Images of a New Future:

A Documentation on Appreciative Inquiry at Save the Children/US Philippines Field Office

January 15, 2000

This document is written and produced through a partnership between:

Save the Children, Philippine Field Office--Christopher Szecsey

and

Global Excellence in Management (GEM) Initiative--Timothy Skaggs

Images of a New Future A Documentation of Appreciative Inquiry

Acknowledgment

We would like to acknowledge some of the key figures who made this study into organizational possibilities happen. The staff of Save the Children, US, Philippines Field Office did everything possible to make this happen. Special thanks to Beth San Miguel for being a wonderful host and an amazing coordinator and to Mike Novell for his commitment to this project. They are only two of many who gave so freely of their time and talent. Thanks to Ada Jo Mann and Claudia Liebler for GEM’s commitment to the project and for their editing recommendations. Finally, the cooperation and hospitality of demonstrated by the partner NGOs and community leaders was overwhelming. You reminded us of why we chose to do this work.

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Table of Contents

Page Number

Glossary of Terms 4

I. Introduction 5

II. Background and Overview 6

☺ Save the Children/US, Philippine Field Office 6 ☺ Global Excellence in Management (GEM) 7 ☺ Appreciative Inquiry 7 ☺ Appreciative Inquiry and Save the Children/US, ☺ Philippine Field Office. 10

III. Methodology 11

IV. The NGO Sponsorship Partnership Initiative 12

☺ Background 12 ☺ The Three Sponsorship Partners 12 ☺ Appreciative Inquiry and the NGO Partnership Sponsorship Initiative 14 ☺ Key Learnings 18

V. Community Mobilization for Health 18

☺ The KSP Project 18 ☺ Appreciative Inquiry and the KSP Project 19 ☺ KSP Project Results 24 ☺ Key Learnings 24

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VI. Other Program Activities 25

☺ Department of Health, Government of Philippines Partnership: Barangay Health Workers Continuing Learning and Advocacy for Sustained Service (BHW CLASS Project) 26 ☺ World Vision, Focus on the Safe Home 27 ☺ Adolescent Development Program 27

VII. The Internal Development of Save the Children/US, Philippine Field Office. 28

☺ Background and Overview 28 ☺ Appreciative Inquiry and the Building of Internal Capacity 30 ☺ Learnings 34

VIII. Summative Learnings 35

☺ Appreciation and Participation 35 ☺ Diffusion 36 ☺ Being and Doing 36 ☺ Internal and External Champions 37 ☺ Contextualization 37

IX. Appendix 39

☺ Interview Protocol 39 ☺ Interview Schedule 43 ☺ Project from Metro Manila Staff 44

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Glossary of Terms

ACM Appreciative Community Mobilization ADP Adolescent Development Program AI Appreciative Inquiry Barangay Smallest political unit BHW CLASS Barangay Health Worker Continuing Learning and Advocacy for Sustained Service CBIRD Community Based Integrated Resources Development CBO Community Based Organization CHP Community Health Program CO Community Organization DOH Department of Health GEM | Global Excellence in Management GO Government Organization IDCMF-PFP Iloilo Doctors College of Medicine Foundation Partnership for Health Project IEC Information, Education and Counseling KSP Kalusagan sa Pamilya (Health for the Family) NGO Non-governmental Organization OD Organizational Development P/CB Partnering/Capacity Building PACAF Philippine Agency for Community and Family, Inc. PDFI Paranaque Development Foundation, Inc. PhFO Philippine Field Office PMCDF Paranaque Manpower and Community Development Foundation PVO Private Voluntary Organization SC Save the Children SC/US PhFO Save the Children, Philippine Field Office SDS Social Development Services SWOT Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund UNO United NGOs of Olongapo USAID United States Agency for International Development WCI Women and Children Initiative

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“Rather than viewing development programming and implementation that is problem and needs oriented, we are looking at an alternative way that emphasizes more what is working best, what is valued and what provides a positive base from which to strengthen development efforts. Starting with an appreciation of what is there to value and building on possibilities of what might be, to create an enabling environment that will ensure quality of life for children and their families. To put it simply we are challenging the ‘glass is half empty’ assumption to reorient our thinking to ‘the glass is half full’. The implications of this mendacity are potentially profound and will require experimentation, innovation and learning as we restructure the organizational culture internally, within the PhFO and revise our development methodologies with partner organizations.”

-- Mike Novell, SC/US Philippines Country Director

I. Introduction

The purpose of this document is to chronicle the different applications of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) in community mobilization for health, NGO/PVO partnership development and organizational capacity building. Specifically this initiative seeks to describe the AI process as applied to each of the three areas mentioned above and identify the results of using AI in these different applications.

The preparation of this document represents a collaborative effort between Save the Children, US, Philippines Field Office (SC/US PhFO) and the Global Excellence in Management (GEM) Initiative. Through this writing SC/US PhFO will have consolidated and documented its experience of applying AI in three domains and GEM will increase its understanding of how a major PVO is adapting AI to its home environment. Additionally we also believe that the report will be of value to the international development community and the donor organizations that make our work possible. We believe this documentation helps to provide insight into innovative approaches to development work and organizational learning.

Sections II is a background description of the two organizations partnering to prepare this documentation and a brief overview of the Appreciative Inquiry approach to organizational change. Section III describes the methodology used in conducting this study into the use of Appreciative Inquiry at SC/US PhFO. Section IV, V, VI and VII are elaborations on the three areas of inquiry: partnership, community mobilization for health and internal organizational change. Sections IV, V and VII provide background on the three areas of application, an analysis of the data collected from participant interviews and a learnings section. Section VI is a description of other initiatives that are being undertaken that are outside of the KSP project. They are worth mentioning because they are based on Appreciative Inquiry, but we did not probe deeply into these projects. Finally,

5 Images of a New Future A Documentation of Appreciative Inquiry section VIII draws out some of the meta-learnings that punctuated this inquiry and cut across all of the project areas.

II. Background and Overview

Save the Children/US, Philippines Field Office

In 1981 Save the Children/US opened a country program in the Philippines. The first program office was established in Iloilo City and programming activities began on Guimaras Island in mid-1982. A second program site was established in Adams, Ilocos Norte under a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) grant, in late 1985. This site was an upland minority setting. Subsequently, in 1987, an urban based program was established in Metro Manila with the assistance of the National Housing Authority and UNICEF, which focused on working with squatter communities.

The first eight years of the agency’s work in country followed the standard implementation of community based integrated resource development (CBIRD) programs in three dissimilar settings: rural lowland, upland minority and urban squatter areas. In 1990, with the shift in the agency’s programming approach world wide, the Philippines Field Office (PhFO) shifted from the former model of programming to one more focused on specific sectoral projects, under the umbrella of women child impact (WCI). In addition, in 1993, a major USAID grant allowed for the PhFO to expand to the Olongapo City, Zambales, for a five year project which was completed in 1998.

Starting in 1998, senior PhFO staff began restructuring the country program effort, which has resulted in a more focused program highlighting sectoral work in the education and health sectors all with a focus on children, youth and women. In addition the field office has placed priority emphasis on sponsorship management and programming. This was accomplished both through direct implementation and NGO partnerships. The PhFO has shifted to a strategy that places greater emphasis on partnering and capacity building (P/CB) with community-based organizations (CBOs), nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and government organizations GOs for much of its programming.

Growth of the country program is presently occurring in the West Visayas Region and Metro Manila. In the West Visayas Region, SC/US is operational in two

6 Images of a New Future A Documentation of Appreciative Inquiry provinces, Iloilo and Guimaras, and is poised to expand into other provinces: Antique, Capis and Aklan. SC’s presence in Metro Manila is primarily in the southern portion of the metropolitan area. SC/US PhFO overall work in-country is supportive of the geographical priorities outlined under the Philippine Government’s development agenda.

The core programs located in West Visayas and Metro Manila cover a total of 58 communities and thirteen municipalities composed of 269,163 residents. The specific work locations in the West Visayas Program, Guimaras and Iloilo, encompass a total of 47 villages and eight municipalities. The total population of these municipalities is 237,672. The West Visayas’ target villages are predominately rural agricultural settings, along with marginal fishing communities in some instances. The Metro Manila program specifically focuses on urban squatter communities and work in five municipalities, covering a total of eleven communities with a population of 31,491. The target communities are urban squatter sites exhibiting varying degrees of physical development and populated with individuals who have often times spent many years as squatters.

Global Excellence in Management

The Global Excellence in Management (GEM Initiative) began in 1994 as a cooperative agreement between Case Western Reserve University, Weatherhead School of Management and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Office of Private and Voluntary Cooperation. It is a university-based program of learning and education that works in partnership with US Private and Voluntary Organizations (PVOs) and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to conduct capacity building programs at the individual, organizational, interorganizational and community level.

GEM is known for programs that are original and intellectually alive; for its signature themes of appreciative inquiry, global partnership and knowledge generation; for its human centered approach responsive to the advanced learning agendas of PVO and NGO leadership teams; and for capacity building work that is collaboratively constructed for enduring consequence. Participation in GEM programs enables organizations to discover and heighten their capacities to continuously learn, change and innovate.

GEM’s capacity building programs have a common theme of enhancing partnership. This emphasis on partnership, especially the partnership between northern PVOs and southern NGOs grows out of observations, learnings, participant feedback and changing donor priorities that all point to the lesson that effective development requires cooperation among diverse constituencies to confront challenges none can successfully address alone. GEM’s programs and services include the

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Customized Partnership program to strengthen collaboration between PVO and NGO partners by developing strategies to increase pa rtnership effectiveness. GEM assists US PVOs in “retooling” to meet new challenges inherent in NGO capacity building. Save the Children/US, Philippines Field Office is a participant in the Customized Partnership Program.

Appreciative Inquiry All the greatest and most important problems of life are fundamentally insoluble.... They can never be solved but only outgrown. This ‘outgrowing’ proves on further investigation to require a new level of consciousness. Some higher or wider interest appeared on the horizon and through this broadening of outlook the insoluble problem lost its urgency. It was not solved logically in its own terms but faded when confronted with a new and stronger life urge. -- Carl Jung No problem is ever solved at the level of thinking that created it. -- Albert Einstein

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) has been described in a myriad of ways: a radically affirmative approach to change that completely let’s go of problem-based management, the most important advance in action research in the past decade, or the touchstone of the organization development philosopher. Summing up AI is challenging -- it is a philosophy of knowing, a methodology for managing change, an approach to leadership and human development.

