What is Appreciative Inquiry?

I've looked around the web for a short and easy-to-understand description of Appreciative Inquiry for a while, without much success. Which is why I think this article is needed....

What is Appreciative Inquiry?

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a way of looking at organisational change which focuses on doing more of what is already working, rather than focusing on fixing problems. It mobilises strategic change by focusing on the core strengths of an organisation, then using those strengths to reshape the future.

AI is both a high-participation learning process to identify and disseminate best practices, and a way of managing and working that fosters positive communication and can result in the formation of deep and meaningful relationships.

AI was developed by David Cooperrider and his associates at Case Western Reserve University in the mid-eighties. His wife Nancy, an artist, told him about the "appreciative eye" – an idea that assumes that in every piece of art there is beauty. AI applies this principle to business.

How It Works

Appreciative Inquiry begins with analysing the “positive core” of an organisation (or a person) and then links this knowledge to the heart of the strategic change agenda.

The very act of asking a question influences the worldview of the person who is asked. Because human systems move toward what they persistently ask questions about, Appreciative Inquiry involves the deliberate discovery of everything that gives a system “life” when it is most effective in performance and human terms.

When we link the positive core directly to a strategic agenda, changes never thought possible are rapidly mobilised while simultaneously building enthusiasm, corporate confidence, and human energy.

Problem Solving

• What to fix
• Thinks in terms of: problem, symptoms, causes, solutions, action plan, intervention
• Breaks things into pieces & specialties, guaranteeing fragmented responses
• Slow!  Takes a lot of positive emotion to make real change.
• Assumes organisations are constellations of problems to be overcome

Appreciative Inquiry

• What to grow

• Thinks in terms of: the true, good, better, possible

• “Problem focus” implies that there is an ideal. AI starts by focusing on that ideal and its roots in what is already good.

• Expands vision of preferred future. Creates new energy fast.

• Assumes organisations are sources of infinite capacity and imagination.

The AI Change Process

Typical AI Project Start-Up

• Choose the topic: combine themes from generic interviews with research questions
• Agree on desired outcomes and critical success factors
• Agree on how to get there
• Develop draft interview protocol
• Practice interviews; develop interview guidelines
• Plan for collecting & “analysing” the data
• Plan for how the process will drive change.

Six Generic Questions To Start

• What have been your best experiences at work? A time when…

• What do you value about… yourself, work, organisation.    
     
• What do you think is the core life-giving factor or value of your organisation –which it wouldn't be the same without?

• If you had three wishes for your organisation, what would they be?

• What achievements are you (and/or your team) proud of?

• Apart from the money, what makes it worth coming into work?

Why It Works

• It doesn’t focus on changing people, which leads to relief that the message isn’t about what they’ve done wrong or have to stop doing.

• Instead, people get into a positive, energised state because you're focusing on what's good about their work.

• It invites people to engage in building the kinds of organisations and communities that they want to live in.   

• It helps everyone see the need for change, explore new possibilities, and contribute to solutions.

• It's easier to see your vision of the future vividly when it has roots in your past experiences, rather than trying to start with a blank canvas

• It means you won't be throwing out the good stuff that's already there when you start to build your new organisation. 

• Through alignment of formal and informal structures with purpose and principles, it translates shared vision into reality and belief into practice.-  

Underlying Principles

• In every human system, something works.

• What we focus on, and the language we use, becomes our reality.

• Reality is created in the moment and there are multiple realities. It is important to value differences.  
• The act of asking questions influences the group in some way.

• People have more confidence & comfort to move to an unknown future when they carry forward parts of the past.

• What we carry forward should be what is best about the past.  

"Provocative Propositions"

As part of the "Dream" stage, we take the best of what currently happens and determine the circumstances that made that possible. We then write one or more "provocative propositions" which describe the idealised future in which the best happens all the time, and serve as a reminder to focus on it.

Examples:

We anticipate the customer's needs and we are continually learning about what they want.

My coaching practice is full and growing through word-of mouth recommendation.

Checklist for determining a provocative proposition:

•    Is it provocative? Does it stretch, challenge or innovate?
•    Is it developed from real-life examples?
•    Do people feel passionate enough about it to defend it?
•    Is it stated in bold, positive terms and in the present tense?

Provocative propositions resemble answers to the 'miracle question' in Solution-Focused Therapy – except that they are explicitly grounded in past successes, rather than being dreamed up from scratch.

Some NLP and Emotional Intelligence Perspectives

• Because memory is state-dependent, people may need some time to get into a positive frame of mind to recall their best experiences.

• Bear "ecology" (knock-on effects and unintended consequences on the wider system) in mind when choosing the topic – go for optimising the system rather than maximising a single variable.

• When people focus on what's working, they feel more positive. Positive emotions increase energy, creativity and resilience. 

Resources

You can download this article in PDF form from practicaleq.com/appreciative-inquiry.html

This article borrows heavily from:

The Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry by Sue Annis Hammond

Appreciative Inquiry: A Revolution In Change – PowerPoint presentation by Debbie Morris downloadable at http://tinyurl.com/ymavmq

The central resource for AI is the Appreciative Inquiry Commons at http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/.  A Positive Revolution In Change: Appreciative Inquiry is a great 30-page introduction: http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/uploads/whatisai.pdf

Comments

[Sara L. Orem]

You might also want to know about specific applications of Appreciative Inquiry to various related fields. Our book, Appreciative Coaching: A Positive Process for Change, published by Jossey-Bass this year, uses Appreciative Inquiry and other positive process to create a new coaching methodology.

[Andy Smith]

Thanks Sara - I have the book and will post a review when I have had a chance to read through it properly.

I'm actually using AI as a coaching model for a coaching skills course I am teaching to managers in a local authority here in the UK - it's going down well! From the glance that I've had at your book so far, our model applies AI slightly differently, so the full read may well result in some tweaks to our course.

[Amanda Trosten-Bloom]

This is a wonderful, clear synopsis. Another resource you might consider listing is The Power of Appreciative Inquiry (Whitney and Trosten-Bloom, 2003), along with Appreciative Team Building (Whitney, Trosten-Bloom, Cherney and Fry). We've been told these books are very user-friendly, and do a great job of explaining the "how to's" of AI. We've even had some people tell us they managed to facilitate an Appreciative Inquiry, using the book. though we are ambivalent about that feedback!

Warmly,

Amanda Trosten-Bloom
Principal
Corporation for Positive Change
303-279-2240
amanda@positivechange.org

[Andy Smith]

The Team Building book is another one I intend to review eventually (especially as it's encouragingly slim).

If I had written a 'how to' book about Appreciative Inquiry, I would be very pleased that readers were using it to actually facilitate an AI process! It would mean the book is doing its job.

[Howard]

I absolutely love the title of the blog - Practical EQ. To me, emotional intelligence is one of, if not the most crucial thing that we need to increase in order to improve the world. But to so many people it seems so abstract. They don't know where to begin. I love the idea of making it very concrete with skills as your title implies.

As you can see from the Appreciative Inquiry and NLP pages in the Interests section of my website, we have many common interests. Nice to meet you!

Howard