Appreciative Inquiry as a Management Strategy
APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY AS A CHANGE MANAGEMENT STRATEGY
This essay examines Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as a change management strategy, discusses the strengths and weaknesses of AI and the differences between AI and other change methods with the use of case study examples.
Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a modern change management strategy used to discover positive aspects in people and organizations; identifying and building on existing strengths to create a powerful, purposeful change. AI is a ‘systematic discovery of what gives “life” to a living system when it is most alive, most effective, and most constructively capable’ (Cooperrider, David. Whitney, Diana. (2001). It is a humanistic approach which heightens our awareness of our own potential and the potential of others in an organization, allowing us to overcome limits we impose on our capabilities. AI is about identifying the best of ‘what is’ to pursue dreams and possibilities of ‘what could be’.
AI is the belief that we have a choice to see all possibilities, capabilities and assets and have the ability to ignite the ‘best of the past and present’ to create a future we desire. AI allows access to a transformational energy that provides us with confidence and the belief that we have the capacity to develop and pursue the kind of future we desire. AI is described as “a world where the impossible is non-existent” (Germany, Timothy (2003)
In an AI change process the first step is designing appreciative interview questions for different areas of the organization. For example, in the topic of teamwork questions could be “Think of the most successful team group you have worked in within this organisation. What were the aspects that made it so successful? Explain in a story what happened.” It is essential that the organisational members realise that the process of doing the appreciative interviews is as important as the data collection. “While the "appreciative" part of AI is important, "the 'inquiry' is the key." (Cooperrider, David. Whitney, Diana. (2001).
The 4-D model is one of the many applications of AI – “a cycle of activities that guide members of an organization, group, or community through four stages” (Liebler, Claudia. J. (2001). In the first stage of the 4-D model, the discovery stage, people discuss with one another the times when the organization worked at its best. Core values and best practises are extracted from the stories and used to build on the desired future. The dream stage tends to work best in a large group involving as much as the organization as possible. The data collected from the previous ‘discovery’ stage is used to create a vision of the future organization as if the peak moments discovered were the norm rather than the exception. In the design stage, a smaller team is then empowered to design ways to create the ideal organization with important elements such as structure, systems and the learning process being discussed. The delivery stage is the final phase used [next page]