PLUS!

“Yes, and . . .”

The practice of “plussing” originates with Walt Disney, the Disney company, and most recently Pixar. Like Appreciative Inquiry, plussing is a strengths-based approach to feedback.

Plussing is a cycle where an idea is gifted to someone to plus, to make it even better than it already is. Plussing begins with accepting all offers and adding on by saying, “Yes, and . . .” In this way, plussing is a feedback tool that focuses on building up an idea and improving it collaboratively.

Plussing is an easy, accessible, and small-scale way to make change and improve upon ideas in a collaborative and human-centered way. 

Check out David Lee’s brief video introduction (4:30) and add plussing to your feedback tool belt.

APPRECIATE!

Learning from Our Successes

To further build on analyzing successes and bright spots; use the Appreciative Inquiry Process, a collaborative process to drive innovation. This human-centered approach to positive change encourages the exploration of existing strengths within both individuals and organizations, creating opportunities for open dialogue and shared vision. This approach leverages the strengths and insights of these positive elements to foster change.

With these benefits in mind, explore this protocol and experience firsthand how it can spark innovation in your own work.

TRY!

Small Tests of Change

In our work as education and leadership coaches, we’ve seen firsthand that making changes to a system is hard. Many times we take too big of a bite, making the change efforts unmanageable. To make doable change we need to leverage what continuous improvement calls, small tests [of change].

Currently, Abeo is engaged with education leaders in the NorCal Education Leadership Consortium in California. The project has participants using the continuous improvement process to tackle issues of inequity within their systems. NorCal ELC participants have learned that truly understanding the underlying issues of a problem slows their temptation to implement a change idea that may not be manageable. 

In the continuous improvement process, a systematic approach to examining issues is crucial to critically analyzing a problem for root causes. These root causes become possibilities for small tests of change. While implementing a small test, we plan for and track data that will help us know if the change we imagine is having an impact. Through examining the data, we determine the next small test of change that helps us reach our goal.

New York City’s Department of Education’s, A Digital Guide to Improvement Science (coupled with their printable handbook) is a comprehensive and user-friendly resource for educators anywhere on the continuum of using continuous improvement.

Research shows, leveraging small tests of change can uncover bright spots that lead to impact, while fostering a renewed sense of efficacy. Give it a try!