DISCOVER your capacity building

topic
PURPOSE
Thank you for participating in this capacity building project as part of your
NEO Literacy Corps year of service. The goal of this project is to increase
your host site’s ability to provide services that are high quality,
interconnected, and outcomes oriented. These interviews are the first
and most important part of the process because they will help you find an
overwhelmingly positive topic that will define your inquiry for the year. The
goal of the project is to build on the strengths of your host site’s current
services, replicate past successes, promote positive dialogue about a shared
positive vision for the future, and affirm the core values of the organization.

BACKGROUND
The Literacy Cooperative is the fiscal agent for the NEO Literacy Corps
program as part of its capacity building initiative. One of the Literacy
Cooperative’s three priorities is “enabling and supporting high quality,
interconnected and outcomes oriented service delivery.” This aligns with
their mission to “work to advance literacy through an effective service
delivery system that reflects the highest standards in the field.” AmeriCorps
members increase their host site’s capacity to provide services through their
time in direct service and through volunteer engagement. Our goal in NEO
Literacy Corps is to also practice leadership skills, facilitate teamwork, and
promote strategic and replicable capacity building through a structured
project using appreciative inquiry.

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a strengths-based method for organizational

development with both a strong grounding in academic principles as well as
a documented record of facilitating sustainable change. AI centers on asking
positive questions to facilitate a hopeful inner dialogue about a shared vision
for the future, and builds on shared values in order to facilitate change
through ownership and communication.
TIMELINE
PROTOTYPE (TEAM 1)
October: DISCOVER your overwhelmingly positive topic for inquiry
Assignment: Create an interview guide & decide who should interview whom
November: DISCOVER your strategy for interview collection & report back
Assignment: Schedule and facilitate interviews within your organization,
collect & organize a report of the results
December: DREAM & DESIGN a summit or meeting to imagine a positive
collective image of the future and make concrete plans to reach it
Assignment: Facilitate the dream & design phase with as many stakeholders
as possible
January: Strategize how to support & reward others to DELIVER on the
actions promised
Assignment: Empower coworkers to follow through and keep working
towards the vision

REFINE (TEAM 2)
May: DISCOVER what has worked well with project implementation & ways
to make it sustainable
Assignment: Create an interview guide, facilitate interviews, collect &
organize results
June: DREAM & DESIGN a transition and/or replication plan to sustain project
momentum
Assignment: Facilitate the dream & design phase with as many stakeholders
as possible
July: DELIVER on any final actions and promote mutual accountability among
coworkers
Assignment: Create final multimedia reports for both internal & public
audiences

Tips for Conducting Interviews

Use the interview questions section for script guidelines and note taking.
You may choose not to use all of the questions or adapt the questions to
what works best for your interview.

Really listen to the other person. Be genuinely curious about their thoughts
& experiences.

Some people will take longer to think about their answers; allow for silence.

Don’t squash negatives, but look deeper to find the positive ideal image or
small successes from negative experiences.

Respect the time limit so both can have an equal turn to share.

Work from specific experiences to the general “life-giving” values. Use these
questions to probe further:
• Can you tell me more?
• Why was that important to you?
• How did that affect you?
• What was your contribution?
• How were you supported?
• How has it changed you?

Interview Guide
Suggested opening: I am going to ask you questions about things that have
interested you in your work at your host site. You may be more familiar with
change initiatives that focus on things that aren’t working well—problems—
so we can fix them. In this case, we are going to find out about your work
and organization at its best—the successes—so we can find out what works
in order to build on and replicate it to build capacity at your host site.
Questions are like tools, and in this case we want to build a beautiful addition
to an existing house, not fix a leaky faucet. The goal of this interview is to
identify a topic for your project that will increase our vitality, effectiveness,
and success going forward into the future and why it interests you.

I. Celebrating your host site’s mission and services.

To start, I’d like to learn more about your host site. What is the mission
(purpose) of the organization?

Who does the organization serve?

What services does the organization provide?

