More about Appreciative Inquiry
Although (or because) AI is not another organisational development intervention, it can be applied to organisational development - it changes the way OD practitioners approach their task, such as strategic planning, evaluation, community participation, etc.
Appreciative Inquiry builds on the power and the experience of the stakeholders, it values what people are ready to contribute and it changes human mindsets by switching the focus of their attention - "Change at the Speed of Imagination".
AI relates to what OD practitioners call the "power of mental models". Key presuppositions is "The Map is not the Territory". Limitations to human communication and behaviour result from mental maps.
What is radically new in AI is the notion that the adaptation of certain, resourceful mental models can help us overcome limitations by focusing a group of people on "What has been there already", and "What could be", the system receives an implicit intervention which creates a shift. Referring to the famous metaphor of system thinkers, the introduction of AI into an organisation is not a single butterfly (that causes a tornado 5000 miles away by a single flap of its wing), it is a large group of butterflies. Or an entire flock of birds. A flock of wild geese (or any other bird) reacts as a whole when they change the direction of their flight. This is what AI does, when done with an entire organisation or community - it changes the direction of people's actions.
The recent development of AI put the philosophy into a process, which can be applied to many different assignments, e.g. strategic planning, visioning, or monitoring and evaluation.
How can AI be applied
AI, as it was developed by
Cooperrider and Srivastva is based on the 4-D Cycle, which runs through four stages (see Figure 1):
- Discovery (Appreciating That Which Gives Life)
- Dream (Envisioning Impact)
- Design (Co-Constructing the Future)
- Delivery (Sustaining the Change)
Figure 1: The 4D Model of Cooperrider and Srivastva (taken from Watkins and Mohr, 2001)
Discovery
In the Discovery phase, people start to explore the
resources of the organization or the community the relate to, by conducting interview cross the organization, and even
including external resources, such as clients, etc. Interviews are principally "appreciative", and are developed
together with a steering group composed of different stakeholders. In monitoring of a project, an interview could look
like:
- If you revisit the history of the project XYZ and your engagement in the project, which was a moment when you felt deeply connected to the core of the project? A moment in which you were able to contribute to the achievement of project purpose and overall objective? Please describe this moment in detail.
- What was your particular contribution? What did you do to help others to contribute?
- What were the nurturing framework conditions that supported that extraordinary performance of yours and other stakeholders?
- What was the particular outcome at that time?
- If you had three wishes for the future of your organization (or the project), which would they be? In this phase, people share stories and write down the answers in interview protocols, which are the base for the next phase.
Dream
In the Dream phase, stakeholders engage in a conversation about the organization's or community's potential, future or
vision. The future is describes in a "Provocative Proposition": In an evaluation, this proposition could be about what
should be changed in the set-up of the project to replicate the peak performances that have been experienced by the
stakeholders. But the provocative proposition can go far beyond and describe a vision which had so far not been
conceptualised.
In monitoring, this is the coaching phase. The team sits together with the stakeholders to find out, what parts of the project are worthwhile to keep.
Design
In the Design phase, the results are transferred into an architecture. Structures that are existing might have to
change (or to be strengthened) to facilitate the replication of the peak performance and the implementation of the new
dream.
Destiny
The final Delivery phase is the phase of implementation
and experimenting. The design is put into practice, and a constant learning environment is created, which then is the
base for a new monitoring cycle, which now is not out of the blue, but grounded in constant research on what gives life
to the organization or community.
Four-I model
The 4-D Model has been altered by Bernhard Mohr and Mette Jacobsgaard into a Four-I model, which has the following
steps (see Figure 2):
- Initiate: Introduce AI to key stakeholders and create temporary structures
- Inquire: Conduct generic interviews
- Imagine: Collate and share interview data; develop provocative propositions
- Innovate: Engage maximum number of stakeholders in conversations; implement design changes.
The advantage of the 4I-Cycle is that institutional capacity is systematically built up.
Appreciative Inquiry is particularly appropriate
- Where previous evaluation efforts have failed
- Where there is a fear of scepticism about evaluation
- With varied groups of stakeholders who know little about each other or the programme being evaluated
- With hostile or volatile environments
- When change needs to be accelerated
- When dialogue is critical to moving the organization forward
- When relationships among individuals and groups have deteriorated and there is a sense of hopelessness
- When there is a desire to build evaluation capacity - to help others learn from evaluation practice
How can MDF support you to apply Appreciative Inquiry
We offer
appreciative inquiry as a participatory planning instrument in either complex organisational change processes as well
as in Project or Programme Management. It analyses the past successes (situation analysis) and formulates a desired
future situation with respect of the diversity of the involved people.
In programme and project management it ends with the compilation of a logic intervention and monitoring indicators. We will use participatory appraisal and planning techniques with the use of appreciative inquiry; a set of tools facilitating dialogue among social groups to define priorities of change, concrete strategies and main activities.
Interested in improving your management skills in appreciative inquiry? Contact MDF and she will offer you a tailor made learning programme. We can offer these services in English, Spanish, French, Potrugese and Swahili.
We also organise an open entry training course in Ede, see www.mdf.nl/AI-nl
Jolanda Buter
( Source: www.change-management-toolbook.com)
