AIF: Training in times of crisis …

by Mario Gastaldi on May 21, 2012

 

Eventbrite - Appreciative Inquiry Week: Master class per Manager-Professionisti HR

Saturday, I attended an interesting morning with AIF Lombardy, one morning when I met several people who I really appreciate it, and some that I had wanted to meet in the past.

Laura Colombo He organized the event and introduced the ’ day; I follow some interesting presentations and rich of stimuli. (Congratulations to all.)

Later, as scheduled, We divided into working groups in which we examined various themes.
Our group coordinated and inspired by Francesco Varanini It is busy “Training in times of crisis”.

Because at the end of the conversation group friends have asked me to present it to the other participants, Here is my summary of a conversation that generated for reflection and operating tips.

We have noted the theme “Training in times of crisis” in two aspects:

  1. Training: as it is and as it should be;
  2. As the bear market.

The original sin.
C ’ is a reflection that resonated loud and clear. For a long, too long, the formation has been proposed as a product that is not necessarily useful, but something that was worth doing since c ’ were funding. It was important that produce useful results for organizations … Why not cost anything.
And of course this circumstance has produced at least two consequences:

  • you do not have developed skills in assessment of the anti-pesticide education;
  • There is a perceived connection ’ (and often not even substantial) among the training activities and purpose for which they are or should be doing.

AS AND’ AND HOW SHOULD BE THE FORMATION
L ’ organizational learning is a social phenomenon that takes place in a group of people. In fact the ’ learning is change. If I learn return, If I don't change means that I haven't learned. The ’ learning produces a new way to view things that leads to act in a new way, more competent and effective.
This kind of change can only take place in ’ processes of dialogue and sense-making involving more people who together give way questions.

L ’ so all learning takes place in an Exchange ’ that collects many contributions, through a process socialrecombination of various perspectives, also very different.

Training as a transfer of knowledge from teacher to learners there appears so outdated. The conclusion is valid even for educational activities that are mostly content nozionistici, as the safety training.
The employees of a company not ’ choose to implement behaviours “sure” for the simple fact that we invited them in a ’ House, and we have racked in their information.

We have also cited the provocation of Harold Jarche It stresses that the classroom as a moment of ’ capacity building untied from work is a useless waste. According to him “the ’ learning is work, and the work is the ’ learning”.

Then the trainer's job is to create connected learning environments on the fly with operational reality and organizational needs. In these contexts it builds value for the participants and for the ’ organization.

BRING TRAINING IN MARKET

Among the various ideas that have emerged in the Group:

Need for taking responsibility. Those who propose learning organizations exceed “original sin” I mentioned above and I myself spoke, in a sense, about overcome team building.
It is’ must propose learning experiences linked so close to concrete needs of business. It is’ necessary define ROI. If the results of the training activities are not numerically measurable, then it serves a greater effort to document the changes that take place through educational activities. (I have positive experiences using other approaches such as “structured narrative changes“. The narrative also strengthens and consolidates the positive changes.)

Co-creation of formative proposals.
It is’ a ’ idea that sees a process in which the proposed educational project develops together customers who participate in the definition of the characteristics and contents. The process can play in various modes, including the conversation in social media where the various contributions and ideas combine to produce the finished project.

What I have neglected, and in General, what are your ideas?

Among participants in the group who made the conversation so interesting: Francesco Varanini (Coordinator), Elio Vera, Salvatore (Toti) Licata, Andrea Albanese, Emanuele Benedetti, Michele Curatella, Angela Ariola, Elizabeth Moretti; and I'm forgetting someone, I beg your pardon … 

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This post is one of the opportunities for reflection that we offer as we wait for the Appreciative Inquiry Week on the next 3-6 of July. Read more details on the English edition or the Italian one if you would like to register.

Appreciative Inquiry is growing in popularity and use as a fast and effective approach to facilitating organisational change and to developing skills in groups and organizations.
Those who came into contact with the approach, or have heard of it, have learned that it is an approach with a strong ”focus on the positive”.

However, to what extent must be concentrated on the positive?

A focus on the positive makes sense as long as it helps the development of generative capacity in individuals, groups, and organizations. Generative capacities are those that lead us to re-invent new solutions, creative and unexpected new options and change in behaviors as a mean to achieve organizational change and improvement.

When I introduce Appreciative Inquiry I often hear the remark that you can't always be positive, and we can't forget problems.

It is’ a point that makes a lot of sense and I welcome it in my practice. Let's see in which conditions and terms.

The focus "on the positive" develops creative abilities, resilience, and improves (even difficult) relationships among people as it appears in the research performed by Barbara Fredrickson and Marcial Losada.
At the same time a a search of the positive per se is no guarantee of the development of generative capacity or improvement of an individual or organization.

During the learning experience that will take place during the’Appreciative Inquiry Week we will define What is the correct “amount of positive”, and we can make a few points already, in order to get ready.

