A Research Paper By Lori Penha, Life/Wellness Coach, UNITED STATES
Appreciative Inquiry (AI)
I was first introduced to the term “appreciative inquiry” during my studies with International Coaching Academy. When trainers and fellow coaches said “AI”, I initially thought they were referring to “artificial intelligence.” I chose to do more research on Appreciative Inquiry (AI) because the founder of the movement, David Cooperrider, and fellow practitioners, were mostly focused on what gives an organization its positive energy. This positive leaning towards lifelong change resonated with me and I want to bring this element into my coaching personality.
Appreciative Inquiry (AI) was created during a doctoral internship in organizational behavior at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio in partnership with the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. David Cooperrider and fellow interns, supervised by Suresh Srivastva, were participating in a research study to collect data on problems and issues within the leadership of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. As he interviewed the leadership, Cooperrider became excited about the energy and successful cooperative partnership of over three hundred doctors. After sharing his findings, Srivastvaallowed him to focus on what was giving energy and vitality to the organization. (Bushe, Feb 2012.) His report “was not focusing on problems but looking at what gave life to an extraordinary system and so was an ‘appreciative analysis.’ (Bushe, 2012) In her book, The Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry, author Sue Annis Hammond, writes that the term “appreciative inquiry” came from David’s wife Nancy. As an artist, she saw beauty in every piece of art. “Art then is a beautiful idea translated into a concrete form. Cooperrider applied the notion to organizations: to the appreciative eye, organizations are expressions of beauty and spirit.” (Hammond, pg. 5)When Cooperrider gave his first presentation at the Academy of Management in 1984, “he showed a diagram contrasting problem solving with appreciative analysis and proposed that, instead of seeing organizations as problems to be solved, organizations should be seen as mysteries to be appreciated. He was laughed at.” (Bushe, 2012)
Refinements to AI were made as the research continued. During one antagonistic meeting with clients, “Srivastva said, “I wonder if what is going on now is a consequence of the questions we are asking?” They found that the language used in the questions of their research was having a profound (positive or negative) impact on the interviewees’ energy and motivation. “At that moment a ‘light bulb’ went off –the power of questions, the deficit nature of most questions, questions beginning the change, inquiry as the engine of change – and Appreciative Inquiry was born.”(Bushe, 2012) Bernard J. Mohr writes in his article titled Appreciative Inquiry: Igniting Transformative Action, “AI is based on a deceptively simple premise: that organizations grow in the direction of what they repeatedly ask questions about and focus their attention on.” (Mohr, 2001)
As Cooperrider completed more research and presented his findings at conferences, more organizational development practitioners became interested in what AI offered. Many were tired of the slow outdated methods of current organizational change processes and ineffective short-term change. With AI practitioners, employees were trained to interview other employees thereby documenting what the individual perceived as successful. The more interviewees during the AI process, the more success in positive long-lasting change for the organization. The theory of AI morphed from a research method to a positive transformative process. The process model is discussed later in this paper.
What Is Appreciative Inquiry (AI)?
In their book, Appreciative Inquiry a Positive Revolution in Change, authors Cooperrider and Whitney, define AI: (Cooperrider and Whitney, pg. 8):
Appreciative Inquiry is the cooperative, coevolutionary 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 in economic, ecological, and human terms.
AI is a common term in today’s change philosophies. You can find many presentations by David Cooperrider and others on YouTube. You can become a certified practitioner, and get involved in workshops, courses, research quorums, and the like.
Deep Dive: After reviewing the background of AI, a deeper dive into its principles, assumptions, and AI’s 5-D Model will help the budding coach understand how this correlates to coaching the individual.
Principles: In Appreciative Inquiry a Positive Revolution in Change, authors Cooperrider and Whitney outline the original five principles for a positive revolution. These clarify the intention behind the AI methodology.
The Constructionist Principle: Humans are continually trying to learn and understand what is happening around them. We are trying to understand the situation and people around us, always gathering information to become more knowledgeable. We form centers of knowledge and data. We see relationships, inputs/outcomes, changes and impact of changes, modern technology, new innovations. The human condition seeks out ways to increase the generative or multiplicative capacity of knowledge. This is the emphasis of Constructionism.
