Appreciative Inquiry as a Management System, with Scot Lowry and Jeff Bouwman

In this special double-header, Scot Lowry and Jeff Bouwman share their discovery of Appreciative Inquiry and how, through the AiMS Institute, they have used it as a management approach to help companies transform the way they work. Scot is a Managing Partner at Promise One  and a Professor focused on Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition. He has found great success in applying a strengths-based approach to engage teams and stakeholders in dialogues that value people and unleash potential. Jeff is the co-founder and CEO of The AiMS Institute and helps leaders create transformative change by bringing an innovative new approach to how they run their businesses. They join us to share how they have seen Appreciative Inquiry enable leaders to think, talk, and act differently in a time of unprecedented complexity and uncertainty.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

• Scot shares how using AI helped him successfully scale his company, transitioning from traditional management to embedding AI into daily operations, which led to increased employee engagement and business growth.
• Jeff highlights two essentials for leadership: being open to diverse perspectives and executing leadership through a strengths-based, appreciative approach.
• They share a case study with Precision Communication. A new owner faced resistance with a traditional top-down approach. By shifting to a co-creative process using AI, the company experienced a transformation in team dynamics, engagement, and business results.
• The owner involved the team in creating a new organizational structure and setting business priorities, leading to increased ownership, adaptability, and the achievement of 90-day goals.
• The company saw revenue growth and an energized team, indicating a cultural shift driven by appreciative practices.
• Scot and Jeff share that true engagement occurs by actively involving people in the process, a simple yet powerful principle that underpinned their success.
• They emphasize that they aren’t changing what is done, but rather HOW leadership is executed.
• They cite AI as a transformative tool for increasing engagement (the emotional connection that motivates employees to bring their best efforts voluntarily) and mutual commitment, moving away from top-down, command-and-control methods.
• Scot and Jeff stress the importance of AI as a management approach that encourages leaders to honor team input and integrate broader perspectives into decision-making.
• They recommend resources such as the AI Certificate Program at Champlain College, "Conversations Worth Having" by Jackie Stavros and Cheri Torres, and Jeff Bouwman's Change Maker program.
• Jeff advises using simple, actionable AI-based questions to unlock team wisdom, such as asking what's important, reflecting on past successes, and envisioning future possibilities.
• They both think that the best way to understand AI's benefits is through direct experience.

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Learn more at appreciativeinquiry.champlain.edu.