Description
Appreciative inquiry (AI) differs from many current development methodologies, in which experts help local people identify community problems and then develop projects to fix these problems. This can be disempowering as it encourages local people to think of themselves as laden with problems only solvable by outside experts.
AI, in contrast, seeks to locate, highlight and illuminate the “life-giving” forces in a community. Its aim is to generate knowledge by focusing on community strengths, expanding “the realm of the possible” and helping community members first visualize and then implement a collectively desired future.
AI was developed in the early 1990s, primarily to help corporations and institutions improve their competitive advantage or organizational effectiveness. It has since been applied at the community level domestically and in developing countries. It involves a significant shift in emphasis from local problems to local achievements, from participation to inspiration. By identifying and reinforcing positive, constructive actions, relationships and visions within a community, appreciative inquiry encourages local ownership of activities that contribute to sustainable development and secure livelihoods.
Steps
Appreciative inquiry usually progresses through four stages, known as either the 4-Is or the 4-Ds:
1. Initiate - Discovering periods of excellence and achievement
Through interviews and story-telling, participants remember significant past achievements and periods of excellence. When was their organization or community functioning at its best? What happened to make those periods of excellence possible? By telling stories, people identify and analyze the unique factors—such as leadership, relationships, technologies, core processes, structures, values, learning processes, external relations, or planning methods—that contributed to peak experiences.
2. Inquire - Dreaming an ideal organization or community
In this step, people use past achievements to visualize a desired future. This aspect of appreciative inquiry is different from other visioning or planning methodologies because the images of the community’s future that emerge are grounded in history, and as such represent compelling possibilities. In this sense appreciative inquiry is both practical, in that it is based on the “positive present”, and generative, in that it seeks to expand the potential of the organization or community.
3. Imagine - Designing new structures and processes
This stage is intended to be provocative––to develop, through consensus, concrete short- and long-term goals that will achieve the dream. Provocative propositions usually take the form of statements such as: “This community will do whatever is necessary to build a school and keep our children in the community.” Or: “This company will champion innovation by creating new teams that integrate marketing and product development more effectively.” Or “This village will protect what remains of the local forest and will plant one thousand trees over the next two seasons to ensure the forest’s survival for future generations.” Provocative propositions should stretch an organization or community, but they should also be achievable because they are based on past periods of excellence.
4. Innovate - Delivering the dream
In this stage, people act on their provocative propositions, establishing roles and responsibilities, developing strategies, forging institutional linkages and mobilizing resources to achieve their dream. New project plans are developed and initiated, new relationships are established and the group will proceed with vision and a renewed sense of purpose. As a result of the appreciative process, people have a better understanding of the relevance of new initiatives to the
long-term vision of the organization or community.
Pros and Cons
Appreciative Inquiry is based in the philosophy that it’s more important to focus on a community’s strengths and capacity for improvement than on a community’s problems. While this may help engage citizens and create a positive atmosphere for a planning process, it also may ignore important elements of character or community identity that are not positive or are not notable enough to be considered “life-giving forces.” As processes like the Discovery Process and Mass-Observation suggest, many elements of character in a community are mundane and may be overlooked by processes of sublimation.
Practically speaking, AI is malleable and can be adjusted to fit most budgets, timelines, community sizes, topics and types of projects. This flexibility helps make it possible for AI to fit into nearly any planning process, but it also necessitates a significant amount of organization and project design. AI is not all that appealing to the general public by itself; it becomes engaging and effective with the inclusion of interesting tools and publicity measures, and when it is a component of a meaningful planning process.
Examples
The Capacity Inventory tool has been used in numerous communities as a component of AI processes. Dakota Dreams, Appreciative Inquiry in Housing (Dubuque, Iowa), and the Bitterroot Valley Appreciative Inquiry are significant examples of AI processes (see Case Studies).
Case University maintains a website and database of case studies in Appreciative Inquiry.