In practice constructionism replaces absolutist claims or the final word with the never-ending collaborative quest to understand and construct options for better living. (Cooperrider & Whitney, pg. 50)
The Simultaneity Principle: “Inquiry and change are not separate moments, but are simultaneous. Inquiry is intervention. The seeds of change-the things people think and talk about, the things 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.” (Pg 50) AI practitioners know that the language they use will guide the change. They seek to understand the source of ideas, conversations, and research; this influences the practitioners’ questions. “What effect is my question having on our lives together. Is it helping to generate conversations about the good, the better, the possible. Is it strengthening our relationships?” (Pg 51)
The Poetic Principle: “A metaphor here is that human organizations are a lot more like an open book than, say, a machine. An organization’s story is constantly being coauthored.” (Pg 51) We can study whatever we want, the world does not dictate what we inquire about. There are many more options available to us. We do not have to keep doing things the way we always did because it is how we have always done them. “We can inquire into the nature of alienation or joy, enthusiasm or low morale, efficiency or excess, in any human organization.” (Pg 51) We can design new systems to create our dream organizations and do what really matters to us. AI intends to focus on what is bringing energy and enthusiasm to an organization’s employees.
The Anticipatory Principle: What we do now, impacts our future. What I believe will happen, dictates how I respond now. “Our positive images of the future lead our positive actions. This is the increasingly energizing basis and presupposition of Appreciative Inquiry. The infinite human resource we have for generating constructive organizational change is our collective imagination and discourse about the future.” (Pg 52)
The Positive Principle: “Building and sustaining momentum for change requires large amounts of positive affect and social bonding-things like hope, excitement, inspiration, caring, camaraderie, sense of urgent purpose, and sheer joy in creating something meaningful together. We find that the more positive the question we ask, the more long-lasting and successful the change effort. The major thing a change agent can do that makes a difference is to craft and ask unconditionally positive questions.” (Pg 53)
AI Assumptions
Sue Annis Hammond’s book The Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry,(Pgs. 14 -15) describes the assumptions of AI. The simplicity found here helped clarify the AI concepts for me.
- AI assumes that in every organization, something works.
- What we focus on becomes our reality.
- Reality is created at the moment and there are multiple realities.
- The act of asking questions influences the group/organization in some way.
- People are more comfortable and confident to look to the future (the unknown) when they carry parts of the past (the known) forward.
- If we carry parts of the past forward, they should be what is the best about the past.
- Valuing differences among entities or people is important.
- The language we use creates our reality.
The 5-D Model of AI
- Define
- Discover
- Dream
- Design
- Deliver/Destiny
1. Define
(This phase was not in Cooperider’s first model. In his model, the problem/issue was stated before the AI process began in the client organization.)
The Define phase is where an issue or problem, the subject of change, is identified. A large-scale Appreciative Inquiry is called an AI Summit. (Hammond, pg. 27) This phase focuses on where the organization is now. What is currently working today and where do we want to go? This defines the direction of inquiry. (Mohr, 2001)During the Define phase, “the organization’s focus shifts from describing the problem to determining what its members want to achieve and what they need to know to get there.” (Mohr, 2001) An interview guide is developed during this phase.
