Appreciative Inquiry is an organizational strategy that focuses on the positives rather than negatives. It involves four stages: discover, dream, define, and deliver, and has been applied to various fields since its development in 1987.
Appreciative Inquiry is a type of organizational strategy for improving business. It was first developed in 1987 by David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva. The theory behind Appreciative Inquiry is that organizations can change and do better when all members of the organization focus on the positives rather than the negatives. Instead of surveying employees and asking what’s wrong with a company, they ask employees what works well about a company. By collecting this information, the company moves forward and practices more “right work” strategies.
There are four basic stages to appreciative inquiry: discover, dream, define, and deliver. Since its inception, other appreciative inquiry processes have been added. However, these four are the original concepts of Cooperrider and Srivastva.
In the discovery process of Appreciative Inquiry, all employees of a company are invited to recall times when the company behaved in a really positive way. They might be asked to recall a specific incident that was impressive or effective. This helps to identify the positive aspects of the company.
In the dreamlike process of Appreciative Inquiry, all employees are invited to look to the future and think about what they would like to see happen in a company. This is still positively directed. The focus is on the positive dream of the company’s future rather than negative criticism of the company’s past crimes.
Based on investigations from the discovery and dream stages, the company is designed to reflect a more positive future. This is the planning phase, essentially, where the future direction of the company will be planned based on employees’ past positive experiences and their hopes for the future.
Once planning is complete, the goal is to implement a new strategy for the company at the delivery stage. The delivery stage of appreciative inquiry is very important because it reflects the company’s commitment to creating a more positive, employee-centered workplace, which in most cases means a more productive workplace.
Since 1987, Appreciative Inquiry has been applied to many other types of organizations. If one evaluates Appreciative Inquiry on the Internet, many sites show the implementation of Appreciative Inquiry in the pastoral field, in therapy groups or in education. Many have celebrated the positive methods of Appreciative Inquiry in practice and are now used across a wide spectrum of fields.
In 2006, for example, the Washington Ballet used an Appreciative Inquiry model to resolve labor disputes between dancers and company directors. A 2006 article also looked at how therapists are applying Appreciative Inquiry in the field of hypnotherapy to form a more positive therapeutic approach.
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