Have you set your sights on a more successful future? Are you excited by the world of what's possible? Do you want your constituents involved and focused on a compelling challenge?
Welcome to the world of positive change through Appreciative Inquiry! AI is a strengths-based process for intentional change. It identifies the best of "what is" to pursue dreams and possibilities of "what could be."
Through it you can engage many people simultaneously or asynchronously, co-located or distributed across locations in:
* Vision Development * Strategic Planning * Organizational/System Redesign * Process & Service Enhancement * Improvement Initiatives * Group Culture Change * Civic/Community Development * Customer Relationship Management * Market Analysis * Product Development * and much more . . .
Contents of This Site
- An Appreciative Approach
- Learning About Appreciative Inquiry
- 4 WAYS TO LEARN AI
- The 4-D Model
- Forms of Engagement
- Provocative Propositions
- Innovations that Combine AI and Social Media
- Best of What Is . . . on the Web
- Appreciatively Del.icio.us!
- New RSS: Appreciative Inquiry Annotations
- Top 10 Books for Organization Transformation
- Celebrating a Year of Exceptional Achievement
An Appreciative Approach
What does AI offer?
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The idea behind Appreciative Inquiry is building from a position of strength. Focusing on what works within a system, the participants in an AI delve into the circumstances and elements that have brought about success in the past. They find the positive core that was previously unseen and base their aspirations for achievement upon it. Energized by confidence that they can bring about more of the excellence they have previously achieved, they design the practices, roles and parameters that insure achievement. Learning About Appreciative Inquiry
Courses and Events
- Leading Transformative Change: Concepts and Practices in AI
- November 6/7, New York City
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Building on Jack Mezirow's theory of Transformative learning and David Cooperrider's framework of Appreciative Inquiry (AI), this intensive 2-day seminar will explore generative approaches to transformative change at the project, initiative and strategic levels. The potential for using organizational stories and cross-functional intelligence to increase business capacity, foster creativity and position the group for success has been proven over twenty years as AI has been applied in the workplace, government, education, healthcare and the community.
To register, contact The Center for Educational Outreach + Innovation, Teachers College, Columbia University at 1.800.209.1245 or 1.212.678.3987
4 WAYS TO LEARN AI
Email loretta.donovan@aiconsulting.org for information
Appreciative Inquiry is redefining the way companies and individuals experience change, with dramatic implications for management. It mobilizes inspired action and innovation focused on transformation of the business through a deliberately strengths-based approach to strategic planning, culture change, knowledge management, business process improvement, leadership development, customer satisfaction, joint ventures and alliances, and more.Learn and experience this powerful, new vehicle for energizing change. In my practical courses, you will gain understanding of and skills in:
> The fundamental ideas and practices of AI
> Key phases and roles in the AI process
> AI principles in traditional and non-traditional businesses
> Implementation in corporate, nonprofit, government, healthcare and education settings
Courses include:
Ignite: A 1-Day AI Experience
* Highlights the phases and the impact of AI in various situations for managers and leaders.
Basics of AI Practice: 3-Day Hands-on Seminar
* A course for internal and external consultants who are interested in applying AI in their work.
Advanced Applications of AI: 2-Day Workshop
* Provides experienced practitioners and academics with an integrated look at collaborative learning and social network techniques for consulting and teaching.
Social Media and AI: 1-Day Experience
* Introduces Web2.0 tools and technologies for blended and online AI events
The 4-D Model
The Essence of AI
Appreciative Inquiry helps teams and organizations discover and amplify the root causes of their success to build from them in the future. It is a systematic search for what gives "life" to an organization - that which is most effective, most purposeful and which contains the most potential for mobilizing members' energies for positive change.Instead of asking, *What are the problems; what hasn't worked?* Appreciative Inquiry (AI) asks questions like: Think of a time when this unit has performed superbly: What conditions were present at those moments? What organizational changes would allow more of those conditions to prevail?
This simple shift in perspective constitutes a powerful intervention in its own right that can begin nudging the organization in the direction of those questions - and toward significant innovation.
AI comes out of a belief that what we ask about we get more of, a commitment to the crafting of "unconditionally positive questions" which have the power to enable members to develop visions for their organizations which surprise them in their boldness and which elicit their best energies and creativity as they design and plan ways to bring those visions to life.
