Ask the Right Questions: Problem Solving versus Appreciative Inquiry

“A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a lifetime’s experience.” Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr

The key to effective insight is asking the right questions.

There are two key types of questions:

Problem Solving is a critical skill that focuses on eliminating undesirable results.

Appreciative Inquiry is a critical skill that capitalizes on what works (“bright spots”) to create a better set of results.

Of the two types of critical skills, Appreciative inquiry offers more leverage in designing positive metrics.

When we analyze performance, we tend to focus on what is not working. (Example: If the test score is 85%, we are looking at what happened in the 15% not earned.)

Many management processes begin with a gap analysis. Focussing on closing gaps is a full time business. And gap analysis leads to a problem solving mentality, not the creative thinking that is needed for the vision imperative. (*)

Problem solving could be considered an avoidance mechanism, focused on avoiding the negative results that a problem generates. Unfortunately, the tendency towards problem solving has a major influence on the type and quality of questions asked.

Of course, in dire or rapidly deteriorating circumstances, solving problems is essential – but by itself it is insufficient. After addressing the issues of these serious consequences, problem solving typically does not create anything to replace the consequences that have occurred. What must take over at this point is the leverage of what works.

This approach can be illustrated through the case of British Airways.

British Airways is an organization that that constantly looks for ways to improve service in order to enhance customer satisfaction and retention. Baggage loss is a problem for all airlines and is a major satisfaction issue for travellers. Any traveller who has lost a bag knows the situation all too well. The feeling of knowing that the luggage has been misplaced lasts a long time in the mind of the customer.

One of the British Airways approaches to this problem was to study and attempt to minimize the amount of time it took to recover a lost bag. After all, one of the cornerstones of customer service is responsiveness to problems. A problem-solving mentality could set a goal for responsiveness focussing on baggage recovery speed, looking to get the bag back to the customer as quickly as possible. But…the whole construct of improving lost baggage systems is a bit like trying to reduce heart attacks by speeding up the ambulance service. The recovery system doesn’t get to the root of the customer outcome that would make a difference in satisfaction and retention. If customer service and retention are the overall intent, then baggage handling is tied to “exceptional arrival experience”.

If we use appreciative inquiry, the key question would be: What do we do well that, if we did more of it, would improve the overall travel experience for our customers? What do we do right that gets most bags where they are supposed to be?

Contrasting the goal-question-metric exercise under appreciative inquiry versus problem-solving offers telling insights:

PROBLEM SOLVING

Goal: Reduce baggage recovery time

Question: How long does it take to recover a lost bag?

Metric: Time required to close a lost-bag claim

Strategy: Create a best-in-class baggage recovery system

Investment: Lost-baggage tracking systems and reporting dashboard

APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY

Goal: Exceptional arrival experience

Question: What do we do well that, if we did more of it, would most affect the customer’s perception of an exceptional arrival experience?

Metric: Customer compliments, customer retention

Strategy: Improve the customer touch points from end-to-end

Investment: End-to-end processes based on demographic and psychographic research of customer delight factors, including the timely arrival of luggage

The right metrics focus people’s minds on doing the right things. If we focus on deficit, we get more deficit. If we focus on what is working, we get more of what is working.

This fosters a creation mentality based on appreciation of what is working.

The positive orientation of appreciative creates a whole new set of possibilities in terms of better goal clarity and better choice of questions, leading to better metric design, clearer strategies and better use of scarce resources.

* Vision imperative: Translating intention into strategy, goals and metrics. The process of defining goals and metrics clarifies and refines the strategy.

(from Executing your Strategy: How to Break it Down and Get it Done, by Mark Morgan, Raymond Levitte and William Malek, HBR Press)