I met with two people on Friday (their organisation websites are here http://practicaleq.com/ and http://www.actualisebp.co.uk) and they were discussing work they had been doing around Appreciative Inquiry.  The essence of the approach is to help organisations build from what they do well rather than focusing on what is going wrong.

In organisational change I can really see this approach working - any time I have consulted with organisations or worked with a team - most people feel under threat / defensive of the current way of working.   To actually start with what is going well would be fantastic and build from it would be a wonderful way of building trust.  I've written previously on the benefits of describing what is going well rather than pointing out failing as a method of coaching.

When appraising someone - and in particular when debriefing 360 degree appraisals we always recommend starting by drawing out the strengths.   Most people find this very hard when talking about themselves and immediately add "but" to most positive sentences.  Appreciative Inquiry strikes me as an interesting model to follow for appraising / debriefing and clearly fits well with a coaching model of the world.

I've added this to my list of things to read up on and I'll write up any areas that I feel this field can contribute to 360 feeedback and performance appraisal.

Brendan