The inquiry is often conducted in four phases:
1. Discovery: What is the best of "what is" -- peak moments when the unit has excelled in the past and is doing well in the present? Stories or critical incidents are collected about best practices and the unique conditions, which enable them. "Through this process new insights emerge about what drives the organization, what its capabilities are, and what contribution its members can make to the world."
2. Dream: What are the possibilities, expressed and latent, that provide opportunities for more vital, successful and effective forms of organization? Unlike many visioning exercises, these images of the future are grounded in the organization's proven capabilities and past successes.
3. Design: What kinds of, structure, systems, roles, procedures, work processes, leadership, relationships, measurements, etc. are needed to assure implementation of the dream? Participants identify the high-leverage changes needed to support the vision.
4. Destiny: How will we create the future that we envision and deliver on these new images of the excellent performance? Participants develop specific action plans and commit to who will do what by when.
Forms of Engagement
A Quick Look at the Spectrum of AI
Sometimes it looks like Appreciative Inquiry is a single approach to fostering change. In fact, its principles can be applied in many forms including:
> Short Introductions to AI
The organization wants to prepare many of its leaders to the possibilities of AI prior to a planned engagement; or wants to introduce large number of people to their being involved in its implementation.
> Interactive Practice of the AI Process
The organization wants to assist leaders or members in applying AI processes to increase change capacity and create a culture of shared leadership.
> Focused Action
The organization wants to involve small groups or teams in total AI processes that address specific issues and in formats that are adaptable to the constraints of available time.
> Whole System Transformation
When the organization wants to create its vision or set overall direction for services, products, markets for multiple years.
> Short Introductions to AI
The organization wants to prepare many of its leaders to the possibilities of AI prior to a planned engagement; or wants to introduce large number of people to their being involved in its implementation.
> Interactive Practice of the AI Process
The organization wants to assist leaders or members in applying AI processes to increase change capacity and create a culture of shared leadership.
> Focused Action
The organization wants to involve small groups or teams in total AI processes that address specific issues and in formats that are adaptable to the constraints of available time.
> Whole System Transformation
When the organization wants to create its vision or set overall direction for services, products, markets for multiple years.
Provocative Propositions
A Sampling of Aspirations & Expectations
This is an unedited set of examples of provocative propositions. While they are not a standard or hallmark, you may find them helpful as you think about expressing your desired future.
- ** Organizations as Centers for Human Flourishing & Extraordinary Collective Performance:
We believe that each of us as musicians in our collective orchestra produce the most beautiful music through a deep understanding and appreciation of each other's role and our own
We therefore foster the natural strengths of each individual and provide opportunities for each person/member to engage in work best suited to those strengths.
We also provide ongoing opportunities for each to interact with each other exchanging knowledge and strengths to increase the beauty and successes of the whole.
** Building Business and Community as a Thriving Interdependent Partnership
(Business as a Partner in Building Thriving Communities):
The company is a community nested within a greater community.
The company is the heart of the broader community providing economic life for its employees and suppliers, and if can also five birth to new enterprises.
The community is the vital blood recycling economic value, thus creating a sustainable life support for the company.
** Weaving the Web of Wealth (Business Entrepreneur for Poverty Alleviation & Economic Empowerment):
Imagine:
Visions of a wealthy world are communicated in a way people understand how they can participate.
Every person discovers and is recognized for their strengths. Out of this, an abundant existence is created for everyone.
Innovations that Combine AI and Social Media
May 2008 Appreciative Inquiry Practitioner
MAY 2008 AIP ISSUEWIRED DISCOVERY: NEW CONVERSATIONS AND DEEPER CONNECTIONS
Loretta Donovan, Gabriel Shirley and Sue Anderson
http://www.aipractitioner.com/Pagefiles/articles_0805.htm
How do we "hear" in the quest for Discovery? What do we notice? What surfaces in the verbal and visual symbols of communication? How do we discover capacity and make meaning through reflective practice in conversation? How do we both transcend and respect boundaries to achieve new levels of understanding?
