What is an Appreciative Inquiry

Appreciative Inquiry…“ . . . it is through language that we create the world, because it’s nothing until we describe it. And when we describe it, we create distinctions that govern our actions. To put it another way, we do not describe the world we see, but we see the world we describe.” J.Jaworski

As it has evolved, there are a number of ways in which to conduct an appreciative inquiry. The processes all tend to follow a common path of five phases:

Define (the task and key questions, training for the core group)
Discovery (conducting appreciative interviews and identifying the themes and values)
Dream (developing a rich picture of the future)
Design (integrating wishes for the future with plans for needed changes to structure, systems and processes)
Destiny (making it happen and making it sustainable over time)
Appreciative Inquiry is a new way of approaching, team-building, visioning and solution development.

The set of assumptions that Appreciative Inquiry works from:

1. In every society, organisation or group, something works well.
2. What we focus on, becomes our reality.
3. Reality is created in the moment, and there are multiple realities.
4. The act of asking questions of a person, or group influences the group/person in some way.
5. People have more confidence to journey to the future (the unknown) when they carry forward parts of the past (the known).
6. If we carry forward parts of the past, they should be what is best about our past.
7. It is important to value differences.
8. The language we use creates our reality and experience.

While these may seem obvious, we know from our own experience that we can look at what is not working and start problem solving. This can pull us backwards/downwards rather than forwards. If we focus on difficulties in the past, people often become self-defensive and feel that life is hopeless. However, when we ask you about your successes, you often become enthusiastic and start to hope again and explore possibility. Topping up your ‘reservoir of hope’.

“Things do not change; we change” – Henry David Thoreau

“The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority” – Kenneth Blanchard

Why Choose Appreciative Inquiry With MITA?

As you’ve just read Appreciative Inquiry focuses upon the language that you use, encourages you to take positive feedback and inspires you to explore new possibilities. MITA adds the extra dimension of NLP and Conversational Decoding allowing our team, of highly skilled coaches, to enhance the entire process by tracking your below conscious communication. A person is constantly communicating and is often un-aware of the true meaning of the signals that they are sending out. We at MITA are able to feed this back to you and lend a touch of je ne sais quoi…

If you or your organisation have communication, team, building, cultural or leadership challenges then you need the power of Appreciative Inquiry contact us now.