Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a so called ‘strength based approach’ for development and change, both at individual as at organizational level. Since mid 1980’s, stimulated by modern psychology, Human Resource Management (HRM) departments and Organisation Development (OD) practitioners started to apply more and more strength based approaches in organisations. In Croatia, as far as I know, Appreciative Inquiry was never applied. Recently, a top twenty Croatian company started the development of their new business strategy based on an AI approach.

In two columns I like to give you a short inside in the basic thinking and theory of Appreciative Inquiry. The third column will give some examples from around the world, where and how AI is applied, to end with a fourth column in which I will describe the process and results of this Croatian AI project. (Both first articles are based on various AI sources.) Part 1 was published 16 September 2011 at: http://www.poslovni-savjetnik.com/blog/management/john-lodder-what-appreciative-inquiry

How Does Appreciative Inquiry Work?

The process used to generate the power of Appreciative Inquiry is the 4-D Cycle. Based on the notion that human systems - people, teams, organizations and communities - grow and change in the direction of what they study, Appreciative Inquiry works by focusing the attention of an organization on its most positive potential - its positive core. The positive core is the essential nature of the organization at its best – people’s collective wisdom about the organization’s tangible and intangible strengths, capabilities, resources, potentials and assets. The Appreciative Inquiry 4-D cycle unleashes the energy of the positive core for transformation and sustainable success. (see illustration)

What are the steps in the Appreciative Inquiry process

Affirmative Topic Choice: The 4-D Cycle begins with the thoughtful identification of what is to be studied - affirmative topics. Because human systems move in the direction of what they study, the choice of what to study - what to focus organizational attention on - is both essential and strategic.

An affirmative topic will always be posed in a positive, affirmative way toward the future. Why? What do you think would be the best way to build high engagement and enthusiasm in your organization? To start a survey in your company about the low morale? Or, to ‘Magnify and learn from the moments of highest engagement and commitment of your employees?’

What do you think will be more inspiring and stimulating? In Ai we will not investigate ‘a problem of sexual intimidation’ but we will search for ‘the best experiences we have with excellent working relationships between the sexes in our company’.  The topics that are selected provide a framework for collecting stories, discovering and sharing best practices, and creating a knowledge-rich work environment. They become the organization’s agenda for learning, development and innovation. Once selected, affirmative topics such as "inspired leadership" or "optimal margins" or "culture as a competitive advantage" guide the 4-D Cycle of Discovery, Dream, Design and Destiny.

Discovery: The Discovery phase is a diligent and extensive search to understand the "best of what is" and of "what has been." It begins with mobilizing a whole system inquiry into the positive change core; with the collaborative act of crafting appreciative interview questions and constructing an appreciative interview guide. Appreciative Inquiry questions are written as affirmative probes into an organization’s positive core, in the topic areas selected. They are written to generate stories, to enrich the images and inner dialogue within the organization, and to bring the positive core more fully into focus.

The results of Discovery include: The formation of new relationships and alliances, that bridge across traditional barriers. A rich description or mapping of the organization’s positive core. Organization-wide sharing and learning from stories of best practices, golden innovations and exemplary actions. Greatly enhanced organizational knowledge and collective wisdom. These results, in turn, inspire the emergence of organic, unplanned changes - well before implementation of the more "planning" phases of the 4-D cycle.

Dream: The Dream phase is about creating a clear results-oriented vision in relation to discovered potential and in relation to questions of higher purpose, i.e., "What is the world calling us to become?" It is an energizing exploration of "what might be:" a time for people to explore their hopes and dreams for their work, their working relationships, their organization, and the world at large. It is a time for groups of people to engage in thinking big, thinking out of the box, and thinking out of the boundaries of what has been in the past.

The intent of the Dream phase is to identify and spread generative, affirmative, and hopeful images of the future. Typically this is accomplished in large group forums, where unusual combinations of stakeholders explore: Creative images of the organizations’ most positive potentials, innovative strategic visions and an elevated sense of purpose.

Design: The Design phase involves making choices about "what should be" within an organization or system. Creating possibility propositions of the ideal organization, an organization design which people feel is capable of magnifying or eclipsing the positive core and realizing the articulated new dream. It is a conscious re-creation or transformation, through which items as systems, structures, strategies, processes and images will become more fully aligned with the organization’s positive past (Discovery) and highest potential (Dream).

Destiny: The Destiny phase initiates a series of inspired actions that support ongoing learning and innovation - or "what will be". This means strengthening the affirmative capability of the whole system, enabling it to build hope and momentum around a deep purpose, and creating processes for learning, adjustment, and improvisation, like a jazz group over time.

Since the entire 4-D Cycle provides an open forum for employees and other internal and external stakeholders to contribute and step forward in the service of the organization, change, nearly automatically, occurs in all phases of an Appreciative Inquiry process.

The Destiny phase, however, focuses specifically on personal and organizational commitments and paths forward. The result of destiny is generally an extensive array of changes throughout the organization in areas such as: Management practices, HR processes, Measurement systems, Customer service systems, Work processes and structures.

In many cases, the 4-D Cycle provides the framework for ongoing activities. Thus, the cycle begins again . . . and again . . . and again. According to the AI philosophy, human systems grow in the direction of what they persistently ask questions about, and this propensity is the strongest and the most sustainable when the means and ends of inquiry are positively correlated. The most prolific thing a group can do, if its aims are to liberate the human spirit and consciously construct a better future, is to make the positive change core the common and explicit property of all.

What are the 5 basic principles of Appreciative Inquiry

1 - Constructionist Principle. Simply stated: human knowledge and organizational destiny are interwoven. To be effective as executives, leaders, change agents, etc., we must be adept in the art of understanding, reading, and analyzing organizations as living, human constructions.

