Using Appreciative Inquiry

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a strengths-based, positive approach to leadership development and organisational change. Developed by Whitney and Cooperrider (2012), AI is a framework that helps implement positive systemic change from a position of respect and mutuality, helping individuals and organisations create a shared vision for where they wish to be.

AI differs from the more commonly used deficit approach (i.e. what is going wrong and what can be improved), as it offers a strengths-based, optimistic strategy that ‘appreciates’ what has gone well and envisions what could be developed in the future.

AI is a particularly appropriate method for fostering a sense of appreciation in organisations. Its flexibility will also help enhance the other KFPs that underpin a resilient organisation. AI can also be a useful framework for supervision.

The AI model involves a four-stage process:

1. What is currently going well?

2. Dream about how things could be improved

3. Design a strategy for how these dreams could be realised

4. Consider ways of delivering the change

AI can be used at an individual, team or organisational level. Its premise is that harnessing people’s experience and skills provides a stimulus for change. AI also helps build positive relationships within organisations by facilitating a shared understanding of members’ contributions and how they can be used to shape change.

Information is provided below on how organisations can use AI to inform organisational change. Moving away from a problem focus to one that acknowledges and builds on success is likely to be a useful approach for health and social care leaders, who are often tasked with implementing change initiatives.

A constant change of direction that disregards what has worked well in the past is often unsettling and demotivating. AI techniques will be particularly useful during times of crisis and uncertainty. 

Using Appreciative Inquiry to implement change

This approach to planning change involves engaging with people to consider how good work can be built upon. This may seem a simple exercise, but AI can be a powerful tool in helping people move from being ‘stuck in a rut’ and lacking motivation to a position from which a new future can be imagined and realised.

The approach involves working in pairs initially to discover strengths. These are then shared and small groups begin to imagine and plan for the future of an organisation. The four key steps to using AI are outlined using the example below:

1. Discovery

What has been your best experience of health and social care work? Think of a time when you felt:

• Most engaged, alive and enthused by your work

• That it worked well for people who access services.

Now think:

• What made this possible?

• What did ‘good’ look like?

• What was important to its success?

2. Dream for the future

Imagine it is a year from now, and your team or service is working very well. It may have achieved formal recognition for its work – e.g. best teamwork, partnerships with families, or enablement-based practice with adults.

• What are you doing differently that enabled this change?

• What is it like to work in this team?

• What does ‘good’ look like?

3. Strategising

To move from dreaming about the future to a more concrete strategy and plan, you should now consider the steps you need to take to achieve this goal. These need to be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound).

• What is going to make this possible?

• What will you have to do differently to make this work?

• Who do you need to help you to get there?

• What else might you need to pay attention to?

• What might be the signs that you are moving in the right direction?

4. Implementation

• How are you going to implement these plans?

• How are you going to communicate your plans to others?

• How will you know if you are continuing to move in the right direction – how will you measure success?