Article by Michele Deeks from AI Practitioner:

This is the story of a collaboration that started with a conversation at a conference dinner.  …

The chance dinner conversation with Sue was followed with more chats and an idea emerged. Could we work together to produce a tool that would do the same for conversations around culture as our strengths cards had done for conversations around strengths? …

Each card has a simple phrase on it, carefully curated and piloted. The phrases are designed to prompt reflection and discussion, allowing people to add their own detail and depth based on their own context. In this way the cards themselves encourage the agency and ownership referenced in the model itself. For each ASPIRE principle there is a card that gives a short definition of the principle plus six other cards – each one describing an associated belief, feeling or behaviour. For example, a statement associated with the Agency principle is “What we do makes a difference”, whilst one from the Positivity principle is “We feel appreciated here”. These statements give a basis for exploration of each principle; they allow people to tell stories about how the principles play out in their environment and to build a narrative around what needs to happen for everyone to be able to flourish.  …

The phrases on the cards use active voice in the present tense. This helps to keep the language simple but also encourages users to engage in a conversation based around their personal lived experience, rather than hearsay or hypotheticals. It’s a way of encouraging the ASPIRE principles of agency and inclusion.

We’ve heard many stories about how the positive, inclusive, action-oriented tone of the cards has actively shaped the conversations people have had. One of our trialists worked with a team that was experiencing a particularly difficult period with people struggling to be positive about any aspect of their work. Previous conversations had quickly degenerated into complaining sessions that had left people feeling even more de-energised. Using the ASPIRE Culture Cards changed all of that; the team had a much more supportive and productive conversation, which left them feeling more hopeful.

Read the whole article.