Appreciative Inquiry with Heike Aiello

Transcript

Full transcript, edited for readability. Every timestamp jumps the video to that moment.

Heike Aiello: I think that every leader should have the approach, the principles, and some methods for an Appreciative Inquiry in their repertoire. Because over and over, I find that people don't leave organizations, they leave bosses, and people yearn for recognition. They want to be seen, they want to be appreciated. And these bosses, who are human beings I work with, are themselves under pressure. And what do we do under pressure? I said it at the beginning of this podcast. Our mind narrows, we go into our survival mode, and we see the negative. But it is so important to stay still, breathe, expand, see people, appreciate people, and let people co-create. That's what organizations need, and that's what fuels my work every day. Tobi: Have you ever ended a coaching session and noticed that you spent the entire hour inside the problem space of the client? You analyzed the problem, you looked at the root cause, and at the end of the conversation, maybe your client was smarter than when they came, but also a lot more tired and less energized. My guest today, Heike Aiello, says that for this reason it is unethical to coach the problem, because what you focus on expands. Heike is an ICF PCC coach. She's the founder of her coaching practice, CoreConnect, and she's the president-elect of ICF Germany. And most importantly for today's conversation, she works with Appreciative Inquiry, an approach that comes from organizational development and that she has also brought into one-on-one coaching with an approach she calls Appreciative Coaching. So today we talk about how to invite a client to step out of the shadow of their problem. We look at the four phases of the appreciative process: discover, dream, design, and destiny. We look at how this is very different from using the GROW model, for example, and we also look at the principles that underlie this approach. Of course, we also make this very practical. In the middle of our conversation, we have a small coaching demo where Heike spontaneously coaches me on a personal topic that ends up being about making choices. So if you are coaching one-on-one and you want to get from stuck to appreciating what works, then this one is for you. Let's go. Tobi: So if I watch the news or if I join any meeting at any company, I find that we as humans, and also our coaching clients, are often very much focused on problems. And to overcome that problem focus, you are using an approach that's called appreciative inquiry and appreciative coaching. Can you explain that a bit? What's the power of this approach?