Appreciative Inquiry is the cooperative search for the best in peopl e, their organizations and the world around them. It involves systematic discovery of what gives a system “life” when it is most effective. AI involves the art and practice of asking questions that strengthen a system’s capacity to heighten positive potential. It mobilizes inquiry through crafting an “unconditional positive question” often involving hundreds people. In AI, inquiry gives way to imagination and innovation; instead of negation, criticism, and spiraling diagnosis there is discovery, dream and design. AI assumes that every living system has untapped, rich, and inspiring accounts of the positive. Link this “positive change core” directly to any change agenda and changes never thought possible are democratically mobilized.1

AI founder, David Cooperrider, Ph.D., discovered in his dissertation research that questions posed in studying organizations were in and of themselves creating change, challenging the traditional role of the researcher as the objective

1 “Appreciative Inquiry” by David Cooperrider and Diana Whitney from Collaborating for Change, Berrett-Koehler Communications, Inc. 1999

8 Images of a New Future A Documentation of Appreciative Inquiry observer. At its foundation AI suggests that the questions we ask influence what we find. So, the focus of inquiry becomes fateful in the organization. AI has become both an academic research methodology and an organizational development (OD) technology.

Through its deliberately positive assumptions about people, organizations, and relationships, AI leaves deficit oriented approaches to management behind, and vitally transforms the ways we approach questions of organizational improvement. AI has been used to study and change many organizational phenomenon including: organizational culture, strategic planning, organizational learning, customer focus groups, coaching, leadership development, diversity training, performance appraisal, communications and feedback training and organizational history writing.

In this documentation you will see that AI has the power to transform an organization. We, however, use the term organization broadly. In this particular document we are also examining instances of inter-organizational cooperation, community transformation and in some cases individual change.

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AI stands in contrast to deficit oriented problem solving approaches by utilizing a four step:

DISCOVERY “What gives life?” APRECIATING

DESTINY DREAM “How to empower, learn, and DREAM “What might be?” adjust/improvise?” ENVISIONING SUSTAIINIING IMPACT

DESIGN “What should be -- the ideal?” COONSTRUCTING

“What gives life to moments when we are at our best?” - Appreciative Interviews and Story Telling

DREAM “What is ‘boldly possible’, given the best of the past?” - Building “Propositions” and Images of Future Ideal

“What needs to happen to realize the future ideal?” - Actionable Ideas to Expand, Improve, Create Capacity DESIGN - Organizational Structure and Process - Relationships

DELIVER “What will empower and sustain movement toward the ideal?” - Continuous Learning

“We have reached the end of problem solving as a mode of inquiry capable of inspiring, mobilizing and sustaining human system change, and that the future of Organizational Development belongs to methods that affirm, compel, and accelerate anticipatory learning involving larger and larger levels of collectivity. ” 2

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Appreciative Inquiry and Save the Children/US, Philippines Field Office

The SC/US PhFO experience with Appreciative Inquiry began in February, 1997 when Christopher Szecsey, an independent consultant, was contracted to enhance the partnership between SC/US and United NGOs of Olongapo (UNO), an umbrella NGO federation representing many NGOs and people’s organizations. AI was introduced for the strategic planning of UNO’s future as an organization and it’s partnership with SC. In September 1997, Szecsey introduced AI to SC/US in a staff workshop on partnering and capacity building (P/CB), in which AI was used for SC’s organizational and program planning. Another influential event was the use of AI in February 1998 for a workshop on partnership building and planning that included SC staff and key partner board and staff members. During the next two years in subsequent P/CB consultancies, Szecsey supported the staff’s increasing interest to learn more about AI and use it for various applications such as partner NGO board and staff development, partnership planning, community development and more recently, internal capacity building of SC/US. Eventually, a customized partnership between SC/US and the GEM Initiative was established with GEM’s joint design and delivery of any AI partnership workshop in September 1998.

Szcecsey is an alumni participant of the GEM Certificate Program in Global Change and Social Innovations who has incorporated AI into his consulting practice with international and local NGOs. Through Szecsey, SC/US PhFO was introduced to GEM and became involved with GEM’s Customized Partnership initiative. Additionally, staff member Maribeth San Miguel participated in the GEM certificate program and completed the program in January, 2000. One current SC/US PhFO staff member, Jess Encena will participate in the upcoming GEM Executive Certificate Program beginning in March 2000.

Operationally, SC continues to develop and implement sustainable models of partnership. AI is seen as integral to partnership and capacity building (P/CB) initiative s by fostering sustainable partnerships as well as supporting the organizational and programmatic capacity of partners. While the initial thrust for AI was fueled by the P/CB initiatives, recently the PhFO has acknowledged broader benefits and applications for AI:

“The PhFO is attempting to view the development world from a new and different perspective than what is traditionally espoused. AI does offer an exciting, productive alternative to the past. Over the past year, we have been testing this approach in a number of settings: at the community level under the KSP Project, at the national level with a Department of 11 Health workshop, with our partnering relationships and in our capacity building efforts. Our intent is to now go beyond the testing stage and begin to shift our organizational culture in the Images of a New Future A Documentation of Appreciative Inquiry

III. Methodology

The approach in documenting SC’s experience with AI has been intentionally appreciative. Consistent with AI methodology we began this study by developing a protocol (See Appendix) that would uncover and illuminate people’s best experiences in their practice and knowledge of Appreciative Inquiry. We conducted interviews targeted toward uncovering information in the three areas of inquiry: partnership, community mobilization for health and internal organizational development. However, we also wanted the interviews to be spontaneous and generative allowing us to probe deeper into areas of usage which seemed especially novel, creative and innovative. The interview protocol served as a guideline to entering into conversation with the interviewer rather than a boundary for the investigation. We asked those participating in the process to recall and recount stories where they were particularly excited or impacted by using AI. We have made every attempt to capture the excitement of the interviews.

We collected data through one-on-one interviews and focus discussions. Some settings had more formality and structure while others were more spontaneous and open. Adaptations where made to engage participants in the storytelling process. (See Appendix for Schedule of Interviews.)

Our intent was to be mindful of those participating in the interviews. When in the West Visayas/Iloilo region we discovered that posing questions in English was not capturing the richness of AI experiences. We gratefully accepted the help of Dr. Jess Encena, the KSP Team Leader. Jess, a native speaker of Ilongo, has previous knowledge and experience with AI, allowing him to quickly internalize the interview protocol. Jess briefed focus groups on the interview questions and they would discuss their experiences before our arrival. Jess being trusted and well known to the KSP Team Staff and barangay leaders was able to stimulate data rich discussions. At our arrival, Jess would facilitate a question and answer session with each group and translate if necessary. Jess acted as translator for

12 Images of a New Future A Documentation of Appreciative Inquiry follow-up with questions. This process facilitated a better understanding of the questions on the part of those being interviewed and a open and honest dialogue.

After the interviews were completed the next step was to look closely at the transcribed conversations to identify and develop emerging themes. What follows in section IV, V, VI and VII is a presentation of the three areas of inquiry, the themes we saw present in participant responses and potential learnings from the interviews.

13 Images of a New Future A Documentation of Appreciative Inquiry IV. The NGO Sponsorship Partnership Initiative

Background and Overview

Save the Children/US, Philippine Field Office distinguishes partnership as a priority in the FY 2000 Program Strategy Paper:

“For the next three years our efforts will continue also in the further developm ent of the NGO Sponsorship Partnership Model. During the past two years, we have developed this new model of sponsorship programming through partnerships with Filipino NGOs. We approach the implementation of this model

Building partners is a key programmatic strategy that SC/US employs in its efforts to continuously search for a better response to the needs of a changing environment, while consistently focusing on achieving the organization’s vision of a positive effect on the lives of children. Capacity building interventions have been an important and integral component of this approach.

SC defines the sponsorship partnership model as:

• A working relationship established by SC, as an international NGO with national and local NGOs for the wider, more effective and sustainable implementation of programs to meet the needs of women and children in the context of their family, community and nation. It is a sharing of resources that complement one another to pursue a common goal. • The partnership is also a distribution of roles and accountabilities, that frees SC from directly implementing activities to concentrate on institution building, technical assistance, program development and funding, with the implementation of the sector programs, congruent with the Women and Child Initiative (WCI) principles, by the program partners. • The partnership enables the more intensive development of institutional capability in NGOs, selected to be partners, in the area of SC programming and sponsorship as well as in financial sustainability.2

The partnership between SC and the Partner NGO aims at developing a self managing community that will manage integrated and sustainable programs. Specifically it will: 1) organize and build the capability of a community development group; 2) implement a community managed sponsorship program; and, 3) establish a development fund for program sustainability. In the course of achieving these objectives SC ensures that partnership programs embody SC’s six program principles: child centeredness, gender equity, empowerment, sustainability, scaling up, and measurable impact.

2 Manual on NGO Sponsorship Model, SC-PHFO

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The Three Sponsorship Partners At present SC/US PhFO is concentrating on three key partnerships with local NGOs that are well established, manage a range of development programs, have relations with different organizations, including SC/US, and receive funding from several sources. Those organizations include:

Paranaque Development Foundation, Inc. (PDFI)

The Paranaque Development Foundation, Inc. (PDFI) was established in 1985 with the merger of the Paranaque Manpower and Community Development Foundation (PMCDF) and Social Development Services (SDS). PDFI focuses on the organization of grass roots groups as well as the integration and synchronization of various social service groups. PDFI’s mission is to mobilize the different sectors in creating a mutual loving, caring and sharing community that will provide the poor with the capabilities to be self reliant. PDFI’s program activities include child and youth development, family development, and community development.

Philippine Agency for Community and Family, Inc. (PACAF)

Founded in 1963, PACAF was established primarily to serve as a laboratory for social work students of the Maryknoll College. Today PACAF’s efforts are concentrated in Navotas, Metro Manila, Obando, Bulacan; and Sasa, Davao City. PACAF assists these communities to bring them closer to the economic mainstream as they grow more self reliant. In the process, both community and family acquire an enhanced capability to provide for themselves and others; to recognize their personal strength and dignity, and to exercise their rights and responsibilities as citizens. PACAF sponsors programs in the area of health education, education and training, micro-enterprise, community organizing and family life.

Iloilo Doctors’ College of Medicine Foundation Partnership for Health Project (IDCMF-PHP)

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The IDCMF-PFH project is a community extension of the Iloilo Doctors’ College of Medicine and Iloilo Doctors’ College. It emerged from the idea that a modern school is no longer concerned solely with the transmission of knowledge from teacher to student and the discove ry of knowledge through research but should also be concerned with the application of knowledge toward the solution of problems in the community. The organization’s mission is to develop a self reliant community and a community based learning institution. The PHP project is designed to give students practical professional experience as part of their medical training. The project emphasizes primary health care and health education for the promotion of health, prevention of disease and treatment of common illness. The basic approach is based on the principle of self help with project sponsors providing only the technical professional help which cannot be supplied by the ordinary laymen of the targeted communities.

