What if the questions you ask are actually shaping the future of your organization?
In this episode of The Perfect Route, I sit down with Dr. Lindsey Godwin, professor at Champlain College and Academic Director of the Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry, to explore how leaders can create meaningful change by focusing not only on what is broken, but on what is already working—and what is possible next.
Dr. Godwin explains Appreciative Inquiry, a strength-based approach to organizational change that helps teams, leaders, and entire systems build on existing strengths, co-create solutions, and move toward a shared vision of the future.
In this conversation, we discuss:
• What Appreciative Inquiry is—and what it is not
• The 5D Appreciative Inquiry cycle: Define, Discover, Dream, Design, and Deliver
• Why Appreciative Inquiry is more than positive thinking
• How better questions can change the direction of a team or organization
• Why people are more likely to support change they help co-create
• How diversity and equity of voice improve organizational decision-making
• The difference between traditional SWOT analysis and the strength-based SOAR framework
• Why leaders should focus on creating healthy conflict instead of eliminating conflict
• How Appreciative Inquiry can be applied to coaching, strategic planning, and organizational development
• The emerging connection between Appreciative Inquiry and artificial intelligence
• Why human connection, collaboration, and meaning may become even more important as technology advances
One of the biggest takeaways from our conversation is simple:
Organizations move in the direction of the questions they ask.
Instead of always beginning with:
“What’s wrong?”
“What’s broken?”
“What needs to be fixed?”
What could change if leaders also asked:
What’s working?
What can we build on?
What do we want tomorrow to look like?
If you are a CEO, executive, business leader, coach, consultant, or anyone responsible for leading people through change, this conversation offers a practical new way to think about leadership and organizational development.
To learn more about Appreciative Inquiry, visit the Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry at Champlain College at appreciativeinquiry.champlain.edu.
You can also connect directly with Dr. Lindsey Godwin on LinkedIn.
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