Appreciation (Situational)

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Uncover hidden problems by asking "So What?"

A few months ago, Josh found out that a competitor was opening a new office in the same city as his organization.

He gave some thought to the implications of this, but, even after he'd covered all of the bases, he still felt that he was missing something important. Then, two months later, he discovered that the competitor had been headhunting all his best managers. And there was nothing he could do about it.

Does this sound familiar? Sometimes, a piece of information may seem straightforward, but later on, we find out there was more to it than we realized, leaving us wrong-footed and ill-prepared for the consequences.

One way to deal with these situations is by using Appreciation. This is a simple but powerful technique for extracting the maximum amount of information possible from a simple fact or statement.

About Appreciation

Appreciation helps us uncover factors that we might have ordinarily missed, and it can be very useful for brainstorming   solutions to problems.

It was originally developed by the military to help commanders gain a comprehensive understanding of any fact, problem or situation that it was faced with in battle. However, you can also apply it in the workplace.

Using Appreciation is easy. Starting with a fact, you first ask the question "So what?" – in other words, what are the implications of that fact? Why is this fact important?

You then continue asking that question until you have drawn all possible conclusions from it.

Uses

Appreciation is similar to the 5 Whys   technique. The major difference is that it is often used to get the most information out of a simple fact or statement, while the 5 Whys is specifically designed to drill down to the root of a problem.

You can also use Appreciation in conjunction with Root Cause Analysis   or Cause and Effect Analysis   to help you gain a better understanding of the impact of possible solutions.

Appreciation Example

You've just found out that your department's budget is going to be cut by 25 percent next year.

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This is a huge cut, and you want to make sure that you've uncovered all the implications before you start to brainstorm possible solutions.

So, you use the Appreciation Process, as follows:

Statement: Our department's budget is going to be cut 25 percent starting January 1.

So what?

So the only way to accommodate that cut is to reduce our spending dramatically.

So what?

So we're probably going to have to cut staff, and we'll definitely have to cut spending on supplies, research, and staff parties.

So what?

So staff morale is probably going to drop, especially if I have to lay off members of our team.

So what?

So I'll need to come up with plenty of low-cost ways to boost morale without spending money.

So what?

So I'll need to start thinking about this tomorrow, since the new budget will go into effect in two months, and I want to be able to manage the consequences when I let the team know.