Me and AI - Part 3

I just realized it has been a while since I shared with you about my engagement with Appreciative Inquiry methodology. And there is still so much to be told! So here are a few more details and I hope you enjoy reading them.

 

During the Culture Transformation summits I developed friendships with colleagues who were like me passionate about the leadership theme. These growing friendship and common passion were nurtured throughout the facilitator training events in which most of us participated. We created a community of practice in HP named “Leadership at All Levels” and in our work we used AI continually as we revisited our goals and plans, and interviewed several people in our company to share inspiring leadership stories.

I had become a fan of AI and proactively shared my experience in the IPG summits and the training with colleagues, friends and family.

One of the missions given to employees trained in AI and the Discovery of the Positive Core was to organize introductory sessions to AI and full 4-D cycle workshops with as many employees as possible in our teams and geographies, so that the power of the desired transformation towards a Culture of High Performance could be spread and results achieved as fast as possible. So I worked with my leadership team and took them through a short AI workshop aiming at discovering the Positive Core of our organization in Iberia (Spain and Portugal). The outcome was above my expectations – we defined together the core elements of the organization and agreed to do a workshop with the Portuguese team and to leverage AI to the business workshops planned for the new fiscal year kick-off event with the whole Iberia organization.

Another interesting experience was my contribution to the planning of HP’s Women Summit in EMEA. I didn’t attend the event nor was a member of the planning team. Instead I was interviewed to support the discovery of the Positive Core of HP women and 70% of the questions were AI-driven and focused on excitement, success, hope and action. Reading through my answers to that interview I can’t help smiling - what I mentioned then about my experiences and the changes needed still stands true today!

In HP I have promoted Appreciative Inquiry and facilitated team building and business focused workshops. I believe I have “converted” other colleagues to the power and effectiveness of AI to drive change no matter what the focus theme might be. And it was not easy task! It took me a lot of persistence, solid arguments and proof points to convince team leaders of the benefits they would get from using AI. Initially it was my reputation and the trust the management team had in me that helped getting a “go” for the AI workshops.

I will never forget that I had the pleasure to co-facilitate an AI Introductory Workshop to the IPG EMEA Leadership team with Anita Sanchez, the AI consultant and trainer hired by HP and other 4 HP colleagues. In this occasion, Anita ensured a good preparation with the group and used the opportunity to follow up on our individual activities, successes, challenges with AI, and provided very useful advice and guidance. This check-point motivated me to reinforce the AI message in the region and to further work with some of the leaders that participated in the event and were motivated to leverage AI to achieve better business results.

Following this Leadership meeting, a colleague and I delivered a workshop for the IPG team in the Netherlands, including the definition of the team’s Positive Core and a customized AI interview guide. The event had very good outcomes with concrete actions with owners assigned, that were later actively followed by the management team. It was again a great personal and professional experience. Anita offered her support and consultancy during the whole process which built our confidence and influenced the event’s success.

How about your own stories with change management, Appreciative Inquiry or other methodology?  I would love to learn about them.

PS. My next post on AI is coming very soon, so stay tuned!