CI Tools – Appreciative Inquiry
Posted by webmaster 11 December 2007 
Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a different way of seeing the world and designing a way forward. It is about what is going right and using this as a basis and inspiration to seek positive change, innovation and collaboration.
AI provides insight into the positive aspects of what is being done well in a organisation, and what insights can be gained to energise the organisation by building on its strengths. The difference between AI and more traditional change methods is that we normally ask “What needs to be fixed around here?” which focuses on problems and takes us only to certain destinations.
When we look at survey results we are often drawn to less favourable responses. Eg. if we have a satisfaction rate of 85% there can be a tendency to focus on the remaining 15% and thereby lose the chance of leveraging off what is going well.
Accordingly, with AI we ask “What’s working around here?” with the aim of then building on the things that work, which is more akin to an ongoing journey. The way forward on the journey by the questions the AI practitioner asks to elicit the positive narrative and organisational stories.
The inquiry itself is a form of intervention as the stories elicited help provide a more holistic view of the situation and help to shape new ways forward.
December 12th, 2007 at 9:39 am
Will there be any presentations on AI as it sounds like an interesting tool?
December 12th, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Will look into the possibility at your request.
Watch this space.
December 13th, 2007 at 8:55 am
Great post Frank. It’s interesting how AI overlaps with positive psychology and there is a convergence in many related fields. Focusing on our strengths rather than weaknesses, looking to how we have succeeded and where we went right. I have just finished a series of four talks on resilience in county and metropolitan Victoria and the thing that struck me is how people could always find local and personal examples of resilience. Resilience implies and open, curious and positive approach to adversity – Oh my that sounds a lot like AI! Why it works is that it makes it a lot easier to learn from our mistakes. That makes it easier to adapt and change. That’s how we grow.
December 16th, 2007 at 10:26 am
Another approach which you could call “AI-lite” is the Solutions Focus approach.
For more on this approach check some of our blog posts:
http://www.babelfishgroup.com/blog/?p=41
http://www.babelfishgroup.com/blog/?p=43
Warm regards,
Andrew
August 15th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
[...] also referred to Appreciative Inquiry as a powerful organisational development tool and one that fits nicely with the learning syndicate [...]