2. Discover (discovery)
This phase is where the appreciative interviews take place. The customized guide created during the Define phase is developed by a group of volunteers from across the organization.“These volunteers often represent a diagonal “slice” of the organization, along with representatives from key partners outside the company’s formal boundaries (i.e., customers and suppliers).” (Mohr, 2001) As mentioned earlier, the more people interviewed across the organization’s thumbprint, the more success the organization would experience in long-term change. Cooperrider advocates that everyone should be interviewed! (Cooperrider and Whitney, pg.25) The goal is to understand what gives life to the organization, department, or community when it is at its best. The focus is on the personal and organizational successes/high points, on peoples’ values, and hopes and desires for their organization’s social, economic, and environmental life. (Cooperrider and Whitney, pg. 26) During the Discover phase, relationships are formed, wisdom is shared, and is spread throughout the organization. Hope grows during the Discovery phase. Cooperrider calls it the “spirit of inquiry.” (Pg 26)
3. Dream
During the Dream phase, participants come together to build on the new findings of the Discovery phase. Cooperrider and Whitney describe it best “The purpose of the dream phase of AI, is to engage the whole system in moving beyond the status quo to envision valued and vital futures. It is an invitation to people to lift their sights, exercise their imagination, and discuss what their organization could look like if it were fully aligned around its strengths and aspirations.” (Pg 27) People share the times the organization was at its best and share their hopes and dreams for their collective future. (Pg 27) Mohr says that during this phase, larger questions are asked such as “What is the world calling us to become? What are those things about us that, no matter how much we change, we want to continue to do in the future?” (Mohr, 2001) The dreams are based on what the participants know to be passed or present capabilities (the known). (Mohr, 2001) Confidence and energy stay at an elevated level to continue the organization’s positive momentum.
4. Design
“Design is the decision-making phase where you use convergent thinking to write directions to achieve the agreed upon future.” (Hammond, pg. 33) What does the ideal organization, social structure, or the actual design of the system look like? In this phase, the people of the organization can design something new, exciting, and timely for their industry. The organization can create a system that bridges the best of the past and present to a collective agreement of what might be. Cooperrider and Whitney encourage their clients to ask, “What would our organization look like if it were designed in every way possible to maximize the qualities of the positive core and enable the accelerated realization of our dreams?” (Cooperrider and Whitney, Pg 29) Imaginative and sound design can result when representatives of all facets of the system are engaged and enthused. They know what works; they see what can be possible and they all work to design a system that will create their dream organization.
5. Deliver/Destiny
Initially, this phase was called “delivery.” “We emphasized action planning, developing implementation strategies, and dealing with conventional challenges of sustainability. But the word delivery simply did not go far enough.” (Cooperrider and Whitney, pg. 34)Cooperrider and associates realized that organizational change needed to look and feel like a movement rather than a tailored package for the client organization. A movement continues after the consultants leave. A movement changes and updates as added information becomes known. The organization’s people know where they want the organization to go. They understand how their effort plays in the success of the product, company, industry, and culture. The permission to cooperate and cocreate is unilaterally accepted by all employees at all levels. Each person sees the validity of modern design and strives to incorporate their visions for a better future.
AI Critics
AI has its critics. According to Bushe, the criticism came in three waves. The first wave was from scholars who believed that organizational development practitioners needed a balanced focus on what is working and what is not working to get a valid judgment of the organization’s solutions. They felt that only focusing on what was working was ineffective. One scholar, R.T. Golembiewski, “expressed concerns that AI advocates were anti-research.”(Bushe, 2012)
The second wave of critics thought that AI was “simply asking positive questions and based mainly on the force of ‘positive emotions.” (Bushe 2012) Scholars such as Fineman, Grant, and Humphries disagreed with the validity of AI’s one way of getting to the truth. They feltAI’sfocus of what is working in an organization, fails to present solutions for that organization.
The third wave came from scholars who thought AI would “invalidate the negative organizational experiences of participants and repress potentially important and meaningful conversations that need to take place.” (Bushe, 2012) This view says that AI does not give employees an opportunity to voice resentments or any criticism of the organization’s culture. This view also states that AI can be used to “stifle valid expressions of hurt, injustice and ill-treatment, the opposite of what AI purports to do will in fact occur; distrust, disengagement, and devaluation.” (Bushe, 2012)
Understanding AI Criticisms
It is beneficial to understand the criticisms of AI. Considering the three waves of criticism presented by Bushe, to me each did not have a true understanding of AI.
All can agree there are some instances where what is positive for some employees, may be negative for others. However, exploring negative experiences with an appreciative eye can result in many positive outcomes. This is AI’s focus.
