Speaker 1: 0:18

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Search for Clarity. We are lucky to have our second session with Dr Jackie Stavros, where we are talking about leading with positivity, harnessing appreciative inquiry for transformational leadership. So just a reminder the views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the contributors, and this podcast is my own independent effort and it is in no way associated or endorsed with any of my employers or clients. So, brief overview if you haven't checked out episode one, it's a must see, because we really landed the overview of what appreciative inquiry is. And I say overview. It was a lot more detailed than that, wasn't it, jackie? But just a brief overview of Jackie.

Speaker 1: 1:03

So she's an industry expert in appreciative inquiry, which is a branch of psychology that focuses on positive change. She is recognized as a creator, so SOAR being S-O-A-R very clever use of the wording there and then Conversations Worth Having, along with many other publications, which have been across the globe, across 25 countries. Keynote speaker on Appreciative Inquiry, soar, leadership, development and Change Management. She's a professor. At the moment she's a professor at Lawrence Technological. I keep missing it up Professor at Lawrence Technological.

Speaker 2: 1:47

University.

Speaker 1: 1:49

She holds an MBA from Michigan State University, a doctorate from Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, and has been featured in Forbes, smart Brief, smart Company, the Smart Manager and many, many more. So that's, I mean, we have such a wonderful person to have on our show to tell us about appreciative inquiry and all these other things. And so we talked a lot last week, jackie, about or the last time we met about, you know, appreciative inquiry at an individual, I think predominantly more at an individual level, how we can tune in, how we can use generative questions to positive, you know, create a positive frame in order for us to start really driving more impact and more positive direction when we get into conversations and there are problems that need to be addressed and solved. Today I wanted to focus a little bit more around from a leadership perspective AI in the workplace and AI, again, as you said, humanistic AI, not the artificial AI. So appreciative inquiry. And so how does AI look like in the work environment?

Speaker 1: 2:55

Jackie, we talked about the five Ds. I know that kind of laid in some of the foundation of this. How does Sora and the five Ds relate to each other?

Speaker 2: 3:03

Now that's a great question to start and just a caveat to all the listeners out there this takes practice. There's only we talk about two practices how do we ask questions, generative questions, how do we frame things? Use a positive frame. But it takes practice and you have to really learn to tune in. And so, as we move into this week to talk about SOAR, appreciative inquiry is the operating system of SOAR and there's this visual of SOAR S-O-A-R, s-o-a-r. And when you look at the end of the A I'm sorry, at the end of the A and the R, you see A-I in it. It's very powerful. So appreciative inquiry is like an operating system. That's why, if you haven't seen the last podcast, I recommend you use that.

Speaker 1: 3:53

If I may, sorry for jumping in yeah. I think, something which I neglected to mention in our last section was the five principles. For me were the mindset aspect.

Speaker 2: 4:04

Yes, the mindset, the operating model.

Speaker 1: 4:05

It's the operating model, it's not a process, it's not a model, it is just a mindset, how you need to show up, and so I thought I'd just bring that in because it seems appropriate here. But that resonates, and I've been trying to get this right. Jackie, it is really hard to get right, to make sure you're constantly above the line. So I'm just you know, I'm living proof that, yes, it is challenging. So thanks for that.

Speaker 2: 4:33

And we all fall below the line. We all have the ain't it awful moment. So the question is if you tune in, you're like I am below the line. How long do you need to get above that line? And that's why the tuning in. If you just pause and breathe, just pausing and breathing, if you have your smart watch on, it'll lower your heart rate. It will impact the parasympathetic nerve. So just pausing and breathing begins to push you above that line and being curious.

Speaker 2: 5:01

So you asked me how do we bring this into the work environment? On bigger projects, we talked about everyday conversations as leaders. The 5G cycle is a methodology that, if I want to bring you together you and the team, or you could bring the entire organization for a day or two. What are we going to talk about? First, you define it. What do we need to discover about if we have everybody in the room? What are we going to dream about? Where are we going to talk about? First, you define it. What do we need to discover about if we have everybody in the room? What are we going to dream about? Where are we going to go? How are we going to design this? We got to make it happen. If we spend time discovering and dreaming how do we bring it into the workplace and how do we deliver on it? So that's where the SOAR framework came in to play.