Appreciative Inquiry and the NGO Partnership Sponsorship Initiative

The data collected on partnerships came from focus group interviews with the three NGO sponsorship partnership organizations mentioned above and Joy Ayupan, SC Partnership Coordinator for the West Visayas Office. The data suggests three primary areas where Appreciative Inquiry is having an impact on the partnerships:

1. AI is enhancing partnership relations between SC/US-PhFO and local NGOs, 2. AI is helping to build the internal organizational capacity of the local NGOs, and, 3. AI is changing the way partners implement effective community programs.

Enhancing Partnership Relations

“I think Appreciative Inquiry results in a more positive partnership relationship that is a counter model to a more traditional North/South PVO/NGO relationship. With AI there is greater mutuality and respect. AI is not a compliance oriented strategy like old approaches. By looking at what is mutually beneficial and respectful you get a better partnership.” -- Mike Novell, Director, SC/US-PhFO

Of the three partners, IDCMF-PHP spoke most descriptively about how the use of AI was changing the nature of the partnership between them and SC/US,PhFO.

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Ramy Carillo, Director of IDCMF-PHP, states, “First, through the AI process we discovered that we had the same dreams, and then we discovered that our strengths complemented one another. We are a strong partner in doing health programs and SC knows about childhood programs. Prior to AI, I’d been negative about the potential of our partnership.”

Beth San Miguel described the partnership from SC’s standpoint, “We now have a common dream. Prior to AI they would submit to us a one year plan that they would do for their project. Some activities might get cut and they didn’t always understand the basis of the cuts. The ultimate decisions for program funding rested with SC. They really never understood our decision making process. But now, using AI, we look at long term partnership rather than year to year and what significant benefit we can mutually bring to the communities. Now we are benefiting both sponsored and unsponsored children. SC has been able to broaden its impa ct through improved partnerships.”

The planning process between the two partners has clearly been enriched. “AI creates and environment of good thinking, responsive action and increased productivity. AI helps us to be patient and trust each other more as partners. The process helps us to look into the deeper aspects of the design and the ideas of the two partners. It requires trust to be open to accepting new ways of doing things. We are constantly thinking in terms of possibilities rather than the old way of uncovering all the problems.”

We asked the staff of IDCMF-PHP if together with the SC Partnership staff, they would develop a list of qualities of a good partnership, particularly those that we might see as a result of AI being used in the development of their partnership. After about 45 minutes of intensely cooperative work they developed the following list:

• Improved planning system. “Now we plan together and more frequently as equal partners, acknowledging one another’s strengths. We also pl an for longer terms. We’ve gone from one year project planning to five year strategic planning.”

• Clearly defined partnership boundaries. “Each of us know who we are, where we are going and our respective strengths, roles and functions in the partnership.” • Frequent consultation. More frequent consultation by SC has resulted in greater mutuality in the decision making processes and increased communication between the two organizations. This was seen as a direct benefit of the restructuring of the partnership coordinator position in the West Visayas office allowing the coordinator to focus solely on partnerships.

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• More frequent and improved capacity building training provided by SC has allowed SC to better recognize IDCMF-PFP’s internal needs and enabled IDCMP- PFP to do so as well. Additional training has focused AI methods.

Building Organizational Capacity

The NGO Sponsorship Partnership strategy is geared toward building the capacity of local and national NGOs to become more viable and sustainable. AI is contributing to this strategy in two key ways: it is strengthening the organizational systems, giving partners the ability to develop as organizations, i.e., staff development, board development, strategic planning, teamwork, policy and procedures, and it is strengthening their programmatic capacity to plan, manage, implement and evaluate community based projects.

SC has been intentional about providing the partners with multiple quality training experiences rooted in AI. Beginning with the February 1998 AI partnering workshop in Davão, there have been four workshops designed to strengthen the partner’s internal operations held for the staffs and/or boards of the partnering organization. According to the SC staff AI is having a profound impact. Nida Vilches, Program Manager for the Metro Manila Office, recalls the results with partners her peak experience with AI. “The partners were saying that their boards weren’t very supportive. They wanted their boards involved in finance and operations. The thing I really appreciated was the way AI contributed in the partner boards becoming more supportive.”

Manny Erni is the president of PDFI. As a half time executive director, he is also a board member. He has participated in AI capacity building workshops as both a staff member and a board member but his comments were mostly directed toward how AI was impacting PDFI’s board development. “My first experience was in 1998 in Davao. That is when we did the first board/staff workshop but it really only became clear last weekend at the Canyon Woods board retreat (October 16 - 17, 1999). AI provided us with tools for team building as a board. We had a very strong bonding experience as a board and we don’t want to part ways anymore. It isn’t just my AI experience anymore but now it’s all of us. We can appreciate each other better. We look forward to more harmonious and less irritating meetings. I used to get frustrated because I’d get so tired of what I perceived as irrelevant conversation but now I see you need to take time to be together, gel as a board, and focus on the next several years. It is always in your mind that you need to work together but it requires actually spending time with one another as a board to be able to do that.” The AI workshops provided by SC for board training has created an atmosphere where boards can be together, share dreams for the organization and plan for the future.”

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Joy Ayupan, SC Partnership Coordinator, spoke of how SC’s strategy utilizing AI for building strong partner boards and governing bodies was working with one partner. “One significant workshop we did was with the IDCMF-PHP advisory committee. They hadn’t even met once and then here comes this intense workshop utilizing AI. They didn’t know their roles as an advisory committee prior to this. The process helped them to define and realize their responsibilities and to appreciate the partnership between SC and IDCMF-PHP. They really wanted to be a part of the successes. The unexpected result was the degree of enthusiasm with which they participated. They showed such interest in participating in the programming, indicators and dream statements. They even took the staff’s dream statement and enriched and revised it. They realized that one of their key roles is to mediate between the staff and the board and to show support for the staff.”

Mike Novell, Director of the PhFO commented on how SC is using AI in the development of boards. “As Northern PVOs increasingly move toward working with Southern NGOs we have largely ignored the impact that we can have by working with boards and policy makers. I think that has been so because we (as Northern partners) haven’t always played a very positive role. You just aren’t going to be allowed to work with a board of a local NGO without respect for that organization, the country you are working in and the cultural context. AI creates an environment for greater security and respect so they are much more willing to work with you. All those questions of integrity they have that come up under old partnering arrangements begin to fall away. They are less defensive and more willing to work with you. I think there is a lot of potential there.”

The second area of internal change is the way that staffs are working and planning together. The first observation is they have learned to appreciate one another more fully, build on strengths and minimize conflict. A representative from PACAF explains, “The relationships between staff have changed. Before we focused on the negative traits of one another. Now we are more positive. The AI workshops have given us a base for our actions as a staff. It serves as an anchor. We face challenges but it’s easy for us to go back and refresh and renew through the use of AI.”

A staff member from PDFI reported that staff relationships have become closer, there is more openness, teamwork and there is closer coordination in program implementation. “An example is in the sponsorship program, we only have one staff assigned to that project but we help each other with the family updates and other staff are always helping out with things without being asked. Most of the staff are smiling now, before everyone walked around with a furrowed brow.”

Program Strengthening

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Representatives from all three organizations spoke of how AI was changing their work with communities. IDCMF-PHP spoke about AI and their program planning processes. Ramey Carillo states, “Before we are always asking about the problems but now we vision ourselves through our strengths and dreams. We won’t even use SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) in our planning. I don’t do the weaknesses and threats anymore. AI helps us to prioritize more effectively. The quality of our services have increased as a result.”

IDCMF-PHP and PDFI both observed the appreciative approach had the potential to change the perception of funding needs in communities. “The added value (of AI) is taping into the knowledge present in the community. They are able to break out of the dole mentality. Problems always seem related to not enough money. When they realize their strengths, then they approach their problems from a standpoint of what they have in terms of resources to solve the problem.” PDFI had and even more powerful experience: “We came up with a new plan where less counterpart resources are required from SC and PDFI because of the use of community resources. They have begun to discover their own resources more and they are increasingly involving other civic organizations in the school health and nutrition programs.”

Others commented on how the new methodology was impacting interactions with the community. “After experiencing the workshop with SC I’d learned new techniques and found the process of working with communities easier. AI is more evocative. I’ve learned to introduce more exercises that share stories and learnings. Before, we would do maybe one activity and mostly lecture. After the training participants feel relaxed and look forward to more trainings. Before, they couldn’t wait to leave.”

PACAF made a notable observation about AI as a value centered approach. “The focus on values is something, too, especially these days. When you hear of all the problems in the community you see so much that you wonder if any values still exist in our communities. But when you focus on values in an organization or in society you begin to revive your faith in humanity. You realize that people do still have values. When you focus on the positive it helps to revive important community values. When you focus on values in human interrelationships you see less of the ugly and more of the beautiful.” In a related comment Virgie Giray of the SC Metro Manila staff put it well when she said, “With the current state of the world we need something new to offer development work. With AI, we have something new to offer.”

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Key Learnings

Appreciative Inquiry changes the way northern PVOs can work with southern NGOs. Because AI focuses on assets and not deficits it respects southern partners and what they contribute to a partnership. Often times US based PVOs are seen as asset rich and holding much of the power in a very unequal partnership. We witnessed nothing but respect for Save the Children’s role in the partnership. As PVOs move from direct service delivery to providing technical assistance in organizational capacity building they must discover new methodologies that are empowering and help support the independence of local NGOs. With steady or declining funding we must discover ways of tapping into the present possibilities of southern NGOs to assume stronger roles in their partnerships and become self sustaining organizations.

AI works its way into all aspects of the partnering relationship and the partners’ deve lopment. We heard stories of how it was transforming the partnership relationship itself, the partners’ work with their communities and staff and board relations inside each partner organization. AI has become the glue for the partnership relationship.

Appreciative Inquiry has nurtured the spirit of effectiveness and possibility in the partner organizations. They see their boards more fully engaged, their staff getting along better and communities becoming more self reliant. Southern NGOs typically struggle with funding but we saw evidence that as an asset based approach AI was leading toward sustainable development with communities taking on increasing responsibility for the development projects most important to them. Appreciative Inquiry has the potential to align the needs of the community with the assets and resources available.

V. Community Mobilization for Health

The Kalusagan sa Pamilya (KSP) Project

Different health planning and action processes have been implemented in the past in response to the pressing needs of the Filipino people. Gains in meeting health needs of the country have not kept pace with emerging demands. It is within this context that non-governmental organizations such as SC/US PhFO play an

21 Images of a New Future A Documentation of Appreciative Inquiry important role. The Kalusagan sa Pamilya (KSP) Project began in 1997 as an agreement between the Johns Hopkins University, the Philippines Department of Health, local governments and SC/US PhFO. The KSP project is a community based integrated information, education and communication initiative and advocacy campaign that seeks to:

• Increase awareness of families to adopt preventative and family oriented health practices and to use health facilities offering integrated family health services.

• Encourage health managers and service providers to provide accessible, integrated and responsive family health services as well as ensure continuous referral.

