Customer Reviews

The Appreciative Inquiry Summit: A Practitioner's Guide for Leading Large-Group Change

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Appreciative Inquiry is an increasingly popular technique within the wider family of interventions designed to bring about change through cooperation across a whole system, working with a large group of people. Its distinguishing feature is the emphasis on the positive - what is good about the present and offers potential for the future, what aspirations there are for the future, how do we design such a future and what are the concrete steps to start bringing it about.

This book goes into great detail on the rationale for the approach and the step by step activities required to move through the process. It is a well set-out and thorough guide for practitioners.

For a guide to the range of techniques available and a comparison between them, refer to Napuk and Palmer: The Large Group Facilitator's Manual or Bunker and Alban: Large Group Interventions.

This book is a very practical step-by-step guide to conducting an AI summit. What I especially appreciated was how the book combines the great experiences and expertise of the authors and will be useful for the AI novice practitioner as well as for the very experienced AI OD consultant. It provides great examples of summit materials. It is a well written book that can be read and reread and used as the Summit bible for years to come.

I found this book to be compelling. The authors offer the "Evolution of Thought on Managing Change" in the first chapter that suggests that today "Everyone innovates for extraordinary performance." Those companies/organizations and leaders that choose to accept this to be fact, should familiarize themselves with Appreciative Inquiry. And, for those looking for the "how-to" book to accomplish AI within their organizations on a grand scale, this is the textbook that fills that need.

This is an inspiring work at the confluence of idealism and practicality. It is a reference source relevant to the experienced practitioner and a great learning resource for one who wants to learn more about appreciative inquiry. Interweaving compelling stories, the authors provide an informative set of tools and guides. I was able to use information in the sample participant guide the same day the book arrived.

This is an excellent book describing the theory and research about the foundation of Appreciative Inquiry and also a practical guide to facilitating groups in using it. It provides an outline and details on each meeting with steps and stories to illustrate the concepts. I have used it in working with non profit groups and people become very excited about the process.

I ordered this book on Jan 11, 2011. It is Feb 14, 2011 and I still have NOT received this item. Will I ever order again from this sight ? Probably not.