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<font color="#008000"><b>Hi folks<br>
A friend of mine here in Western Australia, Sandy Gordon, a sports
psychologist at one of the local universities, has been experimenting
with the use of Open Space since he first encountered the process (and
me!) a few years ago. He's recently written an interesting article in the
Feb 2008 edition of InsPsych, the bulletin of the Australian
Psychological Society about his combination of Appreciative Inquiry and
Open Space with a national Cricket team.....a fascinating
story.....thanks Sandy....and I wonder if there are any other stories
about the use of OS with professional, or other, sporting
teams...???<br>
Cheers<br>
Brendan <br>
(Howzat! </font><font size=2 color="#008000">= cricket slang for 'How is
that, umpire'?</font><font color="#008000">)<br><br>
</font><div align="center"><font size=4>Enhancing the team work of the
Sri Lankan cricket team<br>
A case study of applying Appreciative Inquiry<br>
</b></font> <br>
By <b>Dr Sandy Gordon</b> <b>FAPS<br>
</b>School of Sport Science, Exercise and Health, The University of
Western Australia<br>
</div>
<b> <br>
</b> This case study describes a strengths-based approach to
enhancing the teamwork of the Sri Lankan cricket team prior to their
April-July 2006 tour of England. As the team’s sport psychologist I was
asked to facilitate the first team meeting upon our arrival in London. I
chose the theme ‘What gives life to Sri Lankan Cricket when it is at its
best?’ and used a combination of ‘Appreciative Inquiry’ (AI), including
‘Naming Elephants’ and ‘AI 4-D Cycle’, and ‘Open Space Technology’. <br>
<b> <br>
The Appreciative Inquiry process<br>
</b>Appreciative Inquiry (AI) was first conceptualised in 1980 by
doctoral student David Cooperrider and his thesis supervisor Sruresh
Srivasta, who had both been engaged in an organisation change project.
Instead of detailing root causes of failure, they learned to focus on the
root causes of success, and called their approach ‘Appreciative Inquiry’.
AI is underpinned by core principles and core processes that are
understood to have emerged from theoretical and research foundations
grounded in social constructionism, the ‘new’ sciences (e.g., positive
psychology, chaos theory and self-organising systems), and research on
the power of imagery (Cooperrider, Whitney, & Stavros, 2005). For the
purposes of this article, AI is regarded as a positive, strengths-based
operational approach to change, learning and development that seemed
suitable to enhancing teamwork in professional cricket.<br>
<br>
Various models and approaches for applying AI have emerged including the
‘4-D Cycle’, which is widely used and can be as rapid and informal as a
conversation with a colleague, or as formal as a four-day
organisation-wide process. In order of presentation, the four key
processes in the AI 4-D cycle are:<br>
<br>
1. <i>Discovery</i>: Identifying the ‘best
of what has been or what is’ and supporting the clients’ belief in a
positive future<br>
2. <i>Dream</i>: Creating a clear
results-oriented vision in relation to discovered potential and
encouraging clients to conceive images of possibilities<br>
3. <i>Design</i>: Creating possibility
propositions of the newly expressed dream and assisting clients in
bringing the dream into focus<br>
4. <i>Destiny</i>: Strengthening the
affirmative capability of clients and helping them recognise the dream in
the present. <br>
<br>
At the centre of the cycle is the ‘affirmative topic choice’ or theme,
which is the starting point and most strategic aspect of any AI
process.<br>
<br>
Appreciative Inquiry Coaching (AIC) is the practical application of
the core AI principles and is highly effective for various coaching
purposes, e.g., leadership, development, and working relationships. Table
1 lists the assumptions of both AI and AIC about life, people and the
change process itself, which form the basis of Orem, Binkert, and
Clancy’s (2007, p. 26) model of Appreciative Coaching.<br>
<dl>
<dl>
<dd> <b>Table 1. Assumptions of Appreciative Inquiry and
Appreciative Coaching Inquiry</b>
</dl><div align="center">
<dd>(Orem, Binkert, & Clancy, 2007)</div>
<dd>·
In every society, organisation, group or individual something works
<dd>·
What people focus on becomes their reality
<dd>·
Reality is created in the moment, and there are multiple realities
<dd>·
The act of asking questions of an organisation, group, or individual
influences the group or individual in some way
<dd>·
People are more confident and comfortable in their journey to the future
(the unknown) when they carry forward parts of the past (the known)
<dd>·
If people carry parts of the past forward, those parts should be what is
best about the past
<dd>·
It is important to value differences
<dd>·
The language people use creates their reality
</dl> <br>
<b>Sri Lankan teamwork breakdown<br>
</b>Having been appointed to Sri Lankan Cricket in June 2005 and toured
with the team in Sri Lanka and Australia later that year, I observed that
most players did not speak up when opportunities arose at meetings, and
younger players in particular didn’t appear to either want to or know how
to say what they felt. This was just one example of poor teamwork and
effectively shut down possibilities for innovative ideas from younger
players who possessed exciting potential. I suggested to the coach that,
prior to an AI team meeting, that I engage the players in ‘Naming
Elephants’<b> </b>(Hammond & Mayfield, 2004)<b>,</b> which is a
metaphor for making implicit issues explicit, bringing certain Sri
Lankan Cricket ‘undiscussables’ into the open, or having ‘difficult
conversations’. <br>
<br>
The intent of the workshop was to learn how to name and recognise unnamed
‘Elephants’<i>, </i>to understand the primary benefit of naming them
(i.e., innovation and taking action), and to learn from each other, not
to attack or blame. The rules were simple: expect and respect different
points of view; avoid trying to identify who wrote what; and avoid naming
names – if the ‘Elephant’ is a person, only describe his behaviour and
its impact on Sri Lankan Cricket. <br>
<br>
For Step 1 of the workshop, I asked them: “What are the ‘things’ we
aren’t openly talking about as a team that you think we should be talking
about?”. Players wrote one ‘undiscussable’ per sheet of paper in pencil
and could write as many as they liked in 5-10 minutes before returning
all sheets to me. In Step 2,<b> </b>I read out each sheet and together we
grouped those items that seemed related and came up with a name for each
category. In 10-15 minutes I also asked the players to clarify what the
‘Elephant’ category looked like in behavioural terms and its impact or
cost to Sri Lankan Cricket. Finally in Step 3, I spent 10-15 minutes
enquiring about solutions and asking: “What do we propose to do about
it?”.<br>
<br>
In less than 60 minutes, 15 players produced 18 sheets of paper, 13 of
which identified the same ‘Elephant’, namely “intimidation, negative and
pessimistic communication to junior players by senior players generally”.