Speaker 2: 5:42

About 25 years ago, I did my dissertation at Case on capacity building and capabilities and what I found is that I did a lot of strategy work, strategic planning work and I thought imagine a SOAR is a strategic thinking, mindset, planning, leading and operating framework.

Speaker 2: 6:03

That if I'm going to bring the team together, or the whole organization or an industry or community, we're going to talk about the strengths that's the us. We're going to talk about all the opportunities out there, we're going to ask about the aspirations of our stakeholders and then, if we want results which is the R we only have limited resources and time. What are the strategic initiatives? What are the projects we're going to focus on, to deliver? That connects with the vision of where the organization is going, the mission. Mission is what we do and who we do it for. Purpose is why we do it and it gives the team the energy to go out and take those strategic initiatives and put them into operating plans. So SOAR is a framework with a profoundly positive approach to strategic thinking, planning, leading and operating in your organizations today.

Speaker 1: 7:03

How would that look like? So you'd have a maybe talk about a few scenarios where we'd have. You would be like, right, this is it. I'm going to use this model in this instance. So I suppose it would be. We could have it at a team level, we could have it at a department level, we could even have it at in many cases that you've provided in your publication. You could have it at an entire organizational level and you've got that great publication which I'm showing now on the screen. I know you've got it next to you as well. I've got it on Kindle, so I can't lift up. I can just lift my, my Kindle's not even here.

Speaker 2: 7:36

So.

Speaker 1: 7:36

I can't even be fancy with that, but you've got that publication to walk you through that as well, right? What are the common scenarios that you would be like? Ah, this is a great time for me to bring this out.

Speaker 2: 7:47

I'm going to give you three, because this is Lee. Your podcast is all about clarity. I'm going to talk about probably one of the most transformational examples that happened with me, and then how to use it as a team and how to use it across an entire enterprise if you're working with a large organization. So many years ago I was asked I live in Michigan to go facilitate a two-day strategy session of how to shut a plant down. So the holding company multi-billion dollar holding company said we're going to close this plant in Michigan and it's going to. We don't want it to negatively impact the community and the 400 people that are going to lose their jobs, jackie, and they need a three-year plan and we're going to let them come up with how to shut the plant down. So I took the challenge and when I got there it was a challenge, you have to realize, not to take anything personally they weren't happy that I was the person helping them to put the plan together to shut down the plant, and so when I got there on a Monday morning, I laid out what our task was for two days and I said we have to come up with a three-year plan to shut this plant down.

Speaker 2: 8:58

And it was pretty negative to start off with and they were complaining that you know, we just got put on the shutdown list and nobody understood what was going on in this plant, what we could do. And I paused for a moment and I got curious and I said, well, what if we create a revitalization plant? And they said you can't, you're here to shut down the plant in three years. No-transcript, and it took them. It actually some of them got it right away, some of them needed a good half hour and they're like so Holy Company gets what they want. If we can't revitalize the plant, it's shut down in three years and we'll do it in two. If we might revitalize the plant, we stay open. I said, yeah, let's deliver that to them.

Speaker 2: 9:55

So we spent a day and a half coming up with that plan. The plant manager took it to the holding company in the East Coast and what was? If you don't close, if you don't turn around this plant in 14 months, we're going to shut it down in two years. And they said, yeah, and if we do turn it around, you're going to keep it open. Okay, the plant never shut down. And that was very transformational because we had to ship the way. They thought we had to give the holding company what they wanted. The people in the plant got what they wanted and the plant was revitalized. It was an innovation. There was a shutdown list and the open list, but this plant asked to be that.

Speaker 1: 10:44

They said they could revitalize this plant and the plant never shut down. And I love that story because, when you read these publications, you think these are fictitious stories, and I thought that this was a fictitious story, along with all the other stories that are in there, and then, getting to speak to, you got really excited about the fact that wait a minute these are actual stories. So, yeah, that was a really good story in the publication as well.