The project adopts different strategies including utilization of mass media, information education and counseling (IEC), capacity building, advocacy, linkage and community mobilization. Community mobilization can be defined as action that is planned, carried out and evaluated by the community’s individuals, groups and organizations in a participatory and sustained manner while promoting advocacy for services. It deals with a theme, which defines the focus for action. For example, in the case of the KSP Project, the theme is service linkage for child survival and family planing. Community mobilization therefore promotes positive actions to increase the demand and support for improved quality in the delivery of child survival and family planning.

AI approaches were used in an effort to create and enhance opportunities for respectful dialogue between health professionals and communities to reflect on their achievements, values and beliefs. The combination of learnings from community mobilization and Appreciative Inquiry has been combined to develop a hybrid methodology: Appreciative Community Mobilization (ACM). ACM allows for the emergence of a vision of a future which is deliverable and sustainable. These engagements of people through dialogue, during which achievements are discovered, the future is imagined and innovative ways of making the future happen are identified are at the heart of the ACM framework.

Appreciative Inquiry and the KSP Project

The KSP team at the West Visayas Regional Office and two barangays, one urban and one rural, were interviewed regarding the KSP project. During the course of the interviews, we heard many heartfelt stories about the impact that AI was having on the KSP project. We discovered three emergent themes across various levels of involvement with the KSP project: Joy, Participation and Leadership. JOY: The Affect of Appreciative Inquiry

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Interviewer: What do you think Appreciative Community Mobilization brings out in people? What does it tap into?

“Volunteer KSP worker: It brings out joy and happiness. They (the community) are thankful to recognize what is good in them. That encourages more participation. By doing appreciation it tends to open people up. When you first ask what is good in them they hesitate, but when you probe deeper, it opens up their heart!”

Something changes in the hearts and minds of those involved in the process of Appreciative Inquiry. As one staff member put it, “what AI offered was a way for my brain and my heart to be in the same place.” Many professionals enter development work because they believe in the power of people to change their life circumstances. Appreciative Inquiry is a methodology which allows you to put your beliefs about people into practice. Another staff member said, “you can’t live one set of principles and teach another. You have to feel it, practice what is consistent with your own values. For me, one of the most important lessons is you have to live the life (of AI), be internally consistent with what you say and do. Several staff members noted that AI gives them a way to support one another in this endeavor to make the external (the use of language and actions) consistent with the internal (personal value). As one staff member recalled, “From time to time we remind ourselves and each other to say things in a positive and affirming way.” The staff said that the introduction of a new methodology was exciting. It challenged them to try something new and to be creative. The fact that it represented a shift toward the discovery of the strengths present in a community, made it a learning challenge.

They reported that they were enjoying working with communities more using the ACM model. They said it becomes easier to start a working relationship because you begin with an acknowledgment of what the community has. It becomes a joyful moment to recognize what they have to build on.

Another staff member shared that the discovery phase is a really joyful moment. “For me it has the most impact. When people are asked what they are proud of, everyone is happy, no one is sad. It is great to conduct a training and see people feel so good. It translates into more participation, more enthusiasm, involvement and interest. For us, it challenges our creativity to innovate and to work harder at becoming more sensitive. It inspires us.”

The KSP staff went on to tell a story about ACMs ability to turn a critical situation into a joyful moment:

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“There was this one instance where two of the participants kept on babbling on about how bad their barangay leader was. So the talk went on and on while they elaborated on their perceptions that he did nothing for the community, he didn’t like them, he’s discriminating, etc. The mood persisted for a while until we stopped the whole session and we changed the mood with a question. We said ‘let’s reset our minds.’ I asked ‘what are you proud of about your ba ranguy?’ The question totally changed the mood in the room. They started listing what they had done and it was a joyful moment when they realized what they had accomplished without the barangay leader or maybe in spite of him.”

Another KSP worker recalled the excitement of a doctor in one of the KSP towns upon learning of ACM. He became supportive and believed the ability to see the good in others was extremely influential. “The Philippines is developing a culture of looking at problems, he said. Just look at the newspapers, there is no good news. Let’s start looking at what is good about this country. It would take me months to say what all is good. If we can shift the paradigm from problem solving to appreciation we aren’t just meeting health goals but we are influencing a culture, introducing a culture of optimism in a culture where things are leaning toward pessimism.”

Dr. Jess Encena in his interview with the GEM team said despite all the “challenges” his country has ahead of it, there is no place else in the world that he would live, “because in the Philippines a simple smile still goes a long long way.” With ACM, the SC staff, volunteer KSP workers and community members are smiling more often.

Participation: The Process of Appreciative Inquiry

“Since the character of AI is listening to everyone, the community tends to plan together. They are more cohesive. The plan is more significant to them because the plan comes from them. They own it and are a part of it. Participation means commitment. ACM it makes it easier because the community is doing the thinking and the ideas generate from them. All we do is facilitate, they are even surprised that they‘re capable of such thinking!”

KSP participants at every level discussed at length how AI stimulates deeper dialogue, communication, participation and involvement. There is a clear link between the first theme of joy and the second theme of participation. One person interviewed points out that, “ACM brings out joy and happiness in the community. Communities are thankful to recognize what is good in them and that encourages participation.”

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Community leaders in San Rafael, Iloilo Province indicated that they have a new sense of efficacy in their community work. “When we started using ACM we received an immediate positive response. Dialogue and discussion was promoted. The community thinks more deeply now about their need. This is a way out of the ‘dole mentality’. People now really ponder their participation in the community. This is so much more motivating than problem solving. Problem solving approaches won’t work because it isn’t motivating and it doesn’t foster enthusiastic participation. Simply put, No involvement, No change!”

The KSP ACM approach has not only deepened the level of participation but it has also clearly broadened participation. “It’s better than old ways. Before, the leaders of the community would get together, make a decision and then inform the community as to what they had decided. Now the community is involved and more freely gives of their time.” Another KSP community volunteer said, “ACM is a unique approach because the level of participation and involvement is higher.” This person advocated that ACM be used as a methodology regardless of the nature of the project, KSP or otherwise.

ACM has opened up channels of communication between community leaders and the community. The KSP staff recounted a story of one of the communities that was inaccessible, where community members felt they had long been forgotten by health care workers. “We were working in a sitio very far out and isolated. It was a targeted KSP priority community because of its poverty and low access to healthcare. But, ACM is an approach that tends to open dialogue and that is a real strength. Despite the challenges of launching a project in such an area we carried on and after so many years of feeling neglect the community finally felt heard and like they had something to offer the situation. They discovered a way to improve the immunization status of their children. The health worker discovered the reason why people didn’t go to the immunizations outpost is because the road had washed out and it made it very difficult to travel. Afterwards, the health worker agreed to hold an immunization clinic in the community once a month.”

Naida Pasion recognized that anyone attending a KSP session, whether a community member, a SC staff, a health worker or a politician gets caught up in the mood of the community. “If they are really savvy politicians they join the KSP project. Showing their concern and commitment is a way of generating political support. As politicians they find ways of really helping grassroots people through the KSP project. The mayors and municipal counselors join us along with nurses and midwives of the rural health units.”

This observation was validated in our interviews with municipal officials in San Rafael. A health worker reported, “Before KSP, if villagers didn’t utilize prenatal

25 Images of a New Future A Documentation of Appreciative Inquiry health care services or immunize their children I just figured they didn’t want them and I left them alone. After KSP’s implementation I’m much more persistent in delivering service. If they don’t come, I go find them and explain the services that are available. I’m much more patient now because I look at their strengths and what they are contributing to the community.”

The final point about participation is that the ACM methodology provides opportunity for previously disenfranchised segments of community decision making process to participate more fully. We have two stories from SC staff that support this. “The most powerful experience is the asking of what is your dream for yourself. Many women in the villages have never been asked that. There are reflection times between the sessions on each of the four D’s where you can see things are percolating. You have to get people comfortable with themselves and able to express their own personal dreams before they can do anything more broadly for the community. ACM gets women to thinking and expressing some of these things that they’ve never before had a chance to say. ”

Another staff member told us of a village where they were planning to build a water tower and the question came up of how much water the tower needed to supply. The group broke up into three smaller groups and one of the small groups was intentionally all women. “Until we broke into the smaller groups, the men were doing all the talking and the women were just sitting there taking it all in. When we asked how big the tower had to be the men didn’t know so that’s when we broke into several small groups. The women’s group knew more than the others exactly how much water was used everyday for cooking, bathing, cleaning and other household functions. They sat there and calculated the amount of water used per household and multiplied it by the number of families in the community. They came up with a very precise amount of how much water the tower needed to supply each day. The men couldn’t believe that these women were capable of such complicated planning. You could see the men were having their own little discovery in that moment.”

Leadership: A Result of Appreciative Inquiry

I was initially very nervous and had stage fright when I was first facilitating. But because ACM is generative, the burden of facilitation isn’t just on the facilitator. The response from the group are joyful so it makes me feel more comfortable to be in front of them. Through ACM I’ve come to value myself and my own capabilities and strengths more. I’ve gained a lot of confidence to speak in public and I’m happy to see others realize their accomplishments as well. --KSP community volunteer

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Throughout our interaction with members of the KSP project we hear extraordinary tales of leadership in action. The ACM methodology seems to acknowledge and appreciate leadership which is already present as well as create new leaders and new leadership competencies in communities. It is also changing the way that people come to understand and value leadership.

The KSP staff told us of a ACM session in one town where, in the discovery phase, a barangay leader heard for the very first time that the people of the barangay really did value and respect him. It paved the way to increased self-awareness around his strengths. “The community said so many things about him that he’d never heard before,” the staff reported. It fostered a much closer relationship between him and the community. We heard from a volunteer KSP worker in the urban barangay that he had considered resigning but he felt the level of community involvement and commitment created through ACM was so high that it renewed his own commitment. “ACM provides for a good exchange of ideas between the community member and ourselves, the community leaders. ACM helps me a lot as a barangay leader. Communities traditionally are always throwing out problems to get included in funding plans. But ACM generates community willingness, support, and involvement even though nothing has yet been committed. Whatever the program ends up being, I know the community will be involved.”

Recall the story in the previous section where a couple of community members were finding fault in their barangay leaders. Yet through the careful reframing of the question asked, ACM was able to uncover the extraordinary moments of leadership that occurred without the “formal” barangay leader. They were learning to appreciate the informal leadership present within the community.

The opening quote above is an example of how the KSP is creating new leadership competency within the community. This particular young woman was learning skills of being comfortable in front of a group and facilitating with confidence. In the previous section we heard the story of the healthcare worker who had learned to become more persistent in her advocacy of utilization of health care services. Rather than waiting for villagers to come to her, she was going to them. Her persistence was coming from a place of appreciation and value of the villagers rather than feeling superior or judgmental.

