Appreciative Inquiry - Appreciative Leader's Role

From The Communities That Care WIKI

Purpose & Description

The purpose of Appreciative Inquiry is to help a group create a vision, set goals and create action steps for moving toward that vision. Appreciative Inquiry is a methodology for working with organizations that is based on discovering the best of what works so that and organization can create more of this good that already exists. Appreciative Inquiry recognizes that people are highly motivated by their own stories and images of success.

Resources needed

All that is needed is a group of participants who are willing to focus on the positive and admit to successes.

Instructions

Stage 1 – Inquire: “Appreciating the best of what is.”

This phase involves interviewing one another to recount past experiences of success, reflecting on feelings and the circumstances surrounding that sense of well-being. It is helpful but not essential to develop a set of questions that an interviewer can refer to during the interview. These questions are not meant to control the discussion but rather as a guide to help the interviewer create a positive focus. Interviewers take notes, putting their full attention on the other’s story, while asking questions to prompt deeper reflection. The interviewer is responsible for helping the other to maintain focus on positive reflection by gently re-directing complaints or venting. The process of being given uninterrupted time to tell your story in a positive context is tremendously energizing and creates an emotional connection between the person being interviewed and the interviewer. For that reason, interviewers should be members of the group. It is preferable for all members of the group to serve as both an interviewer and an interviewee.

Stage 2 – Imagine

Stories that have been collected are shared with the larger group. While hearing the stories, group members are asked to think about “What might be?” The task is to notice possibilities, clarify values, and share visions. This can be done symbolically by creating collages or through small discussion group discussions focused on identifying common themes and potentials.

Stage 3 – Innovate

Using the insight and vision developed in Stage 2, the group brainstorms a set of strategies and related actions steps that will move towards making the vision a reality. A variety of group processing tools can be used in this step but the key is on entertaining novel approaches and building strategies on strengths and successes identified in earlier stages.

Stage 4 – Implement

The group executes the planned steps, monitors progress and evaluates results. The focus of the evaluation is on identifying what went well, not on fixing what is not working. By keeping the focus on success, what worked well can be expanded on and used in future efforts. Successes are celebrated and serve as the basis for a re-iteration of the process and for igniting energy and renewed commitment for continued performance improvement.

Debriefing

This is integrated into Stage 2 and Stage 4.

Alternate instructions & debriefing

Tool Experts

Cautions

Appreciative Inquiry can involve considerable time for analysis to tease out common themes and strengths from the multiple stories gathered. It is wise to do some preliminary analysis before the group convenes in Stage 2 or the group can get bogged down with detail and be unable to accomplish the next step in the process.

A second caution is that Appreciative Inquiry runs contrary to a culture of “remediation” that pervades our educational and work experience. People often have a hard time letting go of a “fix it” focus and it can be very difficult for people to admit to strengths. Some people will complain that it isn’t realistic to focus only on the positive and ignore what isn’t working. The answer to this argument is that there is more energy in a group for change if people are able to use their strengths and draw on experiences that have already worked. Appreciative Inquiry effectively leverages that energy and creates enthusiasm and inspiration.

Links to research citations

Cooperrider, D.L. and Whitney, D. A positive revolution in change: Appreciative Inquiry http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/uploads/whatisai.pdf
Hall, J. and Hammond, S.A. What is appreciative inquiry? http://www.suestudios.com/port/websites/heart2/pdf/Appreciative_Inquiry.pdf
Hammond, S.A. (1998) Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry (2nd ed) Thin Book Publishing Company; ISBN: 0966537319
Whitney, D., Trosten-Bloom, A., Cooperrider, D. L. (2003). The Power of Appreciative Inquiry: A Practical Guide to Positive Change. Berrett-Koehler Publishers ISBN: 1576752267
Whitney, D., Trosten-Bloom, A., Cherney, J. and Fry, R. (2004) Appreciative Team Building: Positive Questions to Bring Out the Best of Your Team. iUniverse, Inc. ISBN: 0595335039

Testimonials

Reflections

Note: Cyrilla Petracek has used this in her region. Margo Lytton led that effort. They may be a good source for information on both of these sections.

AI Commons and listserv for practitioners