APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY IN PRACTICE:

IMAGINING A BRIGHT FUTURE

Professor Julie Chesley and Colleagues
Pepperdine University

Workshop Agenda
Learn about the theory and practice of
Appreciative Inquiry (AI).
Experience an Appreciative Inquiry (AI)
process.
Design a process for using AI in your
organization.

What is Appreciative Inquiry?
AI is a philosophy and practical method to
search for the best in people, their organizations
and the world around them. It involves
systematic discovery of what gives life to an
organization or a community when it is most
effective and most capable.
David Cooperrider
Ap-preci-ate, v.,
1.valuing; the act of recognizing the
best in people or the world around
us; affirming past and present
strengths, successes, and potentials;
to perceive those things that give life
(health, vitality, excellence) to living
systems
2. to increase in value, e.g. the painting
has appreciated in value.
Synonyms: VALUING, PRIZING,
ESTEEMING, and HONORING.

In-quire (kwir), v.,
1. the act of exploration and
discovery.
2. To ask questions; to be open
to seeing new potentials and
possibilities.
Synonyms: DISCOVERY, SEARCH,
and SYSTEMATIC EXPLORATION,
STUDY.



WHY
APPRECIATIVE
INQUIRY?
PROCESSES FOR ORGANIZATION CHANGE
Deficit Based
Traditional
Strengths Based
AI
Identification of Problems
Analysis of Causes
Analysis of Possible
Solutions
Action Planning
Treatment
Organizations
are problems
to be solved
Appreciating
Valuing the Best of what is
Envisioning
What might be
Dialoguing
What should be
Innovating
What will be
Organizations
are possibilities
to be
embraced
Deficit Focus: Consequences

Fragmentation
Fewer new images of
possibility
Negative frames are self-
fulfilling
Fatigue
Reliance on experts to fix the
problem
Culture of blame


Peter Druckeran interview on his
most recent book The Next Society

The task of
leadership is to
create an alignment
of strengths, making
our weaknesses
irrelevant.
APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY (AI)

Is both a Philosophy
&
a Process

It is a Perspective that can be
applied to any organization change
process or model

THE FIVE PRINCIPLES OF
APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY
Constructionist Principle
We look at the world
through our own filters.
We create our reality
through the
conversations we have.

Anticipatory Principle
We will create what we
imagine. We get more
of what we look for.
The image of a positive
future inspires action.

Poetic Principal
Organizations and
communities are full of
stories to be
interpreted.
What seems like a
constraint can be the
source of resilience and
innovation. (video)
Simultaneity Principle
Inquiry and change are
simultaneous.
The questions we ask
set the stage for the
things that we find. Our
questions are fateful
Positive Principle
We naturally move
towards what is inspiring
and life giving.
People, organizations and
communities move in the
direction of what we
most frequently and
systematically ask
questions about!
The more positive the
questions the greater and
longer lasting the change.
WHATS DIFFERENT ABOUT AI?
Choicefully & purposefully positive
Dialogic and story based
Transforms the inner dialogue of the system
Highly participative (radically democratic)
Involves the whole system
Stimulates vision and creativity


HOW DOES AI WORK?
Discover
What gives life?
(The best of what is)

Dream
What might be?
(The Preferred Future)

Design
What should be?
The ideal structure,
form, process



Destiny
How to empower, learn,
and adjust/improvise?






Define
What to learn about; create
the inquiry process.
Healthy organizations begin the process of
change by inquiring about and building upon the
positive aspects of its people and their
experience. Building on the positive leads the
organization to focus on what it does well and to
create an image of a future based on its own
best practices and highest values.
DEFINE: CHOOSE THE POSITIVE AS
THE FOCUS OF INQUIRY
The Art of Flipping the Coin
The Art of the Question
Focus on Problems or Possibilities?
Whats the biggest
problem here?
Why did I have to be
born into such a
troubled family?
Why do you blow it so
often?
Why do we still have
these problems?

What possibilities exist
that we have not yet
thought about?
Whats the smallest
change that could make
the biggest impact?
What solutions would
have us both win?
When have we
successfully navigated a
difficult circumstance?

Do we really want to do one more
study of???
Low morale


High turnover


Lack of follow-through
and execution


Customer complaints


or Highly motivated
people

ormagnetic work
environment


or instinctive
execution


orrevolutionary
customer responsiveness

Our Inquiry
This workshop is a laboratory. To experience
how AI works it is important to live it using a
real topic. We will focus on this group and
how we can create our own collaborative
learning community.
DISCOVER: UNCOVER MEANING &
PURPOSE THROUGH STORY TELLING

Appreciative Inquiry begins with a
conversation (called an appreciative interview)
in which people share stories about those
things within the organization that they value
things they want to expand and extend in the
future. Through the interviews, people identify
the themes that connect with their most
deeply held beliefs and values.
Inquire into stories about what gives
life (DISCOVER)
Get into pairs with someone you
dont know very well
In these pairs conduct interview
Complete one interview before
switching roles
Take your time and look for
richness and detail in the stories
Be a good interviewer
Jot down what excites or
interests you
Stay curious
Asking the First Question Begins the Intervention
AI PERSPECTIVE
We create our reality through the conversations that we have with
ourselves and each other.
Organizations move in the direction of what they study and inquire
into.
The first question we ask is fateful!
We get more of what we look for.
We create what we imagine.
What we anticipate (imagine) influences our behavior in the
present.
By choosing to look for the positive, we create a reality of hope and
promise.
Locate themes that appear in the
stories (DISCOVER)
Get in groups of 4 pairs
Share 1 or 2 of the best stories
told by your interview partner
Create a brainstormed list of
themes that were present at the
table
Select 3 to 5 of these and post on
the wall

