Appreciative inquiry

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is an organizational development process or philosophy that engages individuals within an organizational system in its renewal, change and focused performance.

Appreciative Inquiry was adopted from work done by earlier theorists and practitioners and further developed by David Cooperrider of Case Western Reserve University. It is now a commonly accepted practice in the evaluation of organizational development strategy and implementation of organizational effectiveness tactics. Appreciative Inquiry is a particular way of asking questions and envisioning the future that fosters positive relationships and builds on the basic goodness in a person, a situation, or an organization. In so doing, it enhances a system's capacity for collaboration and change. ["The Power of Appreciative Inquiry" defines AI as "the study and exploration of what gives life to human systems, at their best" (Whitney and Trosten-Bloom, 2003)] Appreciative Inquiry utilizes a 4-stage process focusing on:
#DISCOVER: The identification of organizational processes that work well.
#DREAM: The envisioning of processes that would work well in the future.
#DESIGN: Planning and prioritizing processes that would work well.
#DESTINY (or DELIVER): The implementation (execution) of the proposed design. [Theodore Kinni, "The Art of Appreciative Inquiry", The Harvard Business School Working Knowledge for Business Leaders Newsletter, September 22, 2003.] ["Appreciative Inquiry" http://www.new-paradigm.co.uk/Appreciative.htm.]

The basic idea is to build organizations around what works, rather than trying to fix what doesn't. It is the opposite of problem solving. Instead of focusing on fixing what's wrong, AI focuses on how to create more of what's already working. The approach acknowledges the contribution of individuals, in order to increase trust and organizational alignment. The method aims to create meaning by drawing from stories of concrete successes and lends itself to cross-industrial social activities. It can be enjoyable and natural to many managers, who are often sociable people.

There are a variety of approaches to implementing Appreciative Inquiry, including mass-mobilized interviews and a large, diverse gathering called an Appreciative Inquiry Summit (Ludema, Whitney, Mohr and Griffin, 2003). Both approaches involve bringing very large, diverse groups of people together to study and build upon the best in an organization or community.

AI has been used extensively to foster change in businesses (a variety of sectors), health care systems, social profit organizations, educational institutions, communities, local governments, and religious institutions.

ee also

*brainstorming
*Geoffrey Vickers introduced concept of 'Appreciative Systems'(1968)

External links

* [http://appreciativeinquiry.cwru.edu/ Appreciative Inquiry Commons] at Case Western Reserve University
* [http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=3684&t=innovation Appreciative Inquiry] at Harvard Business School
* [http://inqueritoapreciativo.atspace.com/ Inquérito Apreciativo] pt icon
* [http://www.2007aiconference.com/ 2007 Appreciative Inquiry Conference] The Power of Positive Change
* [http://www.systemsthinker.com/interests/appreciativeinquiry/ Appreciative Inquiry Description and Resources]

References