In SEMPRE Accelerators, we accompany eight so-called micro projects on their way towards mature, stable social start-ups. The project is about empowering social service users to co-create social start-ups. One part of the support framework that we offer to the micro projects (and in particular to their respective facilitators) are training days. At a first training day, back in January, we learned about leadership and team management in social start-ups. Now, in September and October, we gathered again for a training day – this time about Appreciative Inquiry.
Appreciative Inquiry is “an approach to organisational change which focuses on strengths rather than on weaknesses – quite different to many approaches to evaluation which focus on deficits and problems”, says betterevaluation.org.
Appreciative Inquiry is part of an action research approach. It is rooted in the idea of positivity as opposed to more traditional research methods that focus on deficits or problem-solving. AI begins by identifying something positive about the situation, something that energises people and that they most care about, in order to produce and sharpen a vision and inspire action for change.
The participants have furthermore been introduced to the NOPRA method. NOPRA is a method that helps to create a plan for the future. For the micro projects, NOPRA has been useful to evaluate their resources and plan ahead. If you are curious about Appreciative Inquiry or the NOPRA method, we recommend the video below.
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Appreciative Inquiry |
The NOPRA method |
Finally, the workshops also introduced the concept of coaching and explained the neuroscience background – both of which is explained in detail in the presentations below.
Further Materials:
Coaching (Presentation) Neuroscience (Presentation) Agenda and Topics Summary of Feedback Questionnaires and Evaluative Remarks
