APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY (AI)

What is AI, and how can it help schools and school systems develop?

Presentation to Contact Seminararranged by The British Council

28th February 2010

©Barrie Joy

Using Vision

‘Vision alone is daydreamingAction alone is passing the time of dayVision and action together can change theworld’ (Barker)

Appreciative Inquiry:some definitions

• Appreciate: ‘to form an estimate of worth, quality or amount; to be sensitive to; to esteem adequately or highly ;to raise in value; to recognize the positive in people and situations; to affirm past and present strengths, successes and potentials; to perceive those things that give life (health, vitality, excellence to living systems); to increase in value’.

• Inquiry: ‘to explore and discover; to ask questions; to gather data; to amass evidence; to be open to seeing new potentials and possibilities’

Some Key Points• AI is based on positive growth not negative

deficit

• William James and how we perceive reality

• How the process is conducted is of critical importance.

• The importance of unconditionally positive

questioning

Appreciative InquiryThe 4-D Cycle

The cycle comprises four main stages:

• Discovery• Dream• Design• Destiny

5 Core Principles of AI• Constructionist: to be effective leaders in any situation, we

must be skilled in the art of understanding, reading and analyzing organisations as living, human constructions

• Simultaneity: inquiry and change are simultaneous• Anticipatory: the image of the future guides the current

behaviour of any person or organisation• Poetic: human organisations are open books, continually

being co-authored by the people within the organisation as well as by those outside who interact with it

• Positive: the more positive the questions used the more long lasting the change

The Eight Assumptions of Appreciative Inquiry

• In every organisation something works well. Whatever you want is already there in some form

• What we focus on becomes our reality • Reality is created in the moment and there are multiple

realities • The language we use creates our reality • The act of asking questions to an organisation influences

that organization. The nature of the questions is crucial • It is important to value differences • People have more confidence to journey to the future when

they carry forward parts of the past • We should carry forward only positive parts of the past

Appreciative InquiryReadings

• Cooperrider,D. L. and Whitney, D. (1999) Appreciative Inquiry: A positive revolution in change. In Holman, P. and Devane, T. (eds.), The Change Handbook: Group methods for shaping the future. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

• Cooperrider, D. L. and Whitney, D. (2005) A Positive Revolution in Change: Appreciative Inquiry. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.

• Henry, R. (2003) ‘Leadership at every level: appreciative inquiry in education.’ Available at : http://www.newhorizons.org/trans/henry.htm.

• Whitney, D. and Trosten-Bloom, A. (2003). The Power of Appreciative Inquiry: a practical guide to positive change. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers,Inc.