AFTER THE INTERVIEWS ARE COMPLETE, this third core process, locating the themes that appear in the stories, encompasses the work of:

• “Mining” the data by looking for themes of what gives life in the organization and
• Expanding the positive dialogue about these themes to people throughout the organization.

This process, heliotropic in nature, encourages the organization to turn toward images of what gives life and, through continuing dialogue, to assure that a future is built on those themes and images.

Of course, since many people will have conducted the interviews—anywhere from two to two thousand in our experience—it is necessary to create a mechanism by which all that data can be absorbed and digested by people in the organization. (Notice that we do not say “analyze the data.”) The search here is not for the norm, the most mentioned idea, even the best idea. The process of absorbing and digesting data is one that allows people to take it all in and to react to the messages and meaning in ways that move the organization in the direction of the combined positive energy of the members. It is more about creating synergy than about consensus.

The groups working with the interview data can also range from two to two thousand, or even more! Remembering the theory that we get more of what we focus on, it follows the more people involved in sharing the stories, “mining” the data, and identifying the themes of life-giving forces, the more the organization will move in the direction of those themes.

There are many ways of sharing and working with the data, just as there are many choices in the earlier processes about who does the interviewing, who “collates” the data (if that is the decision), and who works with the data to pull out the themes/life-giving forces. Before we get into identifying the choices in data collation and data synthesis (that is, making meaning of the data), let’s focus on the idea of themes and what gives the organization life, as well as ways to identify the themes and life-giving factors in the data.

In describing the second core process of AI—Inquiry into Stories of What Gives Life in the System—we argued that the very action of asking people to reflect on and tell stories about their exceptional moments in the present or past of their organization and to identify the wishes they have for how things will be different in the future (the wish question) is a powerful intervention in and of itself, which begins to move the system in directions that are positive and life-giving. We argued that it is the combination of positively focused inquiry, positively focused dialogue, and the resultant influence on the collective imagination that propels forward movement. In this third core process of AI, we want to keep those conversations and that dynamic alive and extend them for the same reasons we asked the questions in the first place. However, it’s not just a question of talking about good things. Rather, we need to work with the data in a way that continues the inherent value of conversations focused on what gives life while also developing the ground from which we can build shared images, dreams, and visions of a preferred future.