We asked a KSP community volunteer in San Rafael if they had changed their thinking about what was required of a leader following their introduction to ACM. They responded, “Now a leader must listen, plan together, talk about dreams and aspirations and participate together.” This was the same community that we mentioned in the above section where prior to the KSP, leaders would get

27 Images of a New Future A Documentation of Appreciative Inquiry together, make the important decisions and then announce to the community what was decided.

We asked if anyone in the community felt threatened by the new leadership paradigm. They reported no one feels less powerful as a result. In fact, “the process makes everyone feel more respected and more capable. Before people were sleeping, now they are awake.” They even felt the community had become a model of leadership for other communities to emulate. “Others outside the KSP project see what is going on in this barangay and are interested.” They were even able to envision themselves working with non KSP barangays with support.

KSP Project Results “So much has changed in the last 10 months. More women are coming to the health center for prenatal services and immunizations. More toilets at individual homes have been constructed and existing toilets have been improved. More people are chlorinating their water and there is less evidence of diarrheal disease. More people are gardening so improved nutrition is evident. More nutrition information is available. People are now eating the chickens they raise rather than selling them to buy dried fish. They are more aware of the importance of a balanced diet.” -- Barangay Health Worker

We asked KSP Staff and barangay leaders what substantive impact the project was having. Their responses are listed below.

“You can see the change because people in the community have cleaned their environment. One community felt the need to have a clean barangay with garbage collected. They are now separating garbage into biodegradable and plastics and then sacking all the plastics to be picked up after arrangements have been made for services.”

“They now seek out health services. Members of the community are using health services more frequently. There is improvement in personal hygiene. As a result of ACM, they are more conscious of their own hygiene and of their children’s, therefore, their children are not as prone to sickness. There has been an increase in the number of immunizations given and the use of prenatal health services.”

“They understand and support the project objectives. They are more involved and cooperative as seen by their attendance at meetings and with more consistent attendance. They also do things on their own more like cleaning up their environment.”

“The KSP project reinforces other DOH services and messages. It reminds the people of what is available to them and how they can access services. KSP has

28 Images of a New Future A Documentation of Appreciative Inquiry stimulated peoples involvement in government health services. People are now more self-reliant while utilizing more preventative health services and less curative services. There is a changing level of health awareness.”

These changes can and should be quantified but it does begin to give us an idea of indicators that the community might identify as impact areas for the KSP project. While the purpose of this document is not to verify empirically that these changes are taking place and to what degree, the mention of them in the interviews illuminates the issues that are important to communities and demonstrates the perception that people believe the project is creating positive change.

Key Learnings

Traditional problem based approaches to community development are not as motivating as appreciative approaches. Most communities already have a heightened awareness of all that is lacking in their communities. This sense of operating in a constant deficit mode is draining and leaves people overwhelmed by their community’s challenges. Conversely, learning about community strengths, achievements and best pr actices is the basis for instilling community pride and ownership for the development process as well as for establishing a venue for community dreaming, program planning and action.

The ways in which we approach development in communities creates an affect. We repeatedly heard that Appreciative Inquiry creates a positive affect on the KSP staff, barangay leaders and community health workers. The sense of joy translates into increased motivation and more enthusiastic involvement in the project.

Appreciative dialogues are opening up new channels of rapport, and strengthening relationships between community leaders and their constituents that helps shape a new concept of local leadership based on dialogue, mutual learning and accountability.

Shared knowledge of the community is increasing through the ACM methodology. Both formal and informal leaders are learning more about one another and the community’s strengths through appreciative dialogue. The new knowledge is a knowledge of capability and possibi lity rather than deficit knowledge.

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ACM is creating and supporting emerging leaders. The KSP project is inviting a new form of relational leadership not based on charismatic leadership but on the ability to be in relationship with others in generative ways by asking questions, co- creating dreams and sharing joyful moments. The responsibility of leadership is shifting from the so called leader to the community.

ACM is a flexible methodology. Every context we visited was unique. Rural and urban barangays face different challenges and have different strengths and assets. But, because the AI process begins with the discovery of best practices, available resources and core values every community is able to develop a strategic vision that uniquely fits their context. We did witness however that the uptake is slower in urban settings. This could be because the pace of life is faster, people are more cynical, communities are less connected and access to negative information is more prevalent in urban areas. In our conversations, ACM has proven to be an effective means of bringing urban communities together for change. The rural/urban differences are worth further investigation.

VI. Other Programming Activities

While the Sponsorship Partnership Initiatives and the KSP Project have been the major centers of activity to incorporate AI other activities have evolved since their development. Appreciative Inquiry is also either impacting these newly evolving partnership and program activities or has become the basis for them. Three specific areas of activity were identified by the staff.

Department of Health, Government of Philippines Partnership: Barangay Health Workers Continuing Learning and Advocacy for Sustained Service (BHW CLASS Project)

The BHW Class project aims to support a national barangay health care system that is well integrated with the country’s total health care program ensuring essential health care that is: 1) community based and always available; 2) accessible and acceptable to individuals and families through their full participation; 3) sustainable at a cost that all can afford; 4) aimed at developing self reliance for individual and community health; and, 5) part of the total socioeconomic development effort. A vital aspect of a sustainable community health system is the presence of active Barangay Health Workers (BHWs), the front line health workers presently numbering at approximately 250,000 nationwide. The BHWs belong to the grassroots sector, almost 97 percent of them are women and a most come from the poorest sectors of society. Seventy percent of the causes of morbidity and mortality in the country are preventable. An improvement in the skills of the

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BHWs will result to a significant decrease in the prevalence and incidence of communicable and lifestyle diseases.

The BHWs assume multiple functions. They are: 1) a primary source of health data and information within the household coverage; 2) a link joining the community and the government/non-government health service facilities; 3) a major influence in practical health education in the community; and, 4) key actors in the empowerment of communities toward health in the hands of the people.

The key to a nationwide standard of competencies for BHWs is for the DOH to effect a unified training system for both government and non-government trained BHWs. This is also in response to the Barangay Health Workers’ Grant and Incentive Act of 1995, requiring that new BHWs can be officially registered only if they have undergone a training program accredited by the DOH.

The BHW-CLASS Project is developing a national training manual for skill building of BHWs. The training manual will standardize competencies for BHWs and invent a unified training system for government and non government trained BHWs. The primary users of the training manual are the designated training officers of the national and regional offices of the DOH and selected NGOs.

The training manual is comprised of four modules covering the major topics of: 1) community health development; 2) the BHW as a community mobilizer; 3) the BHW as a community health provider; and, 4) the BHW and a learning facilitator. The second module develops an understanding and appreciation of the importance of people’s participation and community involvement in health development and the process of community mobilization using the Appreciative Inquiry approach. The topics in this module include the meaning of Appreciative Community Mobilization (ACM), the tasks and attributes of a community mobilizer, the “four D” approach to ACM and evaluation.

World Vision, Focus on the Safe Home

This field project seeks to apply Appreciative Inquiry in an advocacy workshop to build on the best experiences and stories of children, parents and other advocates in creating a safe home. A safe home is defined as a structure and relationships that provide and ensure an environment where children can optimize their learning potential appropriate to their development and growth. This project aims to explore possibilities for future action that will enhance the capacity of the parents and other care givers in their many roles as they create a safe home for children. Importantly, it seeks to generate learning from the stories of children as a foundation in crafting a dream statement to build a safe home.

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Adolescent Development Program

The ADP program began in 1998 and strategically focuses on school nutrition and adolescent reproductive health. ADP developed from the beginning out of appreciative principles. The initial life giving force of the program was Dr. Amado Parawan’s desire as a pediatrician to work with youth. From there, a group assembled to look at the internal strengths of the staff to do such a program. They also used AI to do an analysis of their previous experiences working with schools and possible partners. The design phase was carried out in a retreat attended by key SAVE staff.

AI has been the core methodology at every step of the planning and implementation process. Orientation sessions are appreciative in nature. Amado’s enthusiasm overflows as he discusses the program. His smile was broad and laughter filled his story as he recalled the fun and power in a community dreaming workshop for parents. “The dream is always present and in front of them. The high point has been their discovery of the good practices that they already do. It is powerful when they do the dream as a drawing rather than a statement. Dreaming together is fun because they don’t get to do it very much. When we do this we have them sit down and draw their dreams on large sheets of manila paper with crayons. They are adults and it’s a chance for them to act like kids while they exercise their imaginations. They are having so much fun.”

AI has enabled them to mobilize resources that were presently dormant in the communities. They’ve been able to work with other NGOs such as the Rotary Club, local government and enthusiastic community members. “The wife of the mayor in one of our project areas was interested in school nutrition so we asked her to be the honorary chair of the program.” AI is being used to move the ADP toward the community forces that are most supportive. “AI is easier and it moves people easily. Results are realized faster, especially in planning processes. In problem solving approaches, planning is such a burden.”

VII. The Internal Development of Save the Children/US, Philippines Field Office.

Background and Overview

SC/US PhFO’s experience with AI began in February 1997 when Christopher Szecsey, an independent consultant, was contracted to enhance the partnership

32 Images of a New Future A Documentation of Appreciative Inquiry between SC/US and United NGOs of Olongapo (UNO), an umbrella NGO federation representing many NGOs and people’s organizations. AI was first introduced and utilized for the strategic planning of UNO’s future as an organization and its partnership with SC. In September 1997, Szecsey introduced AI to SC/US PhFO in a staff workshop on partnering and capacity building (P/CB), in which AI was used for SC’s organizational and program planning. The next influential event was the use of AI in February 1998 for a workshop on partnership building and planning that included SC staff and key partner board and staff members. During the next two years in subsequent P/CB consultancies, Szecsey supported the staff’s increasing interest to learn more about AI and use it for various applications such as partner NGO board and staff development, partnership planning, community development and more recently, internal capacity building of SC/US. Eventually, a customized partnership between SC/US and the GEM Initiative was established with GEM’s joint design and delivery of an AI partnership workshop in September 1998.

Szecsey is an alumni of the GEM Certificate Program in Global Change and Social Innovations who has incorporated AI into his consulting practice with international and local NGOs. Through Szecsey, SC/US PhFO was introduced to GEM and became involved in the GEM Customized Partnership Initiative. Additionally, staff member Maribeth San Miguel participated in the GEM certificate program and completed the program in January, 2000. One current SC/US PhFO staff member, Jess Encena, will participate in the upcoming GEM Executive Certificate Program beginning in March, 2000.

Several staff members were unable to attend the September 1997 staff workshop so in February 1998 Beth San Miguel, together with other staff who were present at Davão repeated the AI workshop for those not able to attend in September. The focus of this workshop shifted from partnership to internal organization development. Beth stated, “I wanted to link the September workshop with what we were doing internally. I knew we would be using AI in multiple applications so why not link it to our own internal development. I believed there was something here that we could all use.”

