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59 of 60 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Guide to AI, February 22, 2005
This review is from: The Power of Appreciative Inquiry: A Practical Guide to Positive Change (Paperback)
Appreciative Inquiry (AI) belongs in the same family of techniques as Future Search and related approaches to large scale intervention designed to support or bring about positive change. To over-simplify what distinguishes it from other techniques, its focus is very strongly on identifying and building on what is already being done well and on unrealized strengths, rather than on fixing what is not going well. This does not imply avoiding recognition of what is wrong; rather the focus is on finding a way in to the necessary process of change that identifies and encourages a focus on the positive. It also operates from a carefully articulated set of principles, which amount to a philosophy of the dynamics of organizational change.
The authors have been deeply involved in the development of the technique and have provided a clear and comprehensive guide to its principles, the techniques used and their applications. The book as a whole is somewhat evangelistic, but not