DREAM: CREATE SHARED IMAGES
OF A PREFERRED FUTURE
Building on the themes that emerge
through these conversations, people in
the organization create both a visual
image and a written statement
(possibility statement) describing how the
organization would look and feel at its
best. These shared images act as a guide
for creating the organizations preferred
future.
AI is Profoundly Integrative
Dream Phase
Mind searches beyond
discovery naturally

Creating positive and
bold image of desired
future

Go beyond what we
think is possible

Possibility Statements
Exciting
Provocative they stretch and challenge
A realistic stretch
Desired (they represent our highest hopes)
Describe what is wanted in positive terms
Are written in the present tense, as if they are
already happening
Example Possibility Statements
Unsurpassed Throughput
is the #1 transportation provider in the world due to our
unsurpassed throughput service. Team sell is contagious. Each
employee is a stakeholder engaged in celebrating the success of the
company. Customers are honored to have our employees handle
their business. All customer contact work groups are key
components in our success. They are recognized as the best
trained, most highly motivated sales force in the universe.

Organizational Learning Capacity
We find ways to say "yes" to creative ideas. No idea is a bad idea.
Achievements are rewarded on group levels by peer selection and
level of contribution. The future motivates our innovative visions as
we flex the muscle of sharing best practices. Our action-oriented
vision sets the course to continuously learn and improve from the
ideas of our employees through positive reward by empowerment.

Create shared images for a preferred
future (DREAM)
Form new groups of 4 pairs
Select 1 or more themes that resonate with
your group
Discuss what those themes mean to each of
you
Create a visual image when these themes are
fully present and at their best
Once finished, on another piece of flip chart
paper create a possibility statement

DESIGN: INNOVATE WAYS TO CREATE
THAT PREFERRED FUTURE
Organizations identify specific action steps
to take individually or in groups. These
action steps are specific, concrete, and do-
able, designed to move the organization
toward its preferred future. The steps may
be small and incremental, building on
each other, or link to larger, more
encompassing actions.

What do we mean by Design ?
Both a product and a process

As a verbto designIs to invent, to innovate, to conceive and
to make choices - about the purpose, principles, roles,
processes, practices and structures which will house, support
and give life to the organizations members and the dream
they have created.

As a noun, the organization design Is the set of choices we
have made about the above.

Elements of Organization Architecture
Education and training
Leadership style and
culture
Staff/ people /
relationships
Work processes and
job design
Career structure and
incentives
Organization structures
Stakeholder
relationships
Communications
Systems
Reward and recognition
practices
Decision making
procedures
Beliefs about people
DESTINY: MAKING IT HAPPEN
Once the people of an organization create
a shared image of their preferred future,
dialogue about ways to align the
functions and people of the organization
with that image, and act in ways that are
congruent with the image, the
organization becomes that image.
Useful Assumptions
Seeds of organizational change are implicit in the first
questions we ask.

In every system, something is working

Most important resource for generating constructive
organizational change is our cooperative imagination
& mind. AI reclaims our imaginative competence.
Evidence
When organizations or groups capture positive imagery
internally and make it visible, it starts to drive change in an
individualistic, self-directed way. It creates a sense of focus.
Our image of the
future drives our
ACTION!
Placebo Effect
Help someone construct an
image of how something might
happen, and it drives behavior
which creates a change
in that direction
Pygmalion Effect
Change a teachers image of a
student, and their behavior changes
toward the student, improving
student performance
Positive Psychology
Broaden and build ideas.
Power of positive emotions
Sports
Vivid visualization of ones performance
guides physical performance. Speed of
learning when only correct images are
reviewed.


Internal Conversations
Studies of pre and post operative
patients. Difference in recovery
between positive and negative
imagery.
Effects of Positive Emotions
(joy, interest, contentment, pride, love)
Increase in personal resources that become
reserves to draw upon later
Undo lingering negative emotions
Fuel psychological resiliency
Build enduring personal reserves
Improve thinking (more creative, integrative,
flexible and open to information)

Barbara Fredrickson
Losadas Research Business Teams
HIGH PERFORMING

+ 6:1 ratio of positive
(strength-based and
opportunity) focused
dialogue to negative
(deficiency focus) dialogue.

+2:1 ratio of inquiry (learning
focused questions) versus
advocacy (closed positions)
type conversation.
LOW PERFOMING

1:3 ratio: one positive
statement in the team for
every three deficiency
focused statements.


1:20 ratio: one inquiry (open-
learning type questions) for
every twenty remarks based
on advocacy.

AI in Practice
John Deere Harvester Works
Reduced cycle time of product introduction
Nutrimental Foods Brazil
700 people, average return per worker +27%
Hunter Douglas
Multi-year project, 2001 3.5 million in savings
Pellegrin and Associates, Groupo Vitro, GE, Whirlpool
Now: Applying what weve learned:
Develop an actionable project
What system? Boundaries?
Define topic of inquiry unconditionally
positive: how would you frame it? Play with
the wording
Which voices should be included? Who would
interview whom?
Go through 5-Ds how would you do each
phase?

Notes
Plan for 8:30-12:00 to complete your AI
intervention.
Pepperdine students will be picked up at Hotel
Martino and driven to client sites
If your team needs to be at the client location
before 8:15, please let Chris Little know as soon as
possible
Plan to have lunch with your clients on Friday
and return to Holiday Inn no later than
2:00pm!

Rhythm of AI Intervention
Interviews with core team on high points and vision for
healthy organization
Topic selection (3-5)
Interviews with whole system on topics and some generic
life-giving and future questions
Data - stories and quotes - shared in whole system
Dialogue with whole system to future dream and design
Form possibility statements
Teams to work on Design to Delivery action plans
Review - follow up - renewal