{"id":4008,"date":"2018-10-12T06:38:26","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T11:38:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/?p=4008"},"modified":"2020-12-19T20:53:17","modified_gmt":"2020-12-20T01:53:17","slug":"do-you-know-how-to-take-advantage-of-the-appreciative-inquiry-approach-for-organizational-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/do-you-know-how-to-take-advantage-of-the-appreciative-inquiry-approach-for-organizational-management\/","title":{"rendered":"Do You Know How To Take Advantage of the “Appreciative Inquiry” Approach for Organizational Management?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"gearsThe problem solving<\/a> approach to organizational\u00a0 design and management<\/a> has a number of limitations. It focuses only on what\u2019s wrong, identifying causes, brainstorming solutions, developing action plans, and not taking into account the areas that are working well. Problem solving focuses on the past and excludes possibilities for creativity. The approach is time consuming, costly; harnesses blame game, consistent firefighting, low morale, and discord between teams.<\/p>\n

The Appreciative Inquiry (AI)<\/a> approach to organizational management evolved to provide a constructive alternative to the traditional problem-solving approach, which emphasizes on what works well and builds on that. The AI approach stresses on building internal strengths to find new growth opportunities rather than focusing on weaknesses or issues to be solved. AI is based on discovering what creates energy and excitement, drives the best in people, their organizations, the world around them, and then determining how to create more of it.<\/p>\n

AI does not necessitate a modification in the organizational change methodology, rather it\u2019s a basic shift in the overall perspective taken throughout the entire change process to \u2018see\u2019 the totality of the human system and to \u201cinquire\u201d into that system\u2019s strengths, possibilities, and successes.<\/p>\n

Benefits of AI<\/strong><\/h2>\n

AI is a simple technique that leverages several benefits to the organizations implementing it.<\/p>\n

First and foremost, the non-threatening and empowering spirit of AI\u2014where people uncover and then improve on the root causes of success rather than analyze problems\u2014acts as a powerful driver of change.<\/p>\n

The approach makes the people enthusiastic and energetic; enhances communication, faith, and interactions; builds and develops teams; promotes a culture of innovation and a sense of dynamism; and empowers the people to take risks.<\/p>\n

It entails assuming organizations are sources of infinite capacity, imagination, and building community, thus the generative dialogue creates positive connections between people.<\/p>\n

Phases of the AI Cycle<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A typical Appreciative Inquiry design has 4 phases, more commonly known as the \u201c4-D\u2019s of AI\u201d:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Discovery<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. Dream<\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Design<\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. Destiny<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    Discovery Phase<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    The implementation of AI commences when a group of stakeholders get together to craft positive questions to select an affirmative topic. The topic could be something the organization is doing well and which is critical to its future success, such as, the quality of customer service.<\/p>\n

    This is accomplished by seeking the most vital moments or occurrences of organizational excellence<\/a>\u2014small wins where people thought the organization to be most effective, which could be related to leadership, technologies, processes, structures, relationships, or methodologies.<\/p>\n

    The AI team engages with stakeholders across the board, gathers narratives on exceptional accomplishments, and contemplate the aspects that they want to revive in the future.<\/p>\n

    Dream Phase<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    The Dream phase of the AI 4-D cycle relates to imagining and envisioning the future of the organization. The most critical step in the Dream phase involves motivating the participants to dream about what might be a better organization and a better world. This helps in channelizing the positive core and creating the destiny of the envisioned dream.<\/p>\n

    Design Phase<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    This phase of AI focuses on creating the ideal organization in order to achieve its dream. The Design phase is critical for maintaining positive change and responding to the organization\u2019s most positive past and highest potential. The key tasks to be accomplished in this phase include building the organization\u2019s new social architecture, and reinforcing it. The stakeholders define the basic infrastructure by enabling comprehensive dialogue about the best structure and processes to support the new system.<\/p>\n

    Destiny Phase<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    The fourth phase of the AI 4-D cycle denotes the start of an ongoing creation of an \u201cappreciative learning culture\u201d. The new images of the future are implemented and sustained by fostering a collective sense of purpose. The stage entails continuous learning, adjustments, and innovation to facilitate shared ideals.<\/p>\n

    Interested in learning more about how to implement and adopt Appreciative Inquiry<\/a> into your organization, and get a detailed account of the core principles governing the AI methodology? You can learn more and download an editable PowerPoint about Appreciative Inquiry<\/strong> here<\/a> on the Flevy documents marketplace<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Do You Find Value in This Framework?<\/h2>\n

    You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the FlevyPro Library<\/a>. FlevyPro<\/a> is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here’s what some have to say:<\/p>\n

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    \u2013 Bill Branson, Founder at Strategic Business Architects<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    “As a niche strategic consulting firm, Flevy and FlevyPro frameworks and documents are an on-going reference to help us structure our findings and recommendations to our clients as well as improve their clarity, strength, and visual power. For us, it is an invaluable resource to increase our impact and value.”<\/p>\n

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    “As a small business owner, the resource material available from FlevyPro has proven to be invaluable. The ability to search for material on demand based our project events and client requirements was great for me and proved very beneficial to my clients. Importantly, being able to easily edit and tailor the material for specific purposes helped us to make presentations, knowledge sharing, and toolkit development, which formed part of the overall program collateral. While FlevyPro contains resource material that any consultancy, project or delivery firm must have, it is an essential part of a small firm or independent consultant’s toolbox.”<\/p>\n

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    “FlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight \u2013 it’s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.”<\/p>\n

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    “Several times a month, I browse FlevyPro for presentations relevant to the job challenge I have (I am a consultant). When the subject requires it, I explore further and buy from the Flevy Marketplace. On all occasions, I read them, analyze them. I take the most relevant and applicable ideas for my work; and, of course, all this translates to my and my clients’ benefits.”<\/p>\n

    \u2013 Omar Hern\u00e1n Montes Parra, CEO at Quantum SFE<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The problem solving approach to organizational\u00a0 design and management has a number of limitations. It focuses only on what\u2019s wrong, identifying causes, brainstorming solutions, developing action plans, and not taking into account the areas that are working well. Problem solving focuses on the past and excludes possibilities for creativity. The approach is time consuming, costly;… Do You Know How To Take Advantage of the “Appreciative Inquiry” Approach for Organizational Management?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":4010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[408,85],"tags":[1329,1345,570,657],"class_list":["post-4008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-management-leadership","category-organization","tag-4-ds-of-ai","tag-appreciative-inquiry","tag-cooperriders-appreciative-inquiry-ai","tag-problem-solving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4008"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7941,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4008\/revisions\/7941"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}