Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is designed to focus on creative conversations between people. AI is a process that seeks to bring all voices into a conversation. It involves all levels of a community who work together to co-create a desired future. AI is uniquely intended to discover, understand and foster innovation.

A basic belief of Appreciative Inquiry is that organizations and individuals, like plants are heliotropic in nature, that is they move toward the light or the positive image. Results from research (placebo studies, the Pygmalion effect studies, positive imagery for athletes) confirm this: positive images create positive futures.

Appreciative Inquiry asks people to tell their stories about what works, to share their connections with others where they have been at their best, to talk about what is life giving and equitable. It assists people to imagine their organizations and communities in more affirming ways and to envision policies, practices and behaviors that promote equity and that enhance the life giving forces in relationships.

AI seeks out the 'best of what is' to help ignite the collective imagination of 'what might be.' The aim is to generate knowledge that expands the realm of the possible. This helps people envision a collectively desired future and to carry forth their possibilities in ways that translate intention into reality. Members create the processes they wish to use in order to put belief into practice and acquire their goals.

AI has at its core the belief that systems and organizations are affirming and that people in these systems want to see the institution thrive and succeed. The process asks people to reflect on selected areas and dialogue with each other to discover when they and others have been at their best. People describe the factors that give life to the system and activate members' competencies and energies. The dialogue does not solicit facts and opinions. It looks for examples, stories and metaphors. Each person helps others draw out the particular and specific moments, events and stories of the best that already exists in the area under study.

The process is an effective and energizing process for conversation about the present reality, the shared vision and how to develop more effective and creative communities. The inquiry encourages the sharing of stories, invites creative reflection and stimulates ideas for co-constructed action; the approach also allows space for people to name how they would envision the best in what ever topic is being studied. AI focuses on the generative forces already present in the system. These forces become the seeds for the preferred future. The ideals are grounded in reality and this combination open the status quo to transformation. With the preferred future defined it becomes possible to describe, develop and create the systems and support to actualize the plans.

Alexsandra Stewart, 1995, revised 1996 with Royal, updated 1997, 1999

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