Every AI practitioner allows the collective to uncover what is currently happening in the organization during the Define phase. This would include the undesirable as well as the good. The collective would take an honest look at what the issues are and discuss them. The culture and the system needed to prevent the undesirable event could be discussed in the Define or Discover phase, depending on the organization or AI practitioner. The focus would be on what was learned and can be carried forward to the Design phase.
Every AI practitioner would be sensitive to biases, would listen for the scolding of differing views, and would understand that there are many views of the same event. Any surfacing of anxiety, stress, or resentment would be investigated to discover the better/best solution. An organization can shine a light on undesired behavior/results. Where negative results occur, participants are encouraged to find how to change the system so that positive results have a better chance to occur, and then modern designs are created to support the desired outcomes. All current and incoming personnel understand the dream, design, and destiny of their part in the organization.
AI has been used in many organizations with profound success. Some example organizations are mentioned in Cooperrider and Whitney’s book Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Revolution in Change: British Airways, Chapel Hill School of Nursing, Denver Office of Finance, and United Religions Initiative. (Cooperrider and Whitney, 2005) A good quick read of AI success at Nutrimental SA, a food manufacturing facility in Parana, Brazil, can be found in Bernard J. Mohr’s articleAppreciative Inquiry: Igniting Transformation Action. (Mohr, 2001)
AI in Coaching the Individual
There are so many good gems in AI for the coach of today and the future. If we think of an individual as their own mini organization, we can integrate the AI language, principles, and assumptions into our coaching toolbox. The definition put out by Cooperrider and Whitney can be translated from “organization” to “individual” to describe how a coach would coach a client.
Appreciative Inquiry is the cooperative, coevolutionary 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 in economic, ecological, and human terms. (Cooperrider and Whitney, pg 8)
Words and phrases that pop out from that definition that a coach can incorporate into their coaching presence:
Cooperative: When we coach someone, we cooperate with her direction and leadership of the session. We allow her to talk about what she wants to talk about. We collaborate. We work together. We combine forces with the client to help her process what she wants to address during that session.
Coevolutionary: We evolve together as the sessions proceed, and our relationship grows and matures. As the client reveals more of himself, the coach allows for changes in the words used in his questions. What the client thinks is the issue, becomes something else and the coach can ask better questions in a coevolutionary partnership. The client can find new discoveries about himself to make changes or to see a situation differently because of the coevolutionary partnership.
Search for the best in people, their organization, and the world around them: All coaches want their clients to feel better after being coached. A coach can learn to ask questions to help the client see the positive outcomes of failures, small setbacks, obstacles, and all those issues that bog a mind down. When the client tells us their story, we can ask questions that get them to see what good came out of it. We can get the client out of their own story and see the benefit of addressing their defined issue. As coaches, if we learn to see the best in people, organizations, and the world, our questions will take on a positive tone enabling the client to break through to opportunities, lessons learned, and empowerment. By searching for the best, the coach’s respect, trust, encouragement, and empowerment of the client will grow and thrive. This will allow the client to grow and thrive through newfound self-awareness. Questions like “What do you want to happen?” “What does success look like to you?” and “In a perfect world, what would this look like to you?” all encourage the client to search for the best.
Systemic discovery: The coach has her coaching session model, her power tools, and her coaching session design. A process underlies all coaching sessions to allow the client to untangle the mental knots. This process is a system of discovery.
What gives life to an organization or a community when it is most effective: The coach reminds the client when they were at their best. “What have you done that you are the proudest of?” or “What is the most rewarding thing you have done?” “What has been your favorite job so far?” “What is something you do that gives you so much joy, you lose track of time when you do it? Questions like these can enable a client to tap into what enthuses her and where her talents lie.
