Podcasts August 21, 2024 In this special double-header, Scot Lowry and Jeff Bouwman share their discovery of Appreciative Inquiry and how, through the AiMS Institute, they have used it as a management approach to help companies transform the way they work. Scot is the Managing Partner at Promise One and a Professor focused on Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition. He has found great success in applying a strengths-based approach to engage teams and stakeholders in dialogues that value people and unleash potential. Jeff is the co-founder and CEO of The AiMS Institute and helps leaders create transformative change by bringing an innovative new approach to how they run their businesses. They join us to share how they have seen Appreciative Inquiry enable leaders to think, talk, and act differently in a time of unprecedented complexity and uncertainty. Listen Here Episode Highlights: Scot shares how using AI helped him successfully scale his company, transitioning from traditional management to embedding AI into daily operations, which led to increased employee engagement and business growth. Jeff highlights two essentials for leadership: being open to diverse perspectives and executing leadership through a strengths-based, appreciative approach. They share a case study with Precision Communication. A new owner faced resistance with a traditional top-down approach. By shifting to a co-creative process using AI, the company experienced a transformation in team dynamics, engagement, and business results. The owner involved the team in creating a new organizational structure and setting business priorities, leading to increased ownership, adaptability, and the achievement of 90-day goals. The company saw revenue growth and an energized team, indicating a cultural shift driven by appreciative practices. Scot and Jeff share that true engagement occurs by actively involving people in the process, a simple yet powerful principle that underpinned their success. They emphasize that they aren’t changing what is done, but rather HOW leadership is executed. They cite AI as a transformative tool for increasing engagement (the emotional connection that motivates employees to bring their best efforts voluntarily) and mutual commitment, moving away from top-down, command-and-control methods. Scot and Jeff stress the importance of AI as a management approach that encourages leaders to honor team input and integrate broader perspectives into decision-making. They recommend resources such as the AI Certificate Program at Champlain College, “Conversations Worth Having” by Jackie Stavros and Cheri Torres, and Jeff Bouwman’s Change Maker program. Jeff advises using simple, actionable AI-based questions to unlock team wisdom, such as asking what’s important, reflecting on past successes, and envisioning future possibilities. They both think that the best way to understand AI’s benefits is through direct experience. Scot LowryIt’s not WHAT we do. What we do still persists… What is getting taught in MBA programs is still valuable. But HOW you go about implementing the functions of management… Appreciative inquiry for us has been this unlocking mechanism that… taps into the engagement and releases the full capacity of a team. Jeff BouwmanHere’s how you create safety in a conversation quickly…Here’s how you get people committed to what you’re coming together to talk about. Here’s how you use inquiry and generative questions to create new ideas with everybody in the room. Here’s how you synthesize data based on the energy so that people are naturally compelled to commit, because they’re able to bring their strengths and line it up to the actions that they just identified Listen Here Did this episode inspire or impact you? Want to make an impact on us? If so, SHARE this episode with a friend, leave us a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts, and follow Inspiring Impacts wherever you listen to podcasts!Tags in this article
