21926 Chap.10 Adaptive Change, Complexity and Appreciative Inquiry
Adaptive Change, Complexity and Appreciative Inquiry
Change from the person outwards
The adaptive change model, presented in Week 4, treats change as something a person has to adapt to. Five process factors move from openness to opportunities, visualising and planning, through taking action, to closure with milestones and a celebration.
Three support factors run alongside every stage: social support, the management of negative emotions and an inner drive to stay the course.
The slides add that the stages can overlap and that the process takes discipline, organisation and time.
Organisations as complex systems
Complexity theory, offered in Week 5 for background, sees organisations as systems of interacting parts in which change is dynamic, non-linear and often emergent.
Small moves can have large, unexpected effects, so leaders combine room for teams to organise themselves with control systems that catch problems early.
Appreciative inquiry and its evidence
Appreciative inquiry starts from strengths. A group defines a positive topic and moves through discovery, dream, design and destiny.
The slides praise its energy and its effect on morale, but also report a meta-analysis in which only seven of twenty cases produced transformational change, and they question whether ignoring problems fits a systems view of organisations.
What this chapter covers
- 01
The adaptive change model
- 02
Preparatory and production factors
- 03
Support factors and negative emotions
- 04
Complexity theory of change
- 05
The appreciative inquiry cycle
- 06
Evidence and criticism of appreciative inquiry
Worked example · free
Plan the appreciative inquiry cycle for a theatre company
- 1Define the topic affirmatively. Replace “why do subscribers leave?” with “how do we create seasons that subscribers cannot wait to renew?”
- 1Discovery: ask long-standing subscribers, actors and front-of-house staff to describe a night when the company was at its best, and record what made it work.
- 1Dream: bring these groups together to imagine what an ideal season would feel like in three years, gathering many perspectives before narrowing.
- 1Design: debate the possibilities until the group agrees one pathway, for example a subscriber evening before each opening, with an action plan.
- 1Destiny: put the plan into action across the season and check renewals against it, keeping a channel open for problems the positive frame may hide.
Key terms
- Adaptive Change Model
- A person-centred model in which five process factors, from openness to closure, are carried along by social support, emotion management and inner drive.
- Process Factors
- In the adaptive model, the ordered stages a person moves through: openness, visualisation and planning to prepare, then action and closure to produce the change.
- Support Factors
- Social support, the handling of negative emotions and inner drive, which the adaptive model applies to every stage of the process.
- Affirmative Topic Choice
- Framing the subject of an appreciative inquiry as something to create more of, rather than as a problem to remove.
- Complexity Theory
- An umbrella view treating organisations as systems of interdependent parts whose change is non-linear, unpredictable and often emergent.
Adaptive Change, Complexity and Appreciative Inquiry FAQ
What is the adaptive change model?
A model developed by Terry Bowles at the University of Melbourne that sees change as adaptive thinking and behaviour. Openness, visualisation and planning prepare the change; action and closure produce it. Social support, the management of negative emotions and inner drive support every stage, and the slides warn that stages can overlap.
Why does the adaptive model focus on negative emotions?
The slides say positive feelings did not turn out to trigger change, whereas emotions such as fear, anxiety, guilt, resentment, confusion and a sense of losing control get in its way. Handling those feelings before, during and after the change, for example through training, coaching or mentoring, is therefore treated as critical to success.
What does complexity theory add to change management?
It reminds managers that organisations are systems of interacting parts, so change is non-linear and partly emergent, and a small change can ripple unpredictably. It supports innovative thinking and self-organising teams, but the slides add that leaders still need effective control systems. The adaptive change model and open systems theory both sit under this umbrella.
How is appreciative inquiry different from problem solving?
Problem solving starts from pain, identifies causes and plans a treatment, treating the organisation as a set of problems. Appreciative inquiry values the best of what exists, imagines what might be, discusses what could or should be and acts on what will be, treating the organisation as a source of solutions.
Is appreciative inquiry on the Assessment 2 model menu?
It depends on which copy of the Assessment 2 guide you read: one lists appreciative inquiry among the models you may choose and another omits it. Check the current menu on Canvas before building your folio around it, and remember the folio model must differ from the one used in Assessment 1.
Assessment move
Draw the adaptive model as two rows, the five process factors on top and the three support factors underneath, and run one personal change you have lived through along it, noting where support helped or was missing. For complexity theory, find one news story where a small change caused large side effects and explain it in three sentences.
For appreciative inquiry, practise rewriting five complaints from your own workplace as affirmative topics, then list the strongest criticism of the method and decide when you would still use it. Keep the seven-of-twenty finding in mind whenever you are tempted to describe the method as proven. Finish by naming one setting where you would choose each approach.
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