Ranch reflections, and my favorite AI “tool”

We found another form of AI that can help CEO's and CMO's train for a different future: Appreciative Inquiry.

My clients and I leave shortly for “The Midlife Innovator” retreat at MEA in Santa Fe, NM. We walk together under wide open desert skies–a liminal space to navigate career and company transitions.

It’s a messy, uncertain, yet exciting space where our questions–not our expertise or prompt engineering prowess–guide our evolution. CEOs, SVPs and CMOs from across the USA are joining me for our 9th cohort.

CEO and CMO Training at MEA Santa Fe, NM campus.

And not a moment too soon.

We’re witness to forces toppling old ways of working and leading. Generative AI, geopolitical turmoil, media misinformation, and hybrid work are fueling concern and confusion about the future.

Thankfully, we found another form of AI that can help us design a different future: Appreciative Inquiry. It’s a favorite AI “tool” of mine used during CEO and CMO training and it might become one of yours, too.

AI provides a generative process of questioning. It seeks what is working, rather than what is broken, missing, or needs “fixing.”

The founder of Appreciative Inquiry, professor Dr. David Cooperrider, developed the concept in the 1980s with Dr. Suresh Srivastva.

Thousands of organizations such as British Airways, Coca-Cola, Marriott, NASA, World Wildlife Fund, and the U.S. Navy have incorporated AI into their change management and coaching programs.

In our upcoming retreat at the 2,600-acre Rising Circle Ranch, I will demonstrate how our cohort can ask better questions.

Great questions require reflection. They help us discover and design inspiring new futures. They spark innovation.

The first step towards asking great questions is knowing the difference between “generative” and “diagnostic” questions.

A diagnostic question promotes a fixed mindset, and often invites criticism and “below the line” behaviors. Typical questions include:

  • Why can’t I see the ideal next step?
  • What went wrong with this acquisition?
  • How can I stop worrying about my company’s cash flow?
  • How do I prove to my CEO that they were wrong?

Generative questions, on the other hand, are not constrained by the past.

They provoke curiosity. They explore what is possible—versus creating a “Groundhog Day” cycle.

I invented that expression because I hear it often among senior leaders during our CEO and CMO training sessions. A Groundhog Day approach to career and company transition sounds like “How can I find a new role and company just like the last one?” and “Why not just automate/streamline/repeat what we’re doing with the current customer base?”

That’s not innovation. That’s an efficiency move.

It’s tempting to burrow like a groundhog. Just ask Nike, Starbucks, and IBM. They have earned dubious accolades as modern-day turnarounds. I describe their strategy and financial hiccups in our 86th episode (here).

How can YOU benefit from this generative AI “model?”

Consider using it to help teams prepare for your strategic planning meetings, 2025 budget discussions, and team performance reviews. Here’s how.

  1. Prior to the planning meetings, ask each participant to prepare some generative questions. Rule number 1: they cannot share or compare answers until everyone has gathered. Questions might include:
  • How can we help new customers realize major benefits within their first 10 days of purchase?
  • What’s the best way to inspire my hybrid teams in 2025?
  • How does our new CRM strategy help our European account teams be more successful?
  1. Work with an outside adviser to assess your company and marketing strengths and challenges. Gather themes. Rank or convert to word clouds. Canva and Slido offer word cloud features, mostly free.
  2. Be efficient. I use generative AI to distill dozens of pages of notes and transcripts, and to provide themes. I always create a custom GPT and remove all client references in my prompts. Leveraging paid versions of Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT and Perplexity provides fresh input and streamline planning. I prompt two different LLMs concurrently and keep the best outputs.
  3. Facilitate a “Time Capsule” exercise. Each leader writes an emotional and factual narrative of what they would say about the company if they were interviewed by a Tier 1 business publication 5 years from now. I provide a questionnaire and a guide to help you lead this exercise in my earlier book, EnergizeGrowth NOW. Debriefing these exercises together or in pairs can inspire and reveal a lot about your greatest (and often hidden) attributes.

For me, the seeds of Appreciative Inquiry sprouted on a beautiful Santa Fe Sunday morning in May 2023. While attending the MEA reunion, I grabbed some time with my dear friend and MEA co-founder, Chip Conley:

I asked him: “How can I get a YES to co-lead a Santa Fe retreat with YOU?” He said YES!

One thoughtful generative question led to a new client offering and launched a community of dynamic industry leaders facing high-stakes transitions. I can’t wait to see our “cowboy cohort” on Thursday.

And my final campfire secret: I will never question the power of curiosity!

This post was completely written by me — a human. I did not use generative AI.

© 2024, Lisa Nirell. All rights reserved. lisanirell.com.

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