CIPD Annual Conference and appreciative approaches to change

I've spent the past two days at the CIPD Annual Conference in Manchester helping on the exhibition stand of a friend and colleague in the UK and European AI Networks and Associate in The Open Channel, Sarah Lewis. Her company Appreciating Change has had a stand at both the CIPD HRD conference earlier this year at Olympia and now this one.


Across the two days we have spoken to dozens of visitors to the conference and exhibition. These are HR professionals across all sectors who are principally charged with recruitment, selection, advancement, reward and so on. Amongst this group we found a significant number of HR managers who are also responsible for change; change in culture, structures, processes, and in introducing various approaches to those changes.


That in particular is where we came in, introducing appreciative and strengths-focused change approaches, positive psychology and solution-focused models into the conversations. For some, but not most, Appreciative Inquiry was well known and in use, particularly we found this in the NHS and local authorities and also in other sectors. The reports of the contribution AI and strengths-focused approaches make were highly positive, especially when taken across a longer term, e.g. a year or more. The professionals reported improved levels of employee engagement (and productivity), improved working relationships across organisational tiers with more effective performance management and appraisals. 


In other cases, AI and associated approaches were yet to be discovered  - which is exciting! It means there is new territory to be explored; situations offering significant potential for positive and sustainable change and employees who will find the interest, power and innovation that comes from constructing new visions, missions, strategies and actions from an appreciative standpoint. To some extent all that is required is for those organisations yet to discover the best of what is and build on that to create the best of what might be, is to have some appreciative conversations. These can be crafted by practitioners, such as we had at the exhibition, alongside champions in organisations as a result of a series of planned appreciative activities or they might crafted within the organisations with some limited support from practitioners; whatever suits the circumstances best. All of our companies offer the full range of solutions, from one-to-one support all the way through to large-scale group events involving hundreds of people and several innovative models of engagement including World Cafe, Open Space and Simureal.


Whatever clients choose, we have the experience, the passion, knowledge and skills to unlock their stories and their expertise. We can support them to discover, dream, design and create their new destinies. Critically, the focus is on the potential within the client's organisation - our role is to find ways to help them uncap the potential in whatever form it's held, e.g. people's talents and strengths, creating fruitful new working relationships, encouraging innovation and prompting imagination. It's the untapped potential that offers so many organisations the opportunity to achieve more, or better, in the challenging public service, third sector and commercial environments we face.