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Dreaming Back to the Future
Using Appreciative Inquiry to define your Nonprofit, Part 3 (of 4)

Imagine the best possible scenario for your nonprofit organization. Imagine it doing everything you ever wanted. Imagine being looked up to as the leader in the field. What would that be like? 

The second phase of Appreciative Inquiry, the dreaming phase, is downright fun. When was the last time you were asked to daydream, to fantasize, or to imagine anything you want? In this phase, small groups of up to 15 people will meet to come up with their dreams for your nonprofit's future. (If your organization is larger, you may want to divide into smaller groups and then come together at the end of the process.)

You might consider inviting people outside your organization to participate. For example writers, artists, scientists, architects, and psychologists are people who are used to thinking about alternative ways of being, who can see behavior from a different framework. "I was stunned when this science fiction writer came in and we began to dream up these outrageous possibilities," one board member said. "Who knows if the world will go in that direction, but suddenly we could see there were no barriers, that we aren't stuck with just what we have now."

A facilitator for each group will present two or three questions, often using themes already determined in the discovery phase, to get the process started. This person could be a trained professional, or someone from within your organization who has spent time learning about Appreciative Inquiry. (Links for more information are below.)

The facilitator will ask each person in turn to present their ideas. At first people may feel a little awkward, maybe looking around to see what everyone else is doing. But soon you might hear people saying, "This might sound crazy, but what if?.." or "Don't laugh," when they start presenting ideas. Envisioning what might be? Most people are doing it all the time, even if it has come across as grumbling. (You've heard it: "We ought to..." , "If only we had...", "I wish we could..." ) It doesn't take long for the group to get caught up in the excitement of encountering the possible - always infinitely more fun and generative than encountering problems.

From a practical point of view, I've found that large (4x8") Sticky Post-It notes, which come in neon colors, work best for this process. Give everyone as many as they can use. You may want to use different colors for different questions.

I like to ask each person to jot down their ideas and stick the notes up somewhere on the walls, while they're telling us about them. Very quickly there is a strong sense of possibility all around: the room is physically full of exciting ideas. And as the dreams fill up the room, a clear shared sense of the future, of what could be, will emerge. This is where a facilitator can help everyone see trends, and can help sort the ideas - sometimes by rearranging the notes right away - and envision what could be. And someone should collect the dream notes and write up all the ideas to create shared images for the next phase. 

I attended a board meeting recently where people were fighting to stay awake during an analysis of financial models. The dreaming session followed this, already late in the day, and some people groaned when they heard we weren’t finished. But after we spent two hours "dreaming", board members stood in little groups, unwilling to leave, talking excitedly and pointing out different dream notes stuck up on the walls.

The "deficit thinking" style, which sees the organization as having problems that must be solved, has dominated thinking in the past few decades. We've all become accustomed to thinking that identification of problems, followed by an analysis of possible solutions, is the professional way to plan for the future and to effect change. But problem solving has a high energy cost. Leaving a meeting where Appreciative Inquiry has been used, it's quite notable how people are energized, rather than drained.

I believe that the first people to try "dreaming" should be the Board of Directors. When the board goes through this process, the whole organization feels the energy of their forward thinking. The mission statement becomes a living document, rather than that thing you have to look up when you're filling out documents. 

Dreaming sessions are infinitely useful for those charged with describing the nonprofit’s vision. Grant proposals can be much easier to write when a dialogue has been started about the future. You start thinking differently once you have collectively imagined what could be. Putting thoughts in words suddenly gives them a certitude that changes them from "dreams" to "ideas". 

It has to be dreamed up to be possible. 

Part Four of this series will look at the last phase of this approach: "design."

What is Appreciative Inquiry? Appreciative Inquiry is a methodology for developmental change, created by David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva at Case Western Reserve Weatherhead School of Management in the 1980's. It focuses on the best in an organization, using provocative questions, storytelling and directed conversation. Find out more.

Reprinted with permission from Grantstation. From the March 8 issue of the GrantStation Newsletter.