Appreciative Inquiry (AI)

The AI methodology was developed by Dr. David Cooperrider from a study in Organizational Behaviour at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, in the middle of the 1980s. Primarily used to help corporation and institutions to improve their competitive advantage or organizational effectiveness, the AI is been recently applied in strategic planning for public policies, including a number of sustainable development projects.

The unique feature of the AI approach is its commitment to seeking and drawing upon the root causes of success rather than those contributing to failure. The objective is to find and emphasize the positive successes and strengths as a means to empower communities, groups and organizations, to plan and manage development and conservation. AI promotes the search for the best in things, for what "gives life" to a system when it is at its most effective and capable state, in economic, social, environmental and human terms.

AI provides an environment for the development of stimulating creative dialogues amongst stakeholders from cross-sectoral areas. It gathers group thoughts, creating a shared vision with the power to mobilize society through individual communication and relationships. It is a method that allows for collective construction and for boosting actions toward a common ideal. Thus, it favors genuine participation and a strong feeling of ownership towards a common and shared vision.

AI is a process of learning and action intended for discovering, understanding, and fostering innovations and transformations in human social system. It does not depend on a standard training manual. It is flexible and innovative and can be used to approach any issue in any group of stakeholders or community. The entire process remains grounded in the actual experiences of individuals. AI motivates the community for interactive participation and self-mobilization.

The appreciative inquiry allows for a change in attitude and thinking of certain firmly rooted stereotypes. When guiding people to evaluate the existing competences and success histories it stimulates dialogue, creating a unique opportunity to identify new possibilities for the use of the available resources. AI offers a collaborative, strength-based approach to strategic change and transformation.

Positive Inquiry

AI’s primary tool is positive questioning. It asks questions that strengthen the capacity to apprehend, anticipate, and heighten positive potential. It seeks to demonstrate a constructive perspective of what people talk about as past and present capacities: achievements, assets, unexplored potentials, innovations, strengths, elevated thoughts, opportunities, benchmarks, values, traditions and strategic competencies.

The positive inquiry makes the group feel proud of their own skills, resources, vision, commitments and action. Through a carefully developed set of questions and a process of dialogue, stories of “peak experiences” are uncovered. As these stories come to the surface, new images and possibilities can emerge and become realities in new and unforeseen ways. People begin to see themselves differently and act differently. This story-telling contributes to the development of mutual trust, transparency and institution building.

The process evolves into a participatory search for questions arise that none of the stakeholders can satisfactory answer alone. The positive questioning inspires collaboration and consensus building, initiating discovery through developing shared images of a mutually agreed ideal. The process helps to develop the energy and empowerment that are needed to create sustainable change.

AI begins by identifying what is positive and connecting to it in ways that heighten energy and vision for change. AI recognizes that every organization is an open system that depends on its human capital to bring its vision and purpose to life.The outcome of an AI initiative is a long-term positive change in the organization. AI encourages people to work together to promote a better understanding of the human system, the heartbeat of the organization. ^[1] . It is the opposite of problem solving. Instead of negation, criticism, and spiraling diagnosis, there is discovery, dream, design and destiny (4-D circle). ^[2]

Problem solving versus Appreciative Inquiry