The Appreciative Inquiry Approach
Find what's already working and scale it, rather than diagnosing what's broken and fixing it
The Appreciative Inquiry Approach, as demonstrated by Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly, flips the traditional management consulting model. Instead of diagnosing problems and prescribing solutions from the top, it starts by going to the front lines, identifying what's already working well (bright spots), and scaling those existing successes across the organization.
Joly's approach at Best Buy was radical in its simplicity. He didn't hire McKinsey. He didn't launch a company-wide transformation program. He visited stores as a sales associate, talked to employees, and discovered that the organization already contained the solutions it needed — they just hadn't been identified and shared. Chris Schmidt in Denver had developed an individualized coaching program that was producing exceptional results. Joly's job wasn't to invent a new approach; it was to find Schmidt's approach and scale it.
The framework matters because it respects existing organizational wisdom. Employees have been solving problems locally for years. The best solutions often already exist somewhere in the system — they just haven't been discovered, validated, and spread. Appreciative inquiry finds them. This approach also generates less resistance than top-down mandates because it amplifies what people are already doing well, rather than telling them everything they're doing is wrong.
- Go to the front lines before making decisions — don't rely solely on headquarters analysis.
- Identify bright spots — what's already working well somewhere in the organization.
- Scale existing successes rather than imposing new solutions from outside.
- Simplify metrics — 42 indicators means zero accountability; two indicators means focus.
- Align daily behaviors with existing organizational values rather than rewriting the values.
- Go to the Front Lines and ObserveBefore making any changes, physically visit the front lines of your organization and experience the work firsthand. Joly didn't just visit stores — he worked as a sales associate. This level of immersion reveals realities that reports and dashboards cannot capture. You discover what employees actually deal with, what customers actually experience, and where the real problems (and solutions) live. Headquarters analysis is filtered through layers of abstraction; front-line observation is unfiltered.Pro tipSpend at least a full day in a front-line role, not just a tour. The difference between observing and doing is the difference between theory and reality.WarningDon't go to the front lines with a predetermined diagnosis. The point is to discover, not to confirm.
- Simplify the Metrics to What Actually MattersJoly found Best Buy tracking 42 performance indicators. He reduced them to two: declining revenue and shrinking margins. When everything is a priority, nothing is. Simplification creates focus and accountability. Employees can't improve on 42 things simultaneously, but they can focus on two. This step often reveals that the organization's complexity is self-inflicted — the metrics proliferated because adding a new one was easier than questioning an old one.Pro tipAsk: 'If we could only improve two things, which two would have the most impact?' Those are your real metrics.WarningDon't mistake simplicity for superficiality. Two well-chosen metrics can capture more organizational health than 42 unfocused ones.
- Find and Scale Bright SpotsSearch the organization for people and teams that are already achieving exceptional results. Chris Schmidt in Denver had developed an individualized coaching program that was working. Rather than inventing a new coaching approach from scratch, Joly identified Schmidt's approach as a bright spot and scaled it company-wide. The solutions often already exist — they're just trapped in local pockets where nobody from leadership has bothered to look.Pro tipAsk every leader: 'Who on your team is getting results that nobody else is? What are they doing differently?' Then go watch.WarningNot every bright spot scales. Some succeed because of unique local conditions. Test scalability before rolling out company-wide.
When Hubert Joly became CEO of Best Buy, analysts predicted the company's demise. Rather than commissioning strategy consultants, Joly went to stores and worked as a sales associate. He discovered employees were buried under 42 performance metrics and needed support, not surveillance. He reduced metrics to two core problems, found Chris Schmidt's successful coaching program in Denver, and scaled it nationally. He aligned daily behaviors with existing organizational values rather than rewriting them.
Adam Grant highlighted Hubert Joly's use of appreciative inquiry in the June 2022 WorkLife podcast episode. When Joly took over as Best Buy CEO, the company was struggling and many analysts expected it to fail. Rather than relying on headquarters analysis, Joly went to stores and worked as a sales associate. He discovered that employees were demoralized by 42 performance indicators that nobody could actually track or improve. He reduced these to two core problems (declining revenue and shrinking margins) and then searched the organization for existing solutions. He found Chris Schmidt's coaching program in Denver and scaled it company-wide. The approach — going to the front lines, simplifying metrics, and scaling bright spots — exemplified appreciative inquiry in practice.