To help to find out what is working well the Positive Inquiry Tool asks two questions – ‘What worked well for you’?
and ‘What could we do more of together to improve your experience’? Notice that we are starting by asking people what worked well which engages people in a conversation about what they value. The use of language in the second question conveys that people are ‘experts of their own experience’, and that it is through working together that new possibilities can be explored and brought in to being. Note that it does not ask what are the problems or issues, this relates to the fact that the questions we ask help to determine the response we get. If we are to ask what are the problems people tend to give a list of things. Asking people ‘what could we do together to make the experience better?’ invites people to help to co-create the solutions, thereby implying a shared responsibility in this – i.e. it’s about what we can both do together to make the experience better.
The How
It is suggest that this inquiry tool is used as a starting point for conversation. Rather than anonymous feedback, the invitation with this tool is that it forms the basis for further discovery work, through the Caring Conversation framework, of what helped it to work well, and what might we create together in moving forward.
Where and When
These questions can be used to engage in conversations with a range of people in your workplace – residents, relatives, GP’s, students, and staff. Some managers on the My Home Life programme have used this resource to guide supervision meetings with staff.
Resource to download