What “gives Life” to your Organization? Appreciative Inquiry and the Quest for the “Positive Core”

At the January MAPP onsite, one of our guest speakers was David Cooperrider. He has (co-)developed Appreciative Inquiry (AI), a method of organizational development that is rooted in Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS). It´s a bit hard to explain it in a few words; therefore, I´ll let other people do the talking. The first video below is a short interview with David Cooperrider on the foundations and underlying assumption of AI. The second one is a bit longer and explains the whole AI process in a very graspable way.

Let me just say this much: the word “appreciate” is typically understood in the sense of “highly valued” – but can also mean “increasing something in value”. Therefore, things we appreciate grow in their value precisely because of our appreciation. To make use of a little oversimplification:

Whatever we put most energy into – grows. So if we focus a lot of energy on problems and problem-fixing – there´s a good chance there will be more problems. But if we instead put emphasis on strengths and what is already good – those aspects tend to grow. That´s exactly what AI tries to do – by asking the right questions (that´s where the “inquiry” in AI comes from). Enjoy!

What is AI?