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Introduction and background
In part one, of this article, evidence was provided of the impact of Appreciative Inquiry on the quality of the engagement of 72 college managers in a management development programme. The result of cross business collaboration resulted in clear alignment of learning design to the organisational mission and strategy.
In the months following the original Appreciative Inquiry, it was evident that the collaborative diagnosis had strengthened relationships and resulted in greater sense of shared purpose. The diagnostic workshops had promoted the sharing of knowledge and this started to impact motivation before the management development programme started. Managers recognised the college as an organisational system and that organisational performance was a product of interconnectedness and personal accountability. Appreciative Inquiry legitimised the contribution from all participants and generated fresh ideas and innovative solutions to existing challenges.
The practical outcomes of the diagnostic workshops included two frameworks: a management development programme design and an evaluation framework. This article will report on the use of Appreciative Inquiry as an evaluation tool.
Appreciative Inquiry as an evaluation tool
The choice of evaluation approach was based on a number of considerations. From a practical perspective, the collaborative ethos generated in the 2011 diagnostic workshops continued to develop across the management populations and have tangible benefits for individual and team performance. It was clear that the approach to evaluation needed to align to the purpose and values of the management development programme. We decided to use Appreciative Inquiry to collect evaluation data from all 72 managers to ensure that all members had a voice and that we optimised the collaborative skills developed over the previous year.
The original decision to use Appreciative Inquiry as a diagnostic tool was largely shaped by [1] Ready and Conger (2003) see "Who owns the gap" in the previous edition. The choice of evaluation method enabled us to avoid the trap of input evaluation which the authors term "make believe metrics". The focus of our approach to evaluation was therefore about the impact of learning on individual and organisational performance. The contribution to evaluation research from [2] Pawson and Tilley (1997) focussed our attention on the importance of understanding diverse view points. An Appreciative Inquiry designed to gather impact stories with the management population...