APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY :
A TRANSFORMATIVE PARADIGM
By Gervase Thomas
WHAT IS IT?
Appreciative Inquiry, a concept and approach conceived and described in the work of Dr.David Cooparinder and his colleagues at Case Western Reserve’s School of Organizational Behavior, is a worldview, a paradigm of thought and understanding that holds organizations to be affirmative systems created by humankind as solutions to problems. It is a theory, a mindset, and an approach to analysis that leads to organizational learning and creativity.
Used in place of a traditional problem solving approach- finding what is wrong and forging solutions to fix the problems- Appreciative Inquiry seeks what is “right” in an organization. It is a habit of mind, heart, and imagination that searches for the success, the life-giving force, the incidence of joy. It moves toward what the organization is doing right and provides a frame for creating an imagined future that builds on and expands the joyful and life-giving realities as the metaphor and organizing principle of the organization.
FOUR PRINCIPLES
1. Inquiry into the art of possible in organizational life should begin with appreciation.
2. Inquiry into what is possible should be applicable.
3. Inquiry into what is possible should be provocative.
4. Inquiry into human potential of organizational life should be collaborative.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PROBLEM SOLVING AND APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY
Problem Solving
Identification of problem (felt need)
Analysis of causes
Analysis of possible solutions
Action planning (treatment)
BASIC ASSUMPTION
Organization is a problem to be solved
Appreciative Inquiry
Appreciating – valuing the best of “what is”
Envisioning “what might be”
Dialoguing “what should be”
Innovating “what will be”
BASIC ASSUMPTION
Organization is a mystery to be embraced
IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGEMENT
· Organizations are made and imagined.
· Any pattern of action in the organization is open to alteration and reconfiguration.
· Organizations are “heliotropic”in character.
· Positive imagery of the organization is self-reinforcing, educative, self-organizing.
· Organizations need constant re-affirmation.
· Leadership means affirmation.
· Organizational learning and development is dependent on the appreciation.
Three conditions are essential:
Get the whole system into the room.
Focus on the “life giving” past to envision preferred future.
This is not a problem solving activity. It is an exercise in anticipatory learning----- the social construction of a preferred future.
THE 4 D CYCLE
DISCOVERY = Inquiry into life-giving properties
DREAMING = Visioning the Ideal
DESIGNING = Consensual validation through dialogue
DESTINATION = DELIVERY, Co-construction of preferred future
Appreciative Inquiry is a METHODOLOGY . This can be effectively used in variety of training modules, such as:
Vision and Mission,
Team Building,
Organizational Development,
Leadership,
Personal Growth,
Peace and Reconciliation,
Values in Management,
Creative Visualization,
Partnership,
Effective Communication,
Learning Organization
People Quality Management .
Dr.Gervase Thomas, Professor and Dean, BVIMR is a trained Faculty in AI to train people in AI and take up other modules through AI.
From India, Coimbatore
732A TRANSFORMATIVE PARADIGM
By Gervase Thomas
WHAT IS IT?
Appreciative Inquiry, a concept and approach conceived and described in the work of Dr.David Cooparinder and his colleagues at Case Western Reserve’s School of Organizational Behavior, is a worldview, a paradigm of thought and understanding that holds organizations to be affirmative systems created by humankind as solutions to problems. It is a theory, a mindset, and an approach to analysis that leads to organizational learning and creativity.
Used in place of a traditional problem solving approach- finding what is wrong and forging solutions to fix the problems- Appreciative Inquiry seeks what is “right” in an organization. It is a habit of mind, heart, and imagination that searches for the success, the life-giving force, the incidence of joy. It moves toward what the organization is doing right and provides a frame for creating an imagined future that builds on and expands the joyful and life-giving realities as the metaphor and organizing principle of the organization.
FOUR PRINCIPLES
1. Inquiry into the art of possible in organizational life should begin with appreciation.
2. Inquiry into what is possible should be applicable.
3. Inquiry into what is possible should be provocative.
4. Inquiry into human potential of organizational life should be collaborative.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PROBLEM SOLVING AND APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY
Problem Solving
Identification of problem (felt need)
Analysis of causes
Analysis of possible solutions
Action planning (treatment)
BASIC ASSUMPTION
Organization is a problem to be solved
Appreciative Inquiry
Appreciating – valuing the best of “what is”
Envisioning “what might be”
Dialoguing “what should be”
Innovating “what will be”
BASIC ASSUMPTION
Organization is a mystery to be embraced
IMPLICATIONS FOR MANAGEMENT
· Organizations are made and imagined.
· Any pattern of action in the organization is open to alteration and reconfiguration.
· Organizations are “heliotropic”in character.
· Positive imagery of the organization is self-reinforcing, educative, self-organizing.
· Organizations need constant re-affirmation.
· Leadership means affirmation.
· Organizational learning and development is dependent on the appreciation.
Three conditions are essential:
Get the whole system into the room.
Focus on the “life giving” past to envision preferred future.
This is not a problem solving activity. It is an exercise in anticipatory learning----- the social construction of a preferred future.
THE 4 D CYCLE
DISCOVERY = Inquiry into life-giving properties
DREAMING = Visioning the Ideal
DESIGNING = Consensual validation through dialogue
DESTINATION = DELIVERY, Co-construction of preferred future
Appreciative Inquiry is a METHODOLOGY . This can be effectively used in variety of training modules, such as:
Vision and Mission,
Team Building,
Organizational Development,
Leadership,
Personal Growth,
Peace and Reconciliation,
Values in Management,
Creative Visualization,
Partnership,
Effective Communication,
Learning Organization
People Quality Management .
Dr.Gervase Thomas, Professor and Dean, BVIMR is a trained Faculty in AI to train people in AI and take up other modules through AI.
From India, Coimbatore
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Initial telephonic inquiry.doc
Domestic Inquiry.pdf