Some things that are on the surface very dull turn out to be the most important and interesting. I’m fascinated by the plumbing and wiring aspects of the economy, rather than the abstract theory. Macroeconomics is about dragons and unicorns, very glamorous. But I’m more interested in statistics – what are we measuring, and what are we causing to happen, when we look at GDP growth, or inflation? And in the literal wiring – where is the internet and who owns the cables? And in organisations too – when we say ‘the banks’ or ‘firms’, who do we mean and why do they do what they do?

So after reading the excellent [amazon_link id=”081572151X” target=”_blank” ]The Metropolitan Revolution[/amazon_link] by Bruce Katz and Jennifer Bradley, I looked up an organisational technique they mention called appreciative inquiry. It notes that efforts to change something or bring something about, the initial question is often: “what’s the problem we’re trying to solve?” What if you start by asking: “what can we do and what do we want?”

[amazon_image id=”081572151X” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Metropolitan Revolution (Brookings Focus Book)[/amazon_image]

Sometimes problems need solving, but I like the way appreciative inquiry seems to build in the kind of relationship and coalition building actually needed to achieve anything in a complicated organisational context. It looks worth finding out more about it, and thinking about this approach (alongside the excellent [amazon_link id=”1455525200″ target=”_blank” ]The Org[/amazon_link] by Ray Fisman and Tim Sullivan, which is a brilliant overview of the role of asymmetric information, principal-agent problems and other economic tools play in understanding organisations). Wikipedia lists some journal articles – I’d be very grateful if anyone knows of a beginner’s guide to appreciative inquiry.

[amazon_image id=”1455525200″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Org: The Underlying Logic of the Office[/amazon_image]