Appreciative Inquiry

As we are in the season of thankfulness and thanksgiving, it occurred to me that an introduction to the discipline called Appreciative Inquiry would be timely.

Briefly, Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is the process of change management that seeks out the best in people, their organizations, and the world around them. Instead of negativity, criticism, and diagnosing “problems”, AI helps people improve, dream, and offer new solutions through a process of asking positive questions and thus learning what has worked in the past, and learning of achievements, assets, competencies, strengths, unexplored potentials, and opportunities.

The opposite, which I suppose could be named negative inquiry, focuses on what is broken, is pessimistic, and and lead to a downward spiral. AI produces optimism and helps an organization and empowers people see what is possible and find ways to turn possibilities into realities.

There are several books describing AI in detail, including the Appreciative Inquiry Handbook by David Cooperrider, Diana Whitney, and Jaqueline Stavros. For a quick introduction to AI read this paper  by David Cooperrider and Diana Whitney.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Will Limkemann