Adventures in India

Appreciative Inquiry is a changework philosophy that focuses on positive change through inquiring in the direction of what works and desired change rather than analyzing what problems exist. The methodology looks at building diverse life-giving forces in an organization or any group of people and engaging their strengths to create the desired change.Appreciative Inquiry involves 4 stages of work - discovery, dream, design and destiny. Each stage works with the postitive forces that are present. Positive powerful words have a way of getting positive forces aligning with us. We find what we seek.

The discovery stage is all about discovering the best in individuals, their potential and what works. The dream stage brings together the collective desired change or the "dream". The design stage is where the plans to bring about the change happen, and the destiny (or as some people call it"delivery") is when the plans are implemented and the positive change is brought about.

Like all methodologies, this one too has its own supporters and detractors. Some argue that it is essential to look at problems and stop them, which has no focus in the scheme of things in AI. Others argue that as what works gets built upon and strengthened, the problems get resolved as a part of the process and there is no need to reinforce them in the minds of people by bringing focus on them.

The main idea behind this is that we see things according to our frame of seeing them. In other words, we see what we are prepared to see. If we are attuned to problems, we find them everywhere, and we lose sight of the strengths, which leads to a powerless and frustrated state of being. By focusing on strengths, we operate from a state of empowerment and enable ourselves to bring about positive change.

Some benifits of using Appreciative Inquiry include:

• Less resistance to change: Change is often threatening to people, and the more attention is paid to threats, the more a person clings to equilibrium and resists change. On the other hand, when the person feels appreciated and secure and the change invites further empowerment, a person feels inclined to act to bring it about.


• Positive Reinforcement: AI acknowledges the efforts, achievements and strengths of participants and leads to a sense of well being. It acknowledges what has been done rather than dissatisfaction about what is missing. This is also closer to reality in terms of what exists, rather than what could exist.


• Unifies diverse forces: By accepting and appreciating diversity, AI encourages differences and polarities to co-exist in a group and collaborate toward the objective, without requiring them to conform.


• Reinforces Positive Thinking: By creating a frame of appreciating positive forces and leading the participants to experience its impact on them, it encourages participants to look at positive influences in things voluntarily.

As a result of this, Appreciative Inquiry is described more as a state of being rather than something done only as a structured intervention. By learning to look at the positives in anything, we develop a habit of working with them by default, which leads to a sense of all being well and moving toward even better that empowers and frees the potential inherent in each of us.