindfulness and/or meditation? What do you like to share about tha

(note: this blogpost first appeared on blog.cosima-laube.de)

Meeting old men - Two observations that old beliefs slowly got obsolete

Cosima — Mon, 28 Aug 2017 08:30:00 +0000

Today I was running in the woods. I stopped by at my favorite spot which is a small lake. Usually it is calm and quite there - and I am the only person. Today there was an old man with his two dogs. The dogs were enjoying a bath in the lake. No quietness!

I felt a bit puzzled but... I stopped anyway. After greeting the man he immediately asked me if I had a dog following. Obviously he did not expect people without a dog running through the woods. "No I don't", I said. "Oh, then you're just running? Moving is great" he said.

We stood a while at the lake. Calm. Watching his dogs. When I was about to leave he added "Keep up moving!". He said it in a friendly, empathic way. Usually a part inside me quickly feels offended. Today I wasn't at all. There was an open and humble older male human being with two dogs enjoying the calm lake in the woods.

I had a similar encounter with another elderly man about two weeks ago which was quite similar. Some years ago I would have felt quite weird. Today I do not any more.

Having leveraged different personality development models during the last years and having worked with systemic therapy approaches almost 15 years ago, I know there was that particular part in me not liking a certain "type" of old men somehow. With "not liking" I mean: there was an instant, emotional and physical reaction of heavy avoidance I was not able to fight against or even to categorize and to work with for years.

Obsiously working on your personality (or should I say: your mental system) needs not just hard work, but a pile of time, a pinch of patience and a bag of compassion... and new behaviour will have the chance to evolve.

Do you also experience those instant reactions which kick-in from time to time, be it in private life or in business? How do you work with them?

(note: this blogpost first appeared on blog.cosima-laube.de)

Managers are wiser than average and subordinates are dumber?!

Cosima — Thu, 13 Jul 2017 20:54:09 +0000

Recently I had a discussion where I was involved very passionately. It was in a group of people I trust very much. There I opened up and shared a story during discussion. A story of how I perceived managers during my first years being a software developer after university.

A story about managers...

Being raised in a hierarchical system, be it school, family or society - or all together - I firmly believed during my first years being an employed software developer: every manager, every teamlead, every department head, every C-level manager... they all must be way smarter than me. Smarter and wiser. In general, in everything and without doubt.

And why? Surely because the are in a 'higher position', right?

Over the years I learned more: no, they are not smarter per se... most of them are smarter or wiser in one or another area. Maybe in a couple of areas.
But: they also have areas where they are weak(er) than e.g. me or my colleagues. They do not necessarily show that - but they are. And if you are a decent observer, if you exercised your empathy skills on a regular basis, you will notice that.

Don't get me wrong: this is not gonna be a story about judging! It is sharing my learnings and my observations.

So if my boss is no "god at all", then we could collaborate, learn from each other, work on eye-level together. At least from my part.
And over the years I also learned to watch out for people in managers' roles with that very same mindset. With the "I am not smarter than all my employees" mindset. That's the only line managers I would work for nowadays.

... and some (a bit uncomfortable) observations...

Sometimes I catch myself thinking bad about a person's trait and in the very next thought I think how much better I am in exactly that trait.

I do not think this makes me a bad person - especially because I am now aware of that. And I catch myself, I ask myself: oh really, do you really need to lower another being to feel good about yourself? Not, I don't!

So it is not just about me here. I also observe(d) (former) colleagues talking bad about other people from other departments, talking bad about people with 'lower quality' jobs or education, talking bad about people's traits and appearance. Talking bad a lot. Ok, that is all too human, I know that from myself. And I try not to judge that as well. Just observe and think for myself.

... leads me to the conclusion

If I remember my deep inner beliefs and values, if I sum up my personal story about my former notion of managers with that observations just described... then it is all about respect and a non-judging stance [1] for me.

If we respect each other, if we do not judge but all together create an environment to grow and thrive... then we all can do great. There is enough space for all beings to just do great!

If we respect each other, if we do not judge but all together create an environment to grow and thrive... then we all can do great. There is enough space for all beings to just do great!
There is enough room to achieve all our goals - be it in business or private life.

We just need wholehearted daring human beings.

[1] In the language or mindfulness you would call this 'witnessing awareness' like in Reb et al. (2015)

Reb, J., Sim, S., Chintakananda, K., & Bhave, D. P. (2015). Leading with mindfulness: Exploring the relation of mindfulness with leadership behaviors, styles, and development. In J. Reb & P. W. B. Atkins (Hrsg.), Mindfulness in Organizations: Foundations, research, and applications (S. 256â€“284). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

(note: this blogpost first appeared on blog.cosima-laube.de)

Making and taking babysteps

Cosima — Sun, 09 Jul 2017 12:57:00 +0000

More than a month just passed since my last post about sustainable pace.

The focus on sustainability for personal stuff and professional topics was a good mental guidance to decide which projects to continue, what to start and where to say "No" to for the current moment.

Where to say "no" to...

For example my colleague Wolfram asked for a co-moderation of a coderetreat. That sounded almost too tempting to dive into that topic just now; read a book in preparation and then jump right in.
On the other hand I realised that I do not want to take another project right now. Was hard to decide & verbalize - but: I did it.

What to continue...

Definitely listening. To other people. And to myself.

Asking powerful questions. And listen to other people who ask powerful questions.

Daring to talk about 'obvious' things - because too often they are not obvious to all people involved.
Giving feedback about 'obvious things' as they are as well usually not obvious/common.

Being imperfect. Not just, but especially while blogging (thank you, Robert, for your inspiring post on Giving up perfection).

What to start...

Overcoming (old) fears, like fear of height in mountains... where I took this post's photo :-).

Taking in good feedback. Really take it in...
Let.
It.
Sink.
Into.
Every.
Single.
Cell.

Appreciate the little things in life even more.

(note: this blogpost first appeared on blog.cosima-laube.de)

Hi, I'm Cosima Laube

Cosima — Sun, 09 Jul 2017 09:37:11 +0000

I have been coding for 13 years.

You can find me on Twitter as @gazebo_c

I live in Kreuzlingen near the Lake of Constance.

I work as a Scrum Master/Team Coach for Holiday Check.

I mostly programmed in these languages: Java, CSS, C#, C++, Python.
Now I mostly care about: 'debugging' human interactions, 'refactoring' in organisations, creating environments to grow, software craftspeopleship

I am currently learning more about: myself, human beings, web development.

Nice to meet you.