This issue of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) Practitioner will venture into the domain of technology to find the answers to these questions. We intend to explore the possibilities for collecting,sharing,visualizing, reflecting, and collectively understanding stories of success uncovered in the Discovery phase of AI. The aim is twofold: first, to support the ways in which people variously perceive, communicate and learn;second, to add rich texture to the insights gleaned about the best of what is. The integration of online and computer-based software for one-to-one and broadcast messages is a vital link among people. For some AI consultants and practitioners, the touch-points of meaningful inquiry in a wired world have inspired exploration with new digital tools and schemes.
Best of What Is . . . on the Web
- The Appreciative Inquiry Commons
- A worldwide portal devoted to the fullest sharing of academic resources and practical tools on Appreciative Inquiry and the rapidly growing discipline of positive change.
- :: Authentic Happiness :: Using the new Positive Psychology
- Positive Psychology, a new branch of psychology, focuses on the empirical study of such things as positive emotions, strengths-based character, and healthy institutions
- Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit
- The Center for BAWB is a global forum uniting the best in business with the call of our times. At the heart of the Center is the World Inquiry - global search for the many ways dynamic leaders in the business sector are putting their people, imagination and assets to work to benefit the earth, from its ecosystem to the needs of its vast, diverse population. The Center takes the work being done by business practitioners, civil sector actors, and the academic community in business-in-society innovations and synthesizes their knowledge and experience into one powerful, central location.
- Project for Public Spaces (PPS) | Appreciative Inquiry
- Project for Public Spaces introduces AI and provides links to examples of it use in support of its work.
- National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation
- The National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation is a collaborative effort among practitioners and scholars to strengthen and unite our growing field while sharing information with the public and policymakers about the power of dialogue and deliberation.
Appreciatively Del.icio.us!
A Continuous Stream of AI Links
New RSS: Appreciative Inquiry Annotations
AI Annotations is a place to create a conversation - an exchange of ideas and practices - among the co-owners of Appreciative Inquiry Consulting and with others who are on the journey of exploration and collective understanding of Appreciative Inquiry.
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byTop 10 Books for Organization Transformation
Dialogue, Using a Positive Lens, Co-creating, and Being Great
Wake Me Up When the Data Is Over: How Organizations Use Stories to Drive Results
This book includes real-life examples from over 70 more...1 point
Inside-Out: Stories and Methods for Generating Collective Will to Create the Future We Want by Tracy Huston
Inside-Out by Tracy Huston builds on U-theory by e more...1 point
Dynamic Relationships: Unleashing the Power of Appreciative Inquiry in Daily Living by Jacqueline Stavros
How is it that some people seem to have great rela more...0 points
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
The tipping point is that magic moment when an ide more...0 points
Celebrating a Year of Exceptional Achievement
An Appreciative Inquiry for Nonprofit Leaders
The spirit of giving is especially evident at this time of the year. And while your roles as nonprofit leaders may involve you in generous work, it's on behalf of others. Hidden in your stories and those of your clients, employees and vendors are elements of unrealized achievement, magical particles that when fused together create a powerful positive core that can be drawn from again and again in the future.Start by finding a quiet place and reserve at least half an hour if you are doing this alone. Read the first question, reflect briefly and then write your responses or use a cassette recorder to save your thoughts. Take as long as you want on each question. Move to the next question when you are ready. When you are done, go back and rejoice in the fantastic achievement that you have inspired. Enjoy!
An important feature of nonprofit work is creating and supporting initiatives on behalf of the community and society as a whole. Reflect for a few minutes on the mission of your organization and what it intends for the world.
* As you think back over your experiences in the last year, can you think of a story about one of those special moments in which you were involved and achieved exceptional outcomes in your work? Recall and describe in full detail when you were filled with excitement as you contributed positively within a specific project or event.
* When you think about the most successful results you have achieved in leading your organization in 2006, recall a time when you felt you knew things were working well as you got board members involved. What processes or approaches did you use to engage them? What made their involvement effective? What else was going on that made their participation exceptional? What did you value about the work you were contributing to at that time?
* Recall a time in the last year when, as you worked with a staff member, you considered the results exceptional. Describe the situation. What made it inspirational for you? Who was the staff member? What did she or he do that surprised you? What did you value about the work you were contributing to at that time?
* Now think about your external partners. Call to mind a story from the last year of when one of these relationships and outcomes was exceptional. Describe the situation. What created the outstanding results? What actions of these partners contributed to success? What role did you play ? How did you feel at that time?