At an October 1998 staff workshop, AI was used to arrive at SC’s three year strategic plan. The staff utilized the “discover” and “dream” stages of the model. Beth commented on the awkwardness of it at the time and she felt unsure about how it was being received by the staff but, she says, “we were able to agree on some broad strokes for a focus like health and education. We agreed that AI, community mobilization and partnering were going to be a part of the initiatives we would carry forward.” This was the first time the PhFO had specifically stated that it was going to include AI in the way it would develop both internally and

33 Images of a New Future A Documentation of Appreciative Inquiry externally. From that point on, AI became an intention for all phases of SC/US PhFO’s development.

Beth recalled some of her own unease at what had just been decided. “Everyone was looking at me but I really didn’t know where to start internally. I knew there were ideas about how to integrate AI into the internal operations like in the areas of staff development and evaluation but I really had very little experience with it. It was being used in partnering and KSP was picking it up but no one really knew what was required for us to use AI to develop internally. This is when I decided that I wanted to participate in the GEM Certificate Program, I wanted to advance all the applications of AI through my participation in GEM.”

While AI was impacting the internal development of SC/US PhFO in small ways it was not until after Beth San Miguel attended the GEM Certificate Program in May 1999 that the use of AI as an internal change process became intentional. Beth discussed the impact of the GEM Certificate Program, “After the Alabama (workshop site) workshop I was very thankful for the opportunity to participate; I was especially thankful for the concept of the field project. It was like my reentry plan and it was so helpful in my thinking about how I would go back and use AI internally and in partnership building.” While Beth’s decision to form a partnership with World Vision to launch the Focus on the Safe Home project evolved from her participation in the Certificate Program it was a more expansive initiative focused on the Metro Manila office she proposed to PhFO Director Mike Novell.

Beth presented a three page document entitled, “Shaping Up for a Positive Leadership in the Next Millennium”. In this briefing she proposed three areas of activity to “build and further enhance the field office’s capacity to ‘become’ and ‘do’ Appreciative Inquiry:

• Consolidate PhFO’s experience and lessons in using AI, • Build and integrate AI principles and approaches in the work setting; and • Expand AI application through our partnering initiatives

The first two areas of activity specifically focused on the penetration of AI into the SC’s internal development. The third deals more directly with partnering strategies.

This documentation represents the output for consolidating PhFO’s experiences and lessons in using AI. This report will increase SC/US PhFO’s understanding of the uses and results achieved through the use of AI in the three targeted areas of inquiry. It is also expected that it will lead to still more creative implementation and wider adoption of AI throughout SC/US PhFO.

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When building and integrating AI principles and approaches in the work setting Beth followed the P/CB “bicycle model” of organizational capacity building which had been presented through Christopher Szecsey at a previous staff training. One wheel of the bicycle represents internal organizational development while the other symbolizes external program development. Beth’s approach was to deepen the senior staffs commitment to AI as an organizational change strategy through the development of programs rooted in a firm understanding of appreciative principles. She labeled this initiative “Community Planning and Community Mobilization Using AI”. This project was initiated in three phases.

Phase I was a four day workshop for SC Me tro Manila and West Visayas Staff which aimed to:

•Revisit AI and deepen staff’s understanding and appreciation of the applicability of AI for transforming their own self as well as their work; and •Generate a new framework of community planning and mobilization from the best practices experienced in the field using AI as a methodology.

The framework that was developed by the Metro Manila staff built on PhFO’s emerging community mobilization models, such as Appreciative Community Mobilization (ACM). The new CM model would represent the values and experiences of the Metro Manila staff particularly in the area of community development. It defined what constitutes community and community mobilization. They defined nine elements of CM and initially outlined indicators in the form of possibility statements. For the West Visayas Program Office, they were able to redefine their values for community work. Guided by their values and using the “4 D Process”, the group was able to formulate their one year operational/community plan.

Phase II was designed to be an application of the learning combining the use of AI with an integration of the newly designed framework of community mobilization through the implementation of a field project. Each staff member developed a proposal for a field application of their learning. A total of six field projects were designed and implemented by the Metro Manila staff and two by West Visayas. A comprehensive documentation was done for each of the projects resulting in a training resource manual for designing field project using AI. The list of staff projects is included in the appendix: Field Project Applications.

The plan for Phase III, scheduled for March, 2000, is to bring together the various experiences of implementing the different CM models (Metro Manila, West Visayas and ACM), and to consolidate the learning and best practices from each model and to arrive at a common framework for CM for SC/US PhFO.

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The news of the staff’s experience with “Community Planning and Community Mobilization Using AI” spread within the organization quickly. There seems to be a demand for repeat training programs. Consequently, other units in the organization have used AI as the preferred process for making their meetings and engagements with their staff more meaningful. A case in point would be the experience of the sponsorship team where relationships within the team and between the sponsorship team and others have improved through the use of AI.

A final scheduled activity related to integrating AI principles and approaches in the work setting is an initiative called “Team Leadership in Building Organizational Capacity in AI”. The intent of “Team Leadership” is the creation of a positive core that would take the lead in applying, experimenting and living the principles of AI in the workplace. As the senior staff develop their collective capacity in AI, the organization’s positive and appreciative climate will also be enhanced. This training is scheduled to take place before September 2000.

Appreciative Inquiry and the Building of Internal Capacity

AI has changed and is changing SC/US PhFO. In our conversations with staff everyone interviewed had recognized that AI has spread beyond the partnership initiatives, KSP and other community health programming. Appreciative Inquiry is creating internal changes at three levels. It is impacting the values of the organization, staff thinking processes and staff interactions.

Values

We touched on the issue of values previously in Section V when we addressed the affect that AI was having on those involved with the KSP project. AI is transforming SC into an appreciative organization. We saw evidence of this in nearly every interview. The stories are too numerous to capture but some of the highlights follow.

Several staff members mentioned that AI appeals to their need for congruence between their internal experience and their professional expression of themselves . “When I first encountered AI I just saw it as a new way of doing the same thing. But I’m usually open to learning new ways of doing things and I found that exciting. I didn’t treat it as AI but as a way of partnering. Now as I experience it more it’s not just about doing AI. It’s not so much about how you do something but how you are being when you do. Sometimes the being part of us comes in contrast with what we are doing. In one way or another AI helps complete the wholeness between what we are doing and who we are inside.” We asked Joy Ayupan, the

36 Images of a New Future A Documentation of Appreciative Inquiry partnership coordinator for the West Visayas office what AI brings out in people. She smiled broadly and laughed slightly as she exclaimed, “It brings out the Joy in me!”

Naida Pasion reiterated the theme of congruence, “For me it is one of the most important lessons I’ve learned. You have to live the life, be internally consistent with what you say and do. You can’t live one set of principles and teach another. You have to feel it and be consistent with your own values.”

Beth San Miguel talked about the internal organizational consistency. Beth has been a part of most of the training involving AI and is increasingly being called on to use an appreciative approach in working with other organizations. She observes, “If we are saying that AI is going to be our way of doing pa rtnerships or our way of mobilizing communities then how can we not have it as our way of “being” as an organization? Partners see us use AI in our partnering with them and advocating it as a way of capacity building and program strategy but then they see us not using the methodology in our self governance. I think that opens us up to criticism. It’s a very natural progression that we will operate more and more using Appreciative Inquiry.”

Most staff member said that the values of AI were impacting the way they speak. People are much more aware of their language reflecting a “glass half-full or a glass half empty”. Interviewees reported supporting each other in becoming more appreciative. Naida Pasion said, “Jess and I are asking ourselves and each other all the time, ‘Are we being AI?’.” Nida Vilches recalled a difficult meeting where two departments were trying to work through issues. She said every time they got to a heated point of contention someone would say, “remember AI, AI, AI.” Another team we met with said they would frequently catch themselves in the middle of a problem solving process and say, “let’s AI it.” Language is a reflection of our values and beliefs and “words create worlds. AI is changing the way that the SC staff talks about their work, their organization and each other.

Changed Thinking Processes

The shifting and aligning of values at SC is creating what many staff have identified as a “paradigm shift”. From our conversations with staff a new thinking paradigm grounded in appreciation is emerging. Virgie Giray recalls her encounter with AI, “for me it’s a shift from the traditional problem solving, to looking at the strengths of individuals and institutions. It is changing the way we approach our work at SC. We are developing a deeper understanding of our work as more than our job descriptions. We are developing a paradigm of abundance rather than not enough.” Joey Parman, sponsorship manager, put it this way,

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“Personally AI has changed my way of thinking. Before I was often aggressive and looking at how I could make use of the negative. I went straight for the issues using a negative lens. Now, it is just the opposite, I look for the positive. I look at where this person came from, how they might look at the situation differently than me. When I make decisions I look from my past and see what I’ve done and carry my strengths forward.”

We saw evidence that a change in thinking process is impacting the actions of the staff. They are choosing their work projects based on those things that they consider to be most life giving. We’ve already discussed Dr. Amado Parawan’s development of the ADP and its origins in his personal desire to work with youth. Beth San Miguel is in the process of implementing a Safe Home Advocacy program in partnership with World Vision. I asked her what the driving energy was for this cooperative effort. “It began as my chosen project for the GEM Certificate program working with Nora from World Vision. I chose to work with World Vision because Nora and Joy are there and Joy is a GEM alumni, too. We both love working with children, we are both sponsorship programs, they are another US based NGO, they are GEM participants and they are committed to working on projects using AI.”

Joy Ayupan used AI in developing and defining her actual job description. “When I first was hired into the West Visayas Office I was given the dual task of Partnering/ Capacity Building Coordinator and Municipal Coordinator. At the time I felt very confused; I wanted things to be more defined and to have clarity of roles and functions. I didn’t feel like I really had a choice in assuming the two roles but I didn’t feel like I was able to prioritize adequately given the two different tasks. Instead of clamoring about the problem I thought about AI and approached it as a challenge. I thought about what really gives me enjoyment and I drew up some options and presented them to the top management. I looked at where I thought I could be most effective. In my mind I actually went through the four “D” process. The partnering aspect was the piece of my job that was evolving and that is what excited me the most. I developed a dream about what I wanted, presented it to my supervisor and found that there was a common place for us to meet. Shortly after I resigned my post as Municipal Coordinator and now here I am, the Partnership and Capacity Building Coordinator.”

Staff Interactions

Finally, AI is impacting the interactions and communications processes between staff members. Several staff discussed AI as it relates to conflict. “I’ve noticed people are more cautious with their language. You can’t avoid conflict but the dialogue is more positive now and the results are not so personal and outcomes are more positive.” Beth San Miguel noted that AI has a powerful ability to move people toward reconciliation, foster healing and build bridges of understanding

38 Images of a New Future A Documentation of Appreciative Inquiry between staff. “I feel we are closer to each other now. When you use AI you aren’t just arriving at an output but you are enhancing relationships while you accomplish something. When you use an AI approach you don’t have to directly attack conflicts.”

