Appreciative Inquiry: an emerging philosophy of management
Appreciative Inquiry is a philosophy and methodology of change based on strengths, created by David Cooperrider. It is concerned with appreciating the best of what exists: the strengths, resources, and opportunities. It focuses on exploring and discovering the moments of greatest excellence by inquiring and visualizing new potentials and opportunities from collective intelligence.
It is more than merely a tool, more than a methodology, it is a way of thinking and acting, it is a philosophy of change and organizational management.
It differs from methods based on changes in behavior in that Appreciative Inquiry does not focus on the change in people although that is an important and very visible collateral effect. Appreciative Inquiry is based on a collaborative discovery of what makes an organization more effective, from an economic, human and social point of view.
It is not a question of seeing the glass half full or half empty but investigating what made the water enter in for it to overflow.
Appreciative Inquiry aligns strengths towards aspirations, which are always greater and more motivating and demanding than the objectives. Ultimately one goes further and does so quicker.
There are countless examples of success in areas as different as strategic planning, mergers, customer service, process innovation in business, evaluations, teams, sales conventions, transversal cooperation, client orientation and many more.