2 - Principle of Simultaneity. We recognize that inquiry and change are not truly separate moments, but they work simultaneous. Inquiry is an intervention. The seeds of change - that is, the things which people think and talk about, the things which people discover and learn, and the things that inform dialogue and inspire images of the future - are implicit in the very first questions we ask. Our questions are influencing what we "find". And what we "discover" (the data) becomes the linguistic material, the stories, out of which the future is conceived, conversed about, and constructed.

3 - Poetic Principle. A metaphor here is that human organizations are much more like an open book than, say, a machine. An organization's story is constantly being co-authored. Moreover, the past, the present, or the future is an endless source of learning, inspiration or interpretation. Precisely like, for example, the endless interpretive possibilities in a good piece of poetry. The important implication is that we can study virtually any topic related to human experience in any human system or organization. We can inquire into the nature of alienation or joy, enthusiasm or low morale, efficiency or excess, in any human organization.

4 - Anticipatory Principle. The infinite human resource which we have for generating constructive organizational development or change is our collective imagination and discourse about the future. One of the basic theorems of the anticipatory view of organizational life is that it is the image of the future, which in fact guides what might be called the current behaviour of any organism or organization. Like a film projector on a screen, human systems are forever projecting ahead of themselves a horizon of expectation. In their talk and in the metaphors and language that are used. This brings the future powerfully into the present as a mobilizing agent.

5 - Positive Principle. This last principle is not so abstract. It grows out of years of experience with appreciative inquiry. Most simply, it is our experience that for building and for sustaining change momentum, large amounts of positive affect and social bonding are necessary. Things like hope, excitement, inspiration, caring, camaraderie, sense of urgent purpose, and sheer joy in creating something meaningful together. What we have found is that, the more positive the question is that we ask in our work, the more long lasting and successful the change effort will be. It does not help to begin our inquiries from the standpoint of the organisation as a problem to be solved. We are more effective the longer we can retain the spirit of inquiry of the everlasting beginner. The major thing we do that makes the difference, is to craft and seed, in better and more catalytic ways, the unconditional positive question.

Why Does Appreciative Inquiry Work?

Appreciative Inquiry works because it treats people like people, and not like machines. People are social. We create our identities and our knowledge in relation to one another. We are curious. We like to tell stories and listen to stories. We pass on our values, beliefs and wisdom in stories. We like to learn and to use what we learn to be our best. And we delight in doing well in the eyes of those we care about and respect. Appreciative Inquiry enables leaders to create natural human organizations - knowledge rich, strength based, adaptable, learning and developing organizations.

Scientists about the Appreciative Inquiry approach

Since David Cooperrider developed Appreciative Inquiry in 1987 AI has been described by observers in a myriad of ways:
- as a paradigm of conscious evolution geared for the realities of the new century (Hubbard, 1998);
- as a methodology that takes the idea of the social construction of reality to its positive extreme -   
especially with its emphasis on metaphor and narrative, relational ways of knowing, on language,
and on its potential as a source of generative theory (Gergen, 1996);
- as the most important advance in Action Research in the past decade (Bushe, 1991);
- as offspring and "heir" to Maslow's vision of a positive social science (Chin, 1998; Curran, 1991);
- as a powerful second generation OD practice (French and Bell, 1995; Porrras, 1995; Mirvis, 1993); -  - as model of a much needed participatory science, a "new yoga of inquiry" (Harman, 1991);
- as a radically affirmative approach to change, which completely lets go of problem-based
management, and in so doing vitally transforms strategic planning, survey methods, culture change,
merger integration methods, approaches to TQM, measurement systems, sociotechnical systems,
etc. (White, 1997); and lastly,
- as OD's philosopher's stone (Sorenson, et. al 1996).

Conclusion

Organizations, says AI theory, are centres of human relatedness, first and foremost, and relationships thrive where there is an appreciative eye. When people see the best in one another, when they share their dreams and ultimate concerns in affirming ways, and when they are connected in full voice to create not just new worlds but better worlds. The velocity and largely informal spread of the appreciative learning suggests a growing sense of disenchantment with exhausted theories of change. Especially with those wedded to vocabularies of human deficit. AI suggests a corresponding urge to work with people, groups, and organizations in more constructive, positive, life-affirming, even spiritual ways.

Do you like to learn more about Appreciative Inquiry?

I met two Croatian colleagues some time ago and when the three of us met in Zagreb we concluded that Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is actually not known in ‘Management and HR land’ in Croatia which was a big surprise for us. In most countries around the world you will find a national AI-network with participants who are either AI-professional, people who are interested in the effectiveness of AI, or people that want to learn more about AI for themselves or for their work. Because our believe is that People and Companies in Croatia will benefit from working in the line of Appreciative Inquiry we committed ourselves to build an AI-network in Croatia starting with an invitation to join our LinkedIn group.

So, if you are:

• working as a manager, in a HR position, as a consultant or if you are just curious;
• interested to learn more about a positive approach for change and development that creates a highly motivated workforce;
• just curious what is going to happen;
• willing to contribute in an active and interactive way we invite you to join the NAIC group at LinkedIn (Network for Appreciative Inquiry in Croatia) by following this link: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=3991198&trk=hb_side_g

This is teh first step. Our second step is that we will organize a meeting in Zagreb in December 2011 where we will all meet and where we will share a lot of information, answer all questions you may have and where we will discuss our next steps together. This invitation will be send at the beginning of November 2011.

www.balance-consultancy.com   for:  Strategic Management & Marketing, Change Management & Organisation Development and HRM consultancy