Export Development Canada

Challenge

Export Development Canada (EDC) is a Crown corporation that provides financing and risk-management services to Canadian exporters and investors. The Organization Effectiveness Group (OEG) was interested in developing in-house capacity/skills in Appreciative Inquiry (AI). Working with many client groups across the organization, the OEG had the potential to utilize the principles, concepts and processes of AI to create positive change in the organization.

Solution

The IPI team of consultants met with a planning group that was made up of several members of the OEG. Working collaboratively with the client, IPI consultants planned and co-designed a three-day training workshop. The consultants designed a customized learning initiative that led the OEG through experiential learning of AI theory, principles and process.

In the first two days, participants learned about AI as a process and philosophy while discovering their strengths, imagining possible futures and taking specific actions toward their goal of building capacity for change. A component of the learning initiative required participants to select an AI project that they could initiate with their internal clients.

Results

During a four-week gap between the second and third day of training, participants had the opportunity to practice some of what they had learned. One such project led to the planning, design and facilitation of a 200-person planning retreat and a pre-session meeting with the management group. The in-house team of facilitators saw the project through to completion, including initiating a fully appreciative post-session evaluation meeting.

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