Speaker 2: 11:06

Yes, thank you. So then you asked like a team level? Here's a team level story, and imagine this might happen to you. Sometimes you don't get to choose the team you have to lead. And so this finance operations director at a very large global company stepped into a brand new position to lead the most dysfunctional team in the $2 billion division that they serviced. And the interesting thing was and again you can read this in the publication her name is Patricia. When Patricia stepped in, she went and talked to all the areas in the division, in the personal care division, that said all the things they were doing wrong, and then she asked them well, they must be doing something right, and what do you want them to do better? When she went back to her team of 15 people, they thought they were doing okay, and so what she did is she took the 15 people off site for a SOAR session and she said this is what the people need from you in this division. And because they were the team, the team came up. I mean, the company had its own vision, mission, value statements. It's a very large company, a very large division, but the finance team came up with their values, vision, mission and they came up with their strategic initiatives and they came up with their strengths, their opportunities, what their aspirations were, how they wanted to serve the division. Didn't happen overnight, but in 18 months they became a center of excellence, not only for their division personal care division but for the entire corporation. They were really empowered and the mindset of what we're doing well strengths, opportunities, aspirations and results. They came up with a strategy and they were a high-performing team. And results they came up with a strategy and they were a high performing team. So that's yeah.

Speaker 2: 12:57

And the third example for those of you that worked in the government and got in government, I had a executive director come to me and said from a high up in the government, I have 1500 employees and they all need to collaborate. And I have to tell all need to collaborate and I have to tell them how to collaborate. And I said to this man, keith, I said you can't tell people how to collaborate. I bet you there's collaboration in there. You have to go find it and I bet you there's innovative ways to collaborate.

Speaker 2: 13:25

So again, they applied the SOAR framework and they brought together not 1,500 people, but they brought together 10 people from each of the 15 capability teams for two days and they came up with a collaboration framework in all the ways they needed to collaborate, not only across the enterprise 15 different capability teams but within each capability team and they created a strategic collaboration framework. And it's great to stay in touch, because the first story was the plant stayed open. The second story was the Center of Excellence, and then they got written up on all these government magazines about how they created a strategic collaboration framework across the enterprise, not just the part here in Michigan, but across what they were doing in the country.

Speaker 1: 14:14

Yeah, and that's an interesting title to give it. So strategic collaboration framework. That would be SOAR really at the end of the day correct. Yes.

Speaker 2: 14:25

And just for the readers or for the listeners who are interested, if you go to the SOAR website on the resources, the article called SOAR 2020 and Beyond has all of these three stories in there for them as well. Thank you for that.

Speaker 1: 14:42

Perfect, yeah, and you'll see those resources in the notes I do call them notes notes under the YouTube video or in the transcript of the podcast as well, so they'll be there for you, jackie. So could you walk us through the application of the SOAR framework for a leader who is, I think, team level, department level is a good one who has a department? They're looking at their next financial year. They're not the best performing, they're not the worst performing, but how would they be able to take the SOAR framework at a practical level and start to apply it? I assume it's schedule a two-day meeting, either on-site or off-site, to start working through the framework, right?

Speaker 2: 15:25

Yeah, so in UK PONR framework, and that's correct, it's simply a framework. So if you're using other tools like Agile or Continuous Improvement, it's a framework for your discussions. And so when you're going to pull a team together, most organizations don't have two days to take people off site. You can do it in a day. Some people do a quick sort. They only have four or five hours together Some people. So it's really it's a framework that's flexible.

Speaker 2: 15:54

But you're going in with the intention that you have to either create a strategy around X, whatever a strategy or you're creating a strategic plan. So when you're bringing the people together, what you want to do with these people is, if you have values, vision, mission of the organization, that's where you connect to people. You know why are we here, what do we do, what's this organization or what is this team about? And then the first question or dialogue you're having is what are the strengths of our team, what are the strengths of our division? And it's not you saying these are the strengths, it's the people in the room saying no, this is what we're good at doing, that's what strengths is. It's capability, conversation. Now that we know our strengths the S then we're going to talk about vision and opportunities, not the vision of the corporation, the vision of where you see this department going or where you see this team going.

