UCSC

Appreciative Inquiry

What is Appreciative Inquiry?

Appreciative Inquiry is a strength-based capacity building approach to transforming human systems toward a shared image of the future. It is about the search for the best in people, their organizations, and the world around them. It involves systematic discovery of "what gives life" to a system when it is most energetic, effective, and sustainable - that is, capable of integrating economic, ecological, and social interests. Appreciative Inquiry assumes that every living system has many untapped and rich and inspiring accounts of the positive. By linking the energy of this positive core directly to any change agenda, changes never thought possible can be effectively and democratically mobilized.
Adapted from A Positive Revolution in Change: Appreciative Inquiry by David L. Cooperrider and Diana Whitney.

Why is it important?

The practice of Appreciative Inquiry has the potential to lift traditional organizational interventions above the "deficit discourse" created by problem-oriented investigations. It allows us to avoid approaching problems from the mind set that created them in the first place. AI avoids fragmentation by engaging with the whole system; focuses on what is possible rather than just feasible; eliminates self-fulfilling negative prophecies; avoids over dependence on experts and hierarchies; and emphasizes discovering new approaches rather than assigning blame.

What does Appreciative Inquiry look like?

In Appreciative Inquiry the arduous task of problem-oriented intervention gives way to imagination and innovation; instead of negation, criticism, and spiraling diagnosis, there is discovery, dream, and design. The driving force is the "unconditional positive question," focusing our attention on the world we want rather than focusing on eliminating what we don't want. Typically it involves four stages:

  • Discovery (What is already working for us?)
  • Dream (Given the above, what the might be possible?)
  • Design (How might we make real what is now just possible?)
  • Do (Nuts & bolts: what will it take to do this?)

Where can I learn more?