Mike Novell described the interaction occurring from the AI process slightly differently. “AI isn’t just appr eciative, it’s respectful, supportive of the context and allows us to put our stuff aside and allow more open conversations to occur. When using AI in our planning process there were positive feelings and tones that led to a lot of detail.” Mike specifically talked about what AI had done for the sponsorship team. “The sponsorship coordination session using AI is a perfect example. We wanted to strengthen the relationship between the sponsorship manager and the team. The outcome of the session really moved things ahead, it’s not all solved but there was enough progress made to where things are distinctly different.”

Nida spoke about a friction that had always placed the sponsorship team at odds with the program staff. But following the use of AI “the relationship between program and sponsorship has improved. This even has increased cost effectiveness. Sponsorship now coordinates with program staff for community visits. Now people are sending cc’s regarding their activities to everyone who needs to know.” The communication loops are expanding and areas that were formerly a constant source of irritation have improved.

Joey Parman, Sponsorship Coordinator, discussed how AI helped his team to work through difficult situations. “Last year I held two sponsorship coordination meetings using AI. We had good results and the participants enjoyed them. It makes them feel good that they can vent what they need to. There are still issues that need surfaced, and they are through the process. The issues were grouped and brought to people who could get them resolved. The sponsorship coordination meetings triggered a lot of other meetings with stakeholders and things got resolved.

Joey also talked about how the entire atmosphere around the sponsorship staff had changed. “AI has helped me in my management of the staff. I’ve become much closer to them. When people feel low I assure them of their good qualities. When I talk to my staff I’m appreciative. In my communication with them we’ve become so close that I think they can tell me anything. As a result of using AI in our meetings communication has improved, working relationships have improved and the staff is more motivated. ”

Joey says that AI has also changed the way that his team communicates with the home office. “In the past, people sometimes have had problems communicating

39 Images of a New Future A Documentation of Appreciative Inquiry with Westport. But I’ve seen my communication improve with them. I intentionally use positive language when making a request, like ‘it would really help me if you could.....’ as opposed to telling them how they haven’t been supportive. They respond in a very friendly way and their communication with me is respectful. Before it was formal and sort of rigid. As a team we’ve become much more proactive looking ahead for opportunities to better serve the sponsors. Before we looked at our activities from one year to the next, now we project out two year.

Key Learnings

AI Advocate(s)

Critical to the successful promotion and adoption of AI internally within the Save the Children/US Philippines Field Office, and in its external programming efforts, is the significant roles played by two key SC staff members. With the tacit approval and support of the Country Director, two senior staff members have continually advocated for a deeper understanding of AI by all staff as well as for a wider application of its use. Most importantly, their endorsement of AI comes not just from hearing or reading about it, but from their own first hand experience and the success derived from it applications in different settings. They have shared their learnings and supported colleagues interested in gaining more understanding of AI. Without imposing their viewpoints, they have become over time influential speakers for the vitality and credibility of AI. In conclusion, the incorporation and adoption of AI within SC and perhaps other organizations, may be dependent on a few committed individuals willing to take risks, innovate, and carry the torch for a new paradigm.

Appreciative Inquiry has been able to have such an impact at SC/US PhFO because of the organization’s openness to learning, change and experimentation. We previously mentioned that part of AI’s attraction to the KSP project staff was it presented a new way of doing things. While many organizations hold fast to their old ways of operating, the staff at SC seems energized by new opportunities that enhance their work and organizational life. Openness to change and willingness to experiment must be considered as a key strength of the SC/US PhFO staff and a requisite condition for Appreciative Inquiry’s success in an organization. Country Director Mike Novell should be acknowledged for his trust and willingness to support but not drive the AI change process. Openness to change creates a condition necessary for AI to penetrate the organization but is not of itself sufficient. It was AI’s congruence with the values of the staff which allows it to flourish as it has. Organizational technologies abound that involve high levels of skill and technique without clear understanding of their underlying values and principles or how they

40 Images of a New Future A Documentation of Appreciative Inquiry relate to the organization’s values and principles. But AI’s emphasis on values and principles clearly resonates with the staff in such a way that it connects with their spirit. Consistently staff talked about “being AI” and “doing AI”. While many staff acknowledge the need for skills and technique in utilizing Appreciative Inquiry, the clear emphasis was in the alignment between the underlying values and principles of AI and one’s own value system. As one staff member put it, “it’s not so much about how you do something but how you are being when you do.”

Appreciative Inquiry has been empowering to the staff. We heard many stories of initiative and innovations tied to the AI process. Beth’s Safe Home Project and Leadership for the 21st Century, the Metro Manila staff projects related to “Community Planning and Community Mobilization Using AI”, Joy Ayupan’s initiative to rewrite her job description, Joey Parman’s more proactive interactions with SC’s home office and Amado Parawan’s development of the ADP all represent initiatives evolving from AI. The use of AI seems to be sparking the staff’s creative interest and motivating them to take initiative and act. The Appreciative Inquiry process unbinds the past therefore creating new opportunities. What was, does not have to determine what will be in the future. Staff members are using AI to create worlds of possibility based on their personal and the organization’s strengths.

VIII. Summative Learnings in the Use of Appreciative Inquiry

Appreciation and Participation

Based on the interview data one might be led to ask, “Is Appreciative Inquiry different from any other form of sound participatory techniques used in development work and if so, how is it different?” Development practitioners have known for years that projects are always more successful when they involve the participation of those impacted by the decisions. We must recognize that many of the benefits spoken of in this document generically describe participatory methods. However, we posit that the data supports additional benefits realized via Appreciative Inquiry that might not be derived through deficit based approaches to development no matter how participatory.

First, participants frequently compared Appreciative Inquiry with “problem solving” in an effort to make a clear distinction between the two. However, we saw evidence that Appreciative Inquiry does solve problems. In the case of the KSP project we heard that among other things more people are utilizing community health services, practitioners are making themselves more available to the community, environments are becoming cleaner and personal hygiene is

41 Images of a New Future A Documentation of Appreciative Inquiry improving. It appears that people are trying to compare deficit based approaches with Appreciative Inquiry. Many of those deficit based approaches can be and are participatory in nature. Appreciative Inquiry is paradigmatically different from problem solving because it start with the identification of problem but it does address problems.

Our data supports that Appreciative Inquiry is different from deficit-based participatory problem solving methodologies. Development methodologies assume a history for a community or an organization. Frequently, the first act of intervention in development work is the surfacing of the story, or history, of the community. Histories are never complete they are selective recounted based on the questions asked. Unlike deficit based problem solving approaches which ask community or organizational members to surface problems and needs, Appreciative Inquiry surfaces peak experiences, brilliant performances, outstanding moments and makes them a crucial part of the communities history. The newly crafted history becomes the foundation for building a future that is based on strength and not inadequacy. The retelling of a generative appreciative history creates hope. Hope fuels a belief that positive change is possible and that one’s actions do have consequence. This is what participants were trying to say when they compared AI to problem solving leading when making statements like “problem solving gets us nowhere”. It isn’t problem solving so much as a negative hopeless recounting of a community/organizational history that leads to despair.

A sense of hope translates into joy. Our stories were laden with the joyful affect that appreciation was bringing to their work. People are joyous because they believe that their work is actually making a difference in their own lives and it the lives of others. They are seeing it in their communities, in organizational partnerships, in the workplace and even in their homelife.

Hope and joy are translating into commitment. The people that were interviewed never once questioned whether they were up for the task. Only one of the partner organizations interviewed even discussed their difficulties with us. Renewed commitment is translating into action. One merely needs to follow the activities of the internal champions at AI to see how their belief and commitment to Appreciative Inquiry itself is resulting in an almost superhuman amount of action.

Diffusion

Appreciative Inquiry has a diffusive quality once it enters an organization. The process of AI diffusion within SC during the last three years speaks about how organizational change can occur. Initially, an external consultant introduced AI as an approach for SC's partnering and capacity building program with an NGO federation. During subsequent visits by the same consultant, AI was used for

42 Images of a New Future A Documentation of Appreciative Inquiry other purposes such as establishing and strengthening partnerships with local NGOs, building the partner's organizational and programmatic capacity, and for community mobilization for health. While it was introduced as far back as September 1997 as an organizational change strategy, only recently has AI been substantially utilized as a tool for internal SC organizational learning and transformation. Increasingly SC staff view AI not just as an approach for their external work but as an important methodology for staff development and organizational evolution. As staff at all levels of the organization have come into contact with AI, either through direct experience or through the stories of success by others using it, they have requested more support and assistance in learning and applying it. Through the AI advocacy efforts of senior staff and the critical mass of staff using it, AI is becoming part of the values and belief system at the core of SC/US PhFO culture.

An interesting point is that AI was not introduced as a mandate from the top, but rather, it diffused through the organization laterally as staff used it and told powerful stories of its success in programing and partnerships. Throughout this process of diffusion, the Country Director encouraged AI experimentation and adaptation as well as provided support and assistance to those staff interested in pursuing its application.

Being and Doing

Not only has AI had a diffusive quality in the organization but it seems to have penetrated many individuals at a very personal level. The deeper potential of Appreciative Inquiry for an organization and its external programs seems to be heightened to the extent that both the "being and doing" of AI is embraced. Initially staff thought of AI as a new way of carrying out their community and partnership work. AI became a lens through which work was approached and planned. Increasingly staff members are incorporating AI into how they see themselves at their innermost being. They are developing an appreciative competency and are able to see positive possibilities everywhere. As one SC staff person said, "now as I experience it more, it's not just the doing, the how of doing things, it's more about being...one way or another AI helps to complete the wholeness between what you do and the essence of who you are."

From another perspective we can say that the being and doing of AI is a search for an alignment of values, that we want to live and practice our beliefs. AI provides that congruence. As one staff person said when asked about her practice of AI, "for me the most important lesson is you have to live the life, be consistent

43 Images of a New Future A Documentation of Appreciative Inquiry with what you say and do internally. You can't live one set of principles and teach another. You have to feel it, be consistent with your own values."

Internal and External Champions

Critical to the successful promotion and adoption of AI internally within the Save the Children/US Philippines Field Office, and in its external programming efforts, is the significant roles played by key SC staff members, Beth San Miguel, Naida Pasion and Mike Novell. With the approval and support of Country Director Mike Novell, two senior staff members have continually advocated for a deeper understanding of AI by all staff as well as for a wider application of its use. Most importantly, their endorsement of AI comes not just from hearing or reading about it, but from their own first hand experience through its use and the success derived from it applications in different settings. Both have been innovative in their contextualizing of AI practice. They have shared their learnings and supported colleagues interested in gaining more understanding of AI. They have become over time influential speakers for the vitality and credibility of AI. It was not difficult to see how deeply Appreciative Inquiry resonates with the champions advocating it.

