GENERIC PROCESSES

Extract from "Appreciative Inquiry in the Praxis of Reconciliation" by William A. Nordenbrock, C.PP.S.
 (Pages 20-23)

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The Appreciative Inquiry Process

Watkins and Mohr write that within the practice of AI, there are five generic processes for applying the underlying theory to a framework for organizational change. They are:

• Choose the positive as the focus of inquiry;
• Inquire into stories of life-giving forces;
• Locate themes that appear in the stories and select topics for further inquiry;
• Create shared images for a preferred future; and
• Find innovative ways to create that future.35

These processes are called generic as a way of emphasizing their flexibility and the need to adapt them to specific situations or contexts. Part of the attractiveness of AI theory is that it supports and recognizes the uniqueness of each context and organization and practitioners are encouraged in facilitating change within an organization by adapting the practices used elsewhere. As opposed to one defined AI model, through the application of the principles and generic process in concrete situations, AI practitioners have developed several models which bring the generic processes to life. Through the collaboration of AI practitioners and a sharing of their work results, there has been and continues to be a progressive development in the practice of AI.

The original process model was developed in 1987 by the originators of AI theory, David Cooperrider (then a doctoral student) and Suresh Srivastva (his academic advisor). While their theoretical work began with a concern for how to approach the building of generative theory, it moved quickly into a process for intervening with groups. That original model was expressed as a contrast to the model of change management in the old paradigm. That original model was later adapted to create what has become the widely used model of AI practice, the Four-D Cycle (see Figure 1.1). While it is widely used, Cooperrider is clear that AI is more than the 4-D Cycle. “The cycle is simply a tool that allows the practitioner to access and mobilize the positive core. The positive core lies at the heart of the AI process. In this respect, the positive core is the beginning and the end of the inquiry.”36 A description of steps in the 4-D model will follow, but first we look to the important task of defining the topic of the inquiry process.

Choose the Positive as the Focus of the Inquiry

“To understand AI at a fundamental level, one needs to understand these two points. First, organizations move in the direction of what they study. Secondly, AI makes a conscious choice to study the best of the organization, it’s positive core.”37

Because an organization will move towards that which it studies, the choice of the topic is a critical first step. Watkins and Mohr writes that the AI process begins when the organization consciously chooses to focus on the positive. Because an organization is likely to act out of the old paradigm and to unconsciously choose to focus on the negative issue or problems that they are facing, it is the work of the AI practitioner to help the organization to identify a positive focus and to make that topic choice.38

“Selecting the affirmative topic choice begins with the constructive discovery and narration of the organizations ‘life-giving’ story.”39 While there is great room for variability, a typical AI process would be limited to three to five topic choices. While those topics can be pre-selected by the practitioner in cooperation with the leaders of the organization, there is a strong bias that the topics be “homegrown” through a mini-AI process with a representative sub-group (topic selection team) of the organization. That process would be to discover what factors have given life to the organization when it was functioning at its best in the past and to begin to dream and design a vision for the future.

That process with the topic selection team would be built around the following foundational AI questions:

• Describe a high-point experience in your organization, a time when you were most alive and engaged.
• Without being modest, what is it that you value most about yourself, your work, and your organization?
• What are the core factors that give life to your organization, without which the organization would cease to exist?
• What three wishes do you have now to enhance the health and vitality of your organization?

Ideally the topic selection process would be a one-to-two day process. The goal is to work with the topic selection team, which will later becomes the steering team for the overall AI process, to foster dialogue and mutual deliberation. Using a mutual interview process that utilizes the questions listed above, data is collected and then in small groups the team works to identify common themes and to formulate the positive topics for the AI process. While topics can be anything related to the goals and aspirations of the organization, they must meet the following criteria:

• Topics are affirmative and stated in the positive;
• Topics are desirable. They identify the objectives that people want;
• The group is genuinely curious about them and wants to learn more;
• The topics move in the direction that the group wants to go.41 

35 Watkins and Mohr, Appreciative Inquiry, 25.

36 Cooperrider, Whitley and Stavros, AI Handbook, 30. 37 Ibid., 29.

38 Watkins and Mohr, Appreciative Inquiry, 54.

39 Cooperrider, Whitley and Stavros, AI Handbook, 32.

40 Ibid., 32.

41 Ibid., 37.