Cooperrider and Whitney’s five principles can easily be translated into a coach’s approach. “The never-ending collaborative quest to understand and contract options for a better living,” in the Constructionist Principle, needs no further explanation for a coach who wants to empower her client. The Simultaneity Principle guides the coach to consider the language used in his questions…what effect is my question having on the client at this moment? Did my question change the energy of the session? Is this question going to generate better self-reflection for the client? The person is “a lot more like an open book than, say, a machine,” described by the Poetic Principle. We can choose to inquire about what gives the client joy and balance, what they value most, and where they find flow. The Anticipatory principle encourages a coach to help the client address what they can do in action planning during the individual sessions. The coach helps the client discover for themselves what they can do to get what they want out of life, work, relationships, etc. And lastly, using the Positive Principle, the coach can enable the client to build momentum for long-lasting change. “The major thing a change agent can do that makes a difference is to craft and ask unconditionally positive questions.” (Pgs. 50-53)
Sue Annis Hammond’s eight assumptions of AI can all be translated from organization to individual. As coaches, we can help the client see what works for her, focus on the benefits of a trying situation, and rewrite her story. We can ask questions to help her recognize the best-known results of something and what can be accordingly used to elevate fear or stress of the unknown. We can ask questions focusing on the benefit or opportunities for her, help her carry forward her best skills, talents, and values, and to value her own uniqueness. As coaches, we can learn to be very aware of the language we use in our questions and see how it can impact the energy and feeling of a coaching session.
The 5-D Model of AI can be a template or a light overlay to any coaching session. Allow the client to define the issue they want to explore and help the client discover the best of “what is.” Allow the client to dream of what could be and allow space for the client to design how they want things to be in their lives. Help them realize their destiny by giving them space without judgment, allowing them to voice their thoughts, reminding them of what they wanted to achieve, and empowering them to do it for themselves.
Deep Dive Into Appreciative Inquiry
This deep dive into Appreciative Inquiry has been extremely rewarding. The enthusiasm of all the Appreciative Inquiry practitioners in the creation, evolution, and continuing work in Appreciative Inquiry is infectious. Learning about the creation of AI and how it has been used to create a better world in organizations and cultures is very motivating. It continues to evolve and improve! By translating the principles, assumptions, and the 5-D Model of AI from “organizations” to the “individual,” the coach comes away with more skills and ideas for their own toolbox. A coach can learn to apply these principles in their sessions and all other interactions. A coach can ask better questions so that their client can achieve their dream life. Coaches can view themselves as change agents and strive to invoke this AI methodology in their approach and their questioning style.
The most beautiful statement of AI comes from Cooperrider himself in the personal correspondence to Gervase Bushe, on March 30, 2010. “‘I think we are still on this quest for a full-blown non-deficit theory of change. I’m not saying that the other isn’t a way of change, but I am saying that we are still in our infancy in understanding non-deficit, strength-based, or life-centric approaches to change. William James called for it back in 1902, in Varieties of Religious Experience, when he said we know a lot about the kind of change that happens when people feel threatened, feel fear and violence is coming at them, but we don’t know much about the kind of change that happens when, in his words, “everything is hot and alive within us and everything reconfigures itself around it”. Whether someone would call the initiating experience “positive” or “negative”, the transformational moment is a pro-fusion moment when something so deeply good and loving is touched in us that everything is changed – that’s the kind of change I’m talking about…I don’t think we really understand the possibilities in that kind of change yet and we aren’t going to understand them until we take this to the extremes.” (Bushe, 2012)
If everyone can take something of AI into themselves and into their interactions with the rest of the world, what could we achieve for future generations? Amazing stuff, this Appreciative Inquiry!
References
AI Practitioner Publication, “Feature Choice by Gervase Bushe; Foundations of Appreciative Inquiry: History, Criticism and Potential” Volume 14, Number 1, Isbn 978-1-907549-08-3, February 2012, Gervase Bushe, Bushe@sfu.CA
“The Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry 3rd Edition”, by Sue Annis Hammond, This Book Publishing Co, 2013
“Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Revolution in Change, by David L. Cooperrider and Diana Whitney, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. 2005
The Systems Thinker Publication, “Appreciative Inquiry: Igniting Transformative Action” by Bernard J. Mohr, Pegasus Communications (www.pegasuscom.com), Volume 12, Number 1, February 2001