Marcial Losada, defines a threshold beyond which the “positive” becomes excessive; and makes the (organizational) conversation flat and useless.
Losada carried out a meaningful research in which he studied the correlation between the performance of groups in organizations, and three parameters: one of these is the positive/negative quotient, (let's leave the others for another post).

Losada has defined an area – (Losada Zone) – and concluded that in the best performing groups, the relationship between positive and negative comments, in the organizational conversation, is greater than 2,9, and less than 11,6 It means that the positive observations must be three times as frequent as compared with the negative ones in order to make the group competitive and likely to achieve results. If positive comments exceed by more than 11 times the negative ones … well ... that is too much..
When the "positive" is disproportionate, the group does not create enough complexity; the quality of the conversation remains simple, superficial, and linear, and does not generate new solutions.
And as our experience suggests, It is necessary to address the “difficult issues” (problems), make sense of them, and find sustainable and effective solutions in a shared process.
In this sense, a focus on the positive builds, among many other benefits, quality of relationships and a context that unifies around successes andrealizations, and makes it much easier to deal with what needs to work better (“problems”).

The list of benefits of positive emotions is very long, and just to name, one positive emotions lead to sustainable changes, while negative emotions, like fear, lead to extremely fragile changes.

Gervase Bushe in his “Appreciative Inquiry is not just about the positive” brilliantly deepens the topic, and while he lists a number of benefits why a focus on the positive is very useful in a practical way, he gives us his recipe for generativity in an Appreciative Inquiry, in three points:

  • generative questions,
  • generative conversations
  • generative action.

We'll talk about all this the coming days, and of course we will cover it all during the Appreciative Inquiry Week, a learning experience in which we will go beyond a theoretical study and will focus deeply on the practice and application.

 

Essential Bibliography:

“Appreciative Inquiry is not (just) about the positive” , Bushe G. – Oxford Leadership Journal, October 2010.

 ”The role of positivity and connectivity in the performance of business teams: A nonlinear dynamics model”. Losada, M., & Heaphy, It is. (2004). American Behavioral Scientist, 47

 

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Let's start with our strengths …

by Mario Gastaldi on May 7, 2012

 

I'm really glad that it is finally happening; After a long time here we are..

In Italy, for the first time, Appreciative Inquiry, the famous approach for change and organizational motivation, born in the ’eighties and and now spread in all countries of the world.

In Milan starting 3 the 3rd until the 6 of July, the Appreciative Inquiry Week, two consecutive learning experiences, two immersions of two days each, (in English and Italian), will give you an amazing opportunity to positively reinvent your organization, starting from yourself.

From positive psychology, to social constructionism, and Appreciative Leadership, We'll offer you a profound experience, and we'll deliver a toolkit, to enrich yourself and your organization with a completely new set of tools.

Discover how to:

  • use individual , and organizational strenghts, to improve organizational performance;
  • increase the positivity ratio towards the magic value, developing creativity and collaboration;
  • increase employee Engagement and their desire to use passion, creativity and initiative the way the like the most.
  • redesign HR processes in a "positive" “positive”
  • increase the ’ collective intelligence and the social capital of your organization.

… and much more.

In the coming weeks, we will publish content and ideas inspired by Appreciative Inquiry to help you make the most of your participation during the AI Week 3-6 of July.

Meanwhile, read more details, Download The Week Brochure in English (13) or theBrochure AI Week in Italian (32)and visit the two Event pages Italian one or the English editionwhere you can already register before the Early Bird deadline.

See you there!!

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Returns the Social Business Forum

by Mario Gastaldi on May 6, 2012

How do organizations become more competitive thanks to social technologies? How to enhance the motivation of employees and customers and open up opportunities for innovation do not imagine in the past?

We find out in Milan, the 4 and 5 June. Returns the Social Business Forum,one of the most important international events on the subject of Social Business, and we are fortunate to have her own in Milan.

I'll be there too and I will present on “Organizational Conversation at the heart of competitiveness. How to design on-line and off-line experiences that enable co-creation”. (Conversation heart Organizational competitiveness. How to design online experiences and live that enable co-creation.).
Propose a model to enable the organizational conversation and lead it to a level that boosts the performance of groups.

Advance some ideas This recent presentation. During the presentation will describe in detail the model I propose.

As many as Overview of speakers is very interesting.
Among others, vi segnalo Steve Denning that I met many years ago when he wrote Leadership and Storytelling. Now promotes the concept of Radical Management inspires with leaders around the world to redesign the organizations of the 21st century.
John Hagel is another of the participants not to lose. Wrote The Power of Pull and offers strategic thinking in ’ area in which organization and technology are intertwined.

Enrich the program managers and corporate leaders who share their experiences.
See the program:as you can see a part of the ’ event and sessions are open access.

In short, a great opportunity of meeting and learning.
See the!

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