What is your role there?

What are three core factors that give life to the organization, without which
the organization would cease to exist?

1.

2.

3.

What is an area of service at your host site where you are interested in
getting more involved?

II. Finding an engaging capacity building topic.

Without being modest, what do you value most about yourself, your work at
your host site, and the organization?
Tell me about a high point (either in this organization or another time) when
you were involved in providing services that were high quality,
interconnected, and/or outcomes oriented, a time when you were positively
involved. What was exciting about these services? What did you and others
do to make them high quality, interconnected, and/or outcomes oriented?

Is there a specific topic that you or your Site Supervisor has already
identified as a possible area for capacity building? What about this topic is
interesting or meaningful to you?

III. Your vision for the future of your host site.

What three wishes do you have to increase your host site’s ability to provide
services that are high quality, interconnected, and/or outcomes oriented?

1.

2.

3.

Which one of these wishes are you most enthusiastic about? Why?

How would you state this wish in inspiring language?

SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION
When you return to the multi-purpose room, please sit with one other
interview pair to form a small group of four. Please take turns sharing the
following information about your interview partner:

Name:

Host Site:

Role:

One thing from the interview you have to share:

Topic for their project:

Once everyone has been introduced, please take turns brainstorming ways
to make your topics overwhelmingly positive. Some examples of original
topics  appreciative inquiry topics.

Original Topics Appreciative Inquiry Topics

Treatment of Staff and Clients
Decision Making
Soliciting Referrals
Learning and Development
Student Registration
Genuine Appreciation
Engaging Roles
Beneficial Partnerships
Continuous Learning
Welcoming Adult Learner Orientation

My Appreciative Inquiry Topic:

Next, discuss some of the following questions about who to engage in the
initial discovery phase of your project. Please take notes on who to involve
at your host site:

Who should help write, review or approve your final interview guide? Will
you pilot the interview guide?
Who needs to be interviewed? Who are all of the stakeholder groups that
you will interview? Why is each group important?

How can you set up interviews to increase communication and social

bonding in the organization? For example, should you pair up individuals
(i.e. Executive Director with a client, Administrative Assistant with Instructor)
or train interviewers collecting data?

How will the interview results be collected to share later?

Interview Summary Sheet

Your Name:

Name of Interviewee:

Interviewee Host Site:

Their preferred email address:

Their preferred phone #:

Overall, what was your sense of what was most important to this person?

Please share any quotable quotes or compelling stories that came from this
interview:
Which core factors give life to their What are their three wishes?
host site?
1.
1.
2.
2.
3.
3.

What is their overwhelmingly positive appreciative inquiry capacity building

topic?

ASSIGNMENT 1: Create an Interview Guide

Create an interview guide for your organization that includes the following
sections:

1. Purpose

2. Overview of the Interview Process (called “Timeline” above)

3. Tips for Conducting Interviews

4. Interview Guide (can include a suggested opening explaining

Appreciative Inquiry). Modify the foundational questions for your topic:

a. What would you describe as being a high-point experience in

your organization, a time when you were most alive and
engaged?

b. Without being modest, what do you value most about yourself,

your work, and your organization?

c. What are the core factors that give life to your organization,
without which the organization would cease to exist?
 d. Imagine you have awakened from a long, deep sleep and
everything is as you always dreamed it would be. Your ideal
state has become the reality. What do you see? What is going
on? How have things changed? (OR) What three wishes do you
have to enhance the health and vitality of your organization?

5. Interview Summary Sheet (to be turned in)

For more ideas, please go to the Appreciative Inquiry Commons and find the
section “Practice & Management” > “AI Tools” > “Positive Questions and
Interview Guides”

Link: http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/practice/toolsQuestions.cfm

Assignment 2: Choose Your Interviewers/Interviewees

In addition to the interview guide, also make decisions about WHO should
interview WHOM in the organization based on who will be impacted by your
capacity building project. Please see the small group discussion for
questions to consider about who to interview.