Speaker 1: 16:58

And what are the opportunities? This is all part of positive framing at this point in time, right.

Speaker 2: 17:02

Yeah, yeah. So then we're going to have maybe an hour and a half conversation about what are all the things we can do with our team, with our division. It could be your organization. You can do SOAR at any level. That's the opportunity you have.

Speaker 2: 17:16

The S and the O Aspirations is you're asking people what are their dreams, where do they want to see this organization going? Where do they want to see team going? What's their vision? And knowing that you've done the S, the O and the A, you can't do everything. Time is limited, people are limited. These are all the ideas. These are our capabilities.

Speaker 2: 17:44

What are the top three to five initiatives, or five to seven initiatives that we need to be focused on? For the next? It could be a year. You name the time in two to three years to achieve the results that you want to see. So SOAR allows you to frame a strategic dialogue around strengths, opportunities, aspirations and results. And it's the initiatives, the goals and the objectives, and it's a dialogue of what the people in the room think. So it's really important Now.

Speaker 2: 18:09

Typically we think of strategy and strategic planning as top-down, the senior leaders, the board, are involved. Now you end. You're really clear that we have a list of strategic initiatives or the plan. We have a strategy to revitalize plant or Patricia, she had a strategy and a strategic plan for her 15 person team that aligned with the division and Keith across the government. He had they had 40 opportunity ideas but they looked at all these opportunities and they they drew out a plan over three years of how to create the initiatives that supported the opportunities. So you don't have the burden of coming up with the strategy or the strategic plan, richard, on your own. Does that make sense?

Speaker 1: 19:15

It does. Yeah, it makes plenty of sense. It's a nice simple application of it as well, and it integrates very strongly, if not absolutely, into the 5D framework of discovery, dream, design and deploy. It's the same, I guess, probably just framed Everslow more into an organizational setting. I mean, what would be the distinctive difference between the two frameworks?

Speaker 2: 19:39

Look at the 5D cycle. It's a methodology. Soar is a framework to guide that methodology.

Speaker 1: 19:45

Ah, gotcha Okay.

Speaker 2: 19:47

So you can use them both together, or you could use the 5D cycle to study anything, anything you want, think of the principles, anything you want. Soar is typically used to help you think differently about strategy, planning, leading and operating strategically. And I would also say it's really flexible, because after people go SOAR, what they sometimes do is the next year they're going to start with the R results. What results did we achieve? What initiatives got there?

Speaker 2: 20:21

What new strengths do we have? So it's a very flexible framework that you could use. And in the other interview podcast we talked about Joe the plant manager. He just focused on the strengths of the second shift. That's what he focused on to transform the second shift. You don't have to do OAR. So it's a framework, it's flexible. You can use it any way you wish with what you're doing.

Speaker 1: 20:49

So what I've taken away from this is we've got based on conversations, with having the personal or individual level application of appreciative inquiry and driving more positive conversations, being more of an appreciative leader in leading teams, et cetera. And then you've got a framework like SOAR, which enables you to start planning strategically in a much more appreciative fashion. But I suppose SOAR could be applied even at an individual planning level as well. You'd be able to use it for your own planning of how you would approach the next FY or how you deal with a certain challenge you might have. Same principles would apply, correct.

Speaker 2: 21:30

Yeah, so in the Learning to Soar book I think it's around page 52 or 53. It's a real thin book. There's a framework that you can use it just for coaching people. Imagine having a coaching session where I start with you, richard, so tell me what's going on, tell me what your hopes are, what you want to do, what you hope to create. Why do you like being on this team? Where do you want to go? And then I'll ask you specifically what are the strengths that you bring to this position? What do you see as the opportunities in this position into this organization, richard? What are your aspirations? What do you care deeply about within this organization and what you can do and what results are you looking for for yourself and for the division so you can actually use it to coach people? And then you go into the diagram. You say so what do you need from me and other people in the organization so that you can soar?