The impact of this behaviour was “lower morale among junior players who
emotionally switched off and suppressed ideas and thoughts of voicing
contributions”. In addition to meeting all workshop intentions, this
session created a much safer environment at subsequent team meetings for
younger players to offer innovative suggestions and ideas about both
individual and team work. It was clear to me that ‘Naming Elephants’ was
an essential precursor to the meeting that followed.<br>
<br>
<b> <br>
Adding ‘Open Space Technology’ to the AI team meeting<br>
</b>Later, during the same AI team meeting and after the <i>Discovery
</i>phase, I introduced the four Principles and one Law of ‘Open Space
Technology’ (OST), which Harrison Owen (1997) first developed in 1984.
OST has since been used around the world with all types of organisations
including corporations, community groups, government agencies, schools
and churches, and with groups of 5-2500 people (Bunker & Alban,
2006). I had trained as an OST facilitator in Perth and had previously
used it with the Western Australian Cricket Association, however, this
was my first opportunity to combine AI with OST. While the former
provides clear and powerful direction using questions that connect
participants with each other as they discover universal stories about
‘What gives them life?’, the latter allows freedom to learn from and
listen to others who share the same heart, passion and responsibility for
their collective future.<br>
<br>
I used the following OST Principles during the <i>Dream</i> and
<i>Design</i> phases within the AI 4-D Cycle. OST begins with an
invitation to participants to attend. Players were also invited to form a
circle so, without a word spoken, no hierarchy was evident in the team
room. OST is guided by four Principles and one Law and each in their own
way advanced the appreciative team environment. <br>
<br>
The first Principle of OST, ‘Whoever comes is the right people’, reminded
players that they cared enough to come to discuss the session theme (What
gives life to Sri Lankan cricket when it is at its best?). The second
Principle, ‘Whatever happens is the only thing that could have’, focused
their attention on the present moment. The third Principle, ‘Whenever it
starts is the right time’, and the flip-side fourth Principle, ‘When it’s
over it’s over’, provided a beginning, middle and end structure to all
discussions. The one ‘Law of Two Feet’, meant that at any time players
who felt that they were neither learning or contributing could use their
two feet to go somewhere else and do something more useful, such as visit
another group discussion or simply have time out. Both the Principles and
Law gave the players permission to self-organise and say and do what they
wanted in the time available. The invitation was to be fully and
completely themselves as they discussed ‘what gives life to their
batting, bowling, fielding, training, and off-field social activities,
when it is at its best?’.<br>
<br>
The meeting ran for five hours (three hours over schedule), nobody left
the room, and both senior management and senior players rated it as the
“best team meeting ever”. Sri Lanka subsequently drew the three Test
series 1-1 and white washed England 5-0 in One Day Internationals, their
best overseas tour performance in 25 years. <br>
<br>
<b>Applications of AI in other settings<br>
</b>Both Kelm (2005) and Stavros and Torres (2005) appear to have made
transferable applications of AI to enhancing daily living convincingly
possible, and examples of ‘success stories’ in business and
workplace settings are available at
<a href="http://www.aiconsulting.org/">www.aiconsulting.org/</a>. I
believe strengths-based strategies like Appreciative Inquiry are ideally
suited for helping teams enhance their teamwork and, in addition to the
references listed below, I encourage those charged with the
responsibility of coordinating coaching and leadership development
programs to browse the resources on the AI Commons website
(<a href="http://www.appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/">
www.appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/</a>). <br>
<b> <br>
References<br>
</b>Bunker, B. B., & Alban, B. T. (2006). <i>The handbook of large
group methods: Creating <br>
systemic changein organizations and communities</i>. San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.<br>
Cooperrider, D. L., Whitney, D., & Stavros, J. M. (2005).
<i>Appreciative inquiry handbook: The first in a series of AI workbooks
for leaders of change</i>. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.<br>
Hammond, S. A., & Mayfield, A. B. (2004). <i>The thin book of naming
elephants: How to <br>
surface undiscussables for greater organizational success</i>. Bend, OR:
Thin Book <br>
Publishing.<br>
Kelm, J. B. (2005). <i>Appreciative living: The principles of
Appreciative Inquiry in personal life.</i> Wake Forest, NC: Venet.
<br>
Orem, S. L., Binkert, J., & Clancy, A. L. (2007). <i>Appreciative
coaching: A positive process for change.</i> San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.<br>
Owen, H. (1997). <i>Expanding our now: The story of Open Space
Technology</i>. San Francisco, <br>
CA:
Berrett-Koehler.<br>
Stavros, J. M. & Torres, C. B. (2005). <i>Dynamic relationships:
Unleashing the power of appreciative inquiry in daily living.</i> Chagrin
Falls, OH: Taos Institute.<br>
<br>
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