Appreciative Inquiry is a bit like seeing the glass half full.
The future always holds change. As individuals living out our lives, thinking about change can get us stressed out. Perhaps our past has been rocky, and we have a hard time having hope that the future will be any different. Perhaps the future is scary simply because it can’t be predicted.
Organizations have the same issues with change and the future. They grow from ‘mom and pop’ to ‘highly organized’, which means a change in management style. That’s scary. The requirements for their funding changes, or the market demands different products and services, or technology changes the way clients and staff communicate and do business – all scary!
That is, if you focus on how disruptive change will be, or if you focus on what’s wrong and needs to be changed – because what an individual or organization chooses to focus on and their attitude towards it, somehow or other becomes reality. This is particularly the case when those leading an organization are fearful of change, seeing it as a problem to be ignored or managed by a special committee, instead of an opportunity to be embraced down through every level of the enterprise. This fear creates a dynamic that replicates itself throughout the system. The good news it that the exact same thing can happen with an appreciative approach . . .
The practice of Appreciative Inquiry basically takes a glass-half-full approach to thinking, visioning and acting for purposeful change. In an individual’s life, it can be healing or motivating. In an organization’s life it can catalyze engagement and innovation.
In future posts, I’d like to explore how Appreciative Inquiry can be used as a “way-finder” for sustainability, but for now, here are the basics.
Appreciative Inquiry assumes that:
- In every society, organization or group something is working well
- It is basic human nature that what we focus on becomes our reality
- By focusing on peak experiences, an organization or community can discover already existing recipe for success. This knowledge can then be applied to the needed area/program of change.
- People have more confidence and comfort to journey to the future (the unknown) when they carry forward parts of the past (the known); therefore the past that is carried forward should be whatever was best/excellent
The 4-Ds of the Appreciative Cycle
- Discovering – “The best of what is” – Appreciating
- Dreaming – “What might be?” – Envisioning
- Designing – “What should be?” – Co-constructing
- Delivering – “How to empower, learn, adjust, and improvise?” – Sustaining the change
The Appreciative Cycle can be used in full or in part to:
- Help organizations find what they are very good at and use that to help them to take action to do more of what they do well in other areas.
- Form vision statements
- Re-energize the workplace, team etc. to decide how they want to work together
- Kick start a planning process
- Enrich an individual’s or organization’s daily practice
© 2012 