While Mike did not mandate an organizational move toward Appreciative Inquiry, he has supported and encouraged in a facilitative style at every step of the way. He has demonstrated his commitment through making available substantial funds for external consultants, staff training and documentation of AI practices. The SC/US PhFO example is somewhat unique because it does not represent a top/down approach to organizational change but at the same time, it’s difficult to imagine how AI could have successfully permeated the organization so quickly and completely without supportive executive leadership.

Additionally the roles of consultant Christopher Szecsey and the GEM Initiative team should be acknowledged. As the staff’s interest in AI grew, Szecsey and the GEM team have supported them. Szecsey’s long history with SC and close personal relationship with the SC staff gave credibility to AI and an extended relationship with GEM through the customized partnership initiative.

In conclusion, the incorporation and adoption of AI within SC and perhaps other organizations, may be dependent key committed individuals willing to take risks, innovate, and carry the torch, supportive executive leadership and trusted and knowledgeable external technical support.

Contextualization

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It is important to contextualize the use of Appreciative Inquiry as no two situations are alike. There are important in how it is applied depending on the setting and the experience gained in adapting it. Sharing of experiences by staff is critical to building organizational comfort and success in its application especially when an organization like SC Ph FO is using AI in many different contexts. Even within one project the context needs to be considered and results shared. As the barangay leaders told us, not even two barangays are the same when we speak of facilitating an AI session. In some cases the need for adaptation is very pronounced as the staff’s experience in using AI in urban and rural communities.

AI has in a short period of time become widely accepted and used by the SC staff, its partners and community members in diverse settings. The cultural context of the Philippines seems particularly receptive to AI, because Filipinos are open to change, willing to risk and try new ideas, and then adapt them to fit their situation. As we have seen during this investigation, they have even gone on to innovate and improve upon some of the original AI ideas and approaches, thereby enriching the process of global AI diffusion. The staff has been creative in developing activities that do not rely on the use of written language. They are aware that community wisdom often resides in stories and drawings. AI has provided them with a methodology to capture the full strengths of a community.

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IX. Appendix

Interview Protocol

A. Sample Protocol SC/US Philippines Field Office Internal Organizational Capacity Building

1. First, I’d like to learn more about you and how you came to know Appreciative Inquiry. a) Think back to when you were first introduced to AI. What attracted you to considering the use of Appreciative Inquiry and what about it did you find compelling? b) b) What was your first experience like actually using AI and in what context were you using it? c) c) What were your initial excitements and impressions upon using AI the first few times?

2. I’d like for you to think how AI is being used for internal capacity building of SC/US Philippines. Can you tell me about some of the breakthrough moments in using Appreciative Inquiry that have lead you and the organization toward where you’d like to be?

3. Appreciative Inquiry has the power to bring forth “the best” at multiple levels. What do you value about what AI brings out in: (ask these one at a time, otherwise they might be likely to answer all three the same way) a) You? b) Others? c) Inside Save the Children/Philippines Field Office or beyond?

4. Can you discuss for me what you think have been some of the greatest achievements using AI in the SC Philippines field office? Intended and unintended results?

5. In what areas of the development of SC/US Philippines has AI yielded the greatest benefit? Can you tell me about those areas and how the AI process has changed the way you do things? (We could prompt here if they have trouble understanding this question. We’d be looking for things like, strategic planning, processes, visioning, clarity of mission, staff development & performance appraisal, program planning, organizational culture and values, team work, communication, decision-making, etc.)

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6. What other plans do you have for utilizing Appreciative Inquiry to develop the capacity of SC/US Philippines?

7. What are the most important learnings in the use of AI for internal SC Philippines internal capacity building that you can share with the larger development community? 8. What are your greatest hopes for using AI in the future?

B. Sample Protocol

SC/US Philippines Field Office SC/NGO Sponsorship Partnership

1. First, I’d like to learn more about you and how you came to know Appreciative Inquiry. a) Think back to when you were first introduced to AI. What attracted you to considering the use of Appreciative Inquiry and what about it did you find compelling? b) What was your first experience like actually using AI and in what context were you using it? c) What were your initial excitements and impressions upon using AI the first few times?

2. I’d like for you to think how AI is being used for partnership building and strengthening. Can you tell me about some of the breakthrough moments in using Appreciative Inquiry that have lead the SC/NGO sponsorship partnership toward where you’d like to be?

3. Appreciative Inquiry has the power to bring forth “the best” at multiple levels. What do you value about what AI brings out in: (ask these one at a time, otherwise they might be likely to answer all three the same way) a) You? b) Others? c) The SC/NGO sponsorship partnership?

4. Can you discuss for me what you think have been some of the greatest achievements using AI in the NGO sponsorship partnership? Intended and unintended results?

5. In what areas of the development of the SC/NGO sponsorship partnership has AI yielded the greatest benefit? Can you tell me about those areas and how the AI process has changed the way you do things?(We could prompt here if they have trouble understanding this question. We’d be looking for things like,

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strategic partnership planning and development; partnership structure and processes; partnership program development, planning, management and evaluation; sponsorship management, internal organizational development within the partner; staff and board development; etc.)

6. What other plans do you have for utilizing Appreciative Inquiry to develop the capacity of the SC/NGO sponsorship partnership?

7. What are the most important learnings in the use of AI for partnerships that you can share with the larger development community?

8. What are your greatest hopes for using AI in the future?

C. Sample Protocol

SC/US Philippines Field Office Community Mobilization/ the KSP project

1. First, I’d like to learn more about you and how you came to know Appreciative Inquiry. a) Think back to when you were first introduced to AI. What attracted you to considering the use of Appreciative Inquiry and what about it did you find compelling? b) What was your first experience like actually using AI and in what context were you using it? c) What were your initial excitements and impressions upon using AI the first few times?

2. I’d like for you to think how AI is being used for community mobilization within the KSP project. Can you tell me about some of the breakthrough moments in using Appreciative Inquiry that have lead the KSP project toward where you’d like to be?

3. Appreciative Inquiry has the power to bring forth “the best” at multiple levels. What do you value about what AI brings out in: (ask these one at a time, otherwise they might be likely to answer all three the same way) a) You? b) Others? c) The KSP project?

48 Images of a New Future A Documentation of Appreciative Inquiry

4. Can you discuss for me what you think have been some of the greatest achievements using AI in the KSP project? Intended and unintended results?

5. In what areas of the KSP project has AI yielded the greatest benefit? Can you tell me about those areas and how the AI process has changed the way you do things? (We could prompt here if they have trouble understanding this question. We’d be looking for things like, community mobilization and management for health care; community/government health programming including planning and implementation; strategic collaboration/partnership building along with structure and processes; training methodologies; program development; etc.)

6. What other plans do you have for utilizing Appreciative Inquiry to develop the capacity of the community and government in health programming?

7. What are the most important learnings in the use of AI for community development that you can share with the larger development community?

9. What are your greatest hopes for using AI in the future?

Interview Schedule

Date Area of Who Location Method Inquiry 11/5/99 I/C SC-WVPO Staff WVPO Office Protocol with pairs. 12/5/99 C KSP Project Staff WVPO Office Briefing with Jess, Focus Group, follow-up questions. 12/5/99 C Urban Barangay Iloilo City Briefing with Jess, Focus Group, follow-up questions, protocol. 12/5/99 I/C Naida Pasion WVPO Office Focus Group Discussion, Program Manager- open dialogue, follow-up Health/Pop/Nutrition questions. Jess Encena Team Leader-KSP Project

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Date Area of Who Location Method Inquiry Beth San Miguel Program Manager- Partnering Estela Novell Independent Consultant 13/5/99 C Rural Barangay San Rafael Briefing with Jess, Focus KSP volunteers (Tess, Group, follow-up Ann Marie) questions. 13/5/99 C San Rafael Municipal San Rafael Briefing with Jess, Focus leaders Office of the Group Discussion, follow- Mayor up questions. 13/5/99 C Dr. Amado Parawan Iloilo One on one protocol. 14/5/99 P IDCMF-PHO Staff SC Partner Office Focus group-development Partnership Staff-Iloilo of timeline, partnership indicators, follow-up questions with protocol. 14/5/99 P/I Joy Ayupan Iloilo City One on one protocol. Partnering Coordinator -WVPO 17/5/99 I Dads Mendoza Tagaytay One on one protocol. Program Manager- WVPO 17/5/99 P PDFI Staff PDFI Office Timeline, focus group discussion, follow-up interview, protocol. 18/5/99 I Beth San Miguel Manila Office One on one protocol. Program Manager- Partnering 18/5/99 P PACAF Staff Manila Office Timeline, focus group discussion. 18/5/99 I Metro Manila Staff Manila Office Timeline, focus group discussion. 19/5/99 I Joey Parman Manila Office One on one protocol. Program Manager – Sponsorship 19/5/99 I Virgie Giray Manila Office One on one protocol. Program Officer – WMEN 19/5/99 P,I,C Nida Vilches Manila Office One on one protocol. Program Manager-

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Date Area of Who Location Method Inquiry Metro Manila 20/5/99 P,I,C Mike Novell Manila Office One on one protocol. Country Director PhFO

List of People Interviewed for the Case Study –AI Philippine Experience

Organization Name Position Save the Children-US Mike Novell Country Director- Philippines Field Office Edgar Geolina Consigliere West Visayas Diosdado “Dads” Mendoza Program Manager Jesus “Jess” Encena JHU Team Leader Joy Ayupan Partnering/Capacity Building Coordinator Metro Manila Nida Vilches Program Manager Joey Parman FP Sponsorship Manager Letty Basilio Partnering Coordinator Gloria Ramat Program Technical Coordinator- Health Marifel Bogabel Capacity Building Coordinator Erlinor Umali Program Technical Coordinator- Education

SPRINT Naida Pasion Health/Population/Nutrition Manager Beth San Miguel Partnering Manager Virgie Giray Program Officer –WMEN Iloilo Doctors College of Ramie Carillo Program Manager Medicine Paranaque Development Manny Erni President, Board of Directors Foundation, Inc. Gigi Platino Philippine Agency for Monina Manapat Executive Director, PACAF Community and Family Carmen Vicente (PACAF)

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Project from Metro Manila Staff

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Community

Volunteers Sept. 15 Nora

SC Organization Sailing SCGon stories of SCG towards Sf Families Kalusugan ng Bayan AI ang Mafel Kailangan Sept. 17-17 Glo Aug. 17, 18 Aluin Parents as primary stakeholder: A gathering 1st wk Sept. CommunityCommunity Adolescent in action 1st wk Sept. Cheng AI away of life A1 for youth AI BUZZ Children and Youth Partners before Sept. 15Network

AI 3rd week of August of week 3rd

thru stakeholders for AI

Discovering council of Virgie sustainability

leaders towards talents Discovering

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