[Ailist] Deficit and Constructionist Approaches

[Jane Magruder Watkins]

Dear Colleagues: Another way of looking at this is to understand that in
"social constructionism" the notion of positive and negative is socially
constructed! Can you imagine that a large organization would ever be able to
have everyone agree on what is + and what is - ??? I'm really into trying to
learn how see the wholeness of a situation and to know that however I "tag"
it in my own thoughts and feelings, in fact there are many ways to move
forward together without insisting on "labeling" an event or situation as
positive or negative. 

AI ALWAYS looks at the whole situation knowing that there are many ways of
seeing, feeling, labeling the events, ideas, etc. But I truly believe that
if Jack Welsh focused on what was broken, he also must have moved quickly
into the AI question, i.e., think of a time when you were in this terrible
situation and you got through it successfully. What did you learn that can
be useful to us in this situation. And what is your image of how you'd
really like this to be...... AI is not about the positive! It is about
knowing how to avoid getting bogged down in the blame and shame phase and
move into the search for the best possible outcome of any given situation.
It's in this ability that empowers and enables groups and systems to create
images of what they DO want and to share both the ideas and the commitment
to achieve it. 

I was reading an article today in the ODN Journal about work with the Maasai
tribe in Kenya. And once again it reminded me of how the relational cultures
of Africa, Latin America and Asia know that the focus is really not on the
activity, rather it is on the relationships. If the relationships are in
alignment, any task can be successfully worked out. Plato and his notion of
"a perfect tree" or perhaps "perfect treeness" has us Europeans trapped in
dichotomy! AI gives us a way forward and saves us the angst of blame and
shame!

I love this discussion! I think this is the heart of what AI is about.

Appreciatively, Jane

Jane Magruder Watkins & Ralph Kelly
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-----Original Message-----
From: ailist-bounces at lists.business.utah.edu
[mailto:ailist-bounces at lists.business.utah.edu] On Behalf Of Brian Guest
Sent: Sunday, April 19, 2009 5:29 AM
To: ailist at lists.business.utah.edu
Subject: [Ailist] Deficit and Constructionist Approaches

Perhaps some list members would like to comment on, or add their own
experience or reflections to, the following argument on balancing the two
approaches? 
Thank you,
Brian Guest
 
 
Extract from “The Irrational Side of Change Management” by Carolyn Aiken and
Scott Keller, McKinsey Quarterly April 2009:
 
It takes a story with both + and – to create real energy. 
 
The “deficit based” approach—which identifies the problem, analyzes what’s
wrong and how to fix it, plans, and then takes action—has become the model
predominantly taught in business schools and is presumably the default
change model in most organizations. Research has shown, however, that a
story focused on what’s wrong invokes blame and creates fatigue and
resistance, doing little to engage people’s passion and experience.
 
This has led to the rise of the “constructionist based” approach to change,
where the change process is based on discovery (discovering the best of what
is), dreaming (imagining what might be), designing (talking about what
should be), and destiny (creating what will be). The problem with this
approach is that an overemphasis on the positive can lead to watered down
aspirations and impact.
 
The reason is that, as humans, we are more willing to take risks to avoid
losing what we’ve got than we are to gain something more. Some anxiety is
useful when it comes to spurring behavioral change. We believe the field of
change management has drawn an artificial divide between deficit-based and
constructionist-based approaches and stories.
 
While it is impossible to prescribe generally how the divide should be split
between positive and negative messages (as it will be specific to the
context of any given change program), we strongly advise managers not to
swing the pendulum too far in one direction or another. Consider Jack Welch,
former CEO at GE, who took questions of “what’s wrong here?” (poorly
performing businesses, silo-driven behavior, and so forth) head-on, as well
as “imagining what might be” (number one or two in every business, openness,
and accountability).
 


      
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