Learning about Appreciative Inquiry

First of all AI assumes that each organization has a so-called Positive Core. This encompasses e.g. all the strengths, best practises and positive attitudes of the whole organizational system.

There are 5 principles Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is based on:

1. Constructionist Principle: We co-create stories with our words. Those stories become our reality.

2. Poetry Principle: We can find whatever we want – the good (or the bad). What we focus on expands.

3. Simultaneity Principle: Change begins simultaneously with asking a question.

4. Anticipatory Principle: We create mental pictures. They influence what happens in the future.
   Visualization can help to change those pictures so that we create images of what we want (more of).

5. Positive Principle: Focusing on the Positive Core creates an upward spiral.
   This reminds of the Broaden and Build Theory (BBT) by Barbara Fredrickson. In short BBT tells us that focusing our attention raises our awareness for the things we actually want to have in our lives (broadening). This is turn enables us to personally grow, unearth and actually make use of all our resources (building). With that we can truly flourish as resilient human beings.

The 4D-Cycle is only one (not “the”) process for applying AI. It is built around the Positive Core and follows basically these four steps:

1. Discover: ask – about the best of what is (e.g. strengths, highlights, …)

2. Dreaming:  imagine – what could be i.e. the ideal future (e.g. asking about people’s wishes or dreams)

3. Design: plan – what will be by synthesizing information from the steps before, decide what to change and what to do differently

4. Destiny: create – what will be by making it happen!

After the forth step, a new iteration in the process might be started. 

Sometimes there is also an initial step 0 (called Define) that sets a certain direction. 

Read more details about the 4-/5-D-Cycle here.

The Appreciative Summit (short: AI Summit) is the name of an all-hands meeting where the people of an organization walk all together through the AI process. 

Often this is about big group facilitation of the steps:(Define,) Discover, Dream, Design and Destiny.