Speaker 1: 22:26

I love the play on the word. It's great.

Speaker 2: 22:29

Just worked out nicely, yes.

Speaker 1: 22:30

Yeah, it really did. Yeah, that's really great. Thank you, jackie. So I think we've really covered it all well. My question is what is the vision? Landscape is shifting and changing at an alarming rate. How do you see this helping and driving the vision of future leadership?

Speaker 2: 23:15

So, when I look at an organization level, it's all about how we communicate and relate to one another. So, if you're going to use appreciative inquiry, it is strength-based, it's life-giving, it adds value, it values you and the people. So it's very appreciative inquiry, it's very dialogical, it has a set of principles, it has practices, it has the 5D cycle, and 4 was created because of appreciative inquiry. And, as a leader, you are going to be more engaged with your people. Leadership is about motivating others. You're going to be more motivated, your people will be more motivated in creating a really healthy organization. That is something that my colleagues and I are saying that it's both generative and regenerative. And so, as a leader, you're really thinking not just about me and my team in the organization, but you're thinking about what I call, probably, her sustainability. I'm thinking about the well-being of people, my customers, my suppliers, my people. You're thinking about the environment, are you?

Speaker 1: 24:25

taking care of the environment that you're operating within.

Speaker 2: 24:29

And, of course, profits, because if you don't have a profit, it's really hard to take care of people and planet. And really thinking about purpose, that appreciative inquiry and SOAR are both very dialogical processes that everybody can learn without even telling people you're doing AI or SOAR. We want to be in conversations of what do you want to happen, what do you want more of, what do we want more of? And it's not only taking care of your organization but the broader community.

Speaker 2: 24:58

Right yeah, which your organization not only physically lives but what it serves around. I mean we're all global organizations because of the internet today. Yeah, absolutely, and how do you promote, how do I, as a leader, promote learning and resilience? If I take great care of my people this has been said before my people are going to take great care of my customers.

Speaker 1: 25:21

Yeah, absolutely Well, thank you very much, jackie. To close out, as we're leading to closing out now, for those who are just starting this journey and putting this into practice and they really want to get these conversations right, what is the single most important piece of advice you can give them to get this journey that they've started right?

Speaker 2: 25:43

Yeah, I would say, give yourself space and grace, and it takes practice and we all have the ain't it awful moments that we fall below the line. So remember to just really tune in, be aware of where am I, where's my team, where's my employee, and then you can begin to use appreciative inquiry. You really understand. It's five principles, the two practices we talked about last time in the 5D cycle. You can use it formally or informally in your organizations, in the work that you do, and SOAR is simply a framework of how you're going to approach strategy, strategic thinking, strategic planning, strategic leading with your folks.

Speaker 1: 26:21

And on your website you've got sessions that you hold quite regularly to discuss conversations.

Speaker 2: 26:27

People will be having correct yeah, where people can get practice and share experiences right, so I'll put those details on the link as well.

Speaker 1: 26:35

And then, what has been your most important lesson through your journey?

Speaker 2: 26:46

that's a great question. Um, it's all about the people. People are the heart of your organization. Treat yourself well and treat them well.

Speaker 1: 26:55

Yeah, it's all about people thanks, jackie, so it's been an absolute treat to have you on the search for clarity. I know that we've definitely got a lot more clarity into the topic of appreciative inquiry and the saw framework. I've certainly taken a lot away from it, so I will have all the resources available to everyone on the youtube channel, on the podcast as well. So any any further information you want to get about um, conversations with having the saw framework or jack yourself all the content will be there and available. Jackie, once again a big thank you and I hope everyone enjoys the continued search for clarity on the topic of appreciative inquiry. We'll see you all next time We'll be providing. The next guest will be with us in two weeks or so, so looking forward to seeing you again on the search for clarity there. All the best, everyone and all the best. Jackie, thank you very much.

Speaker 2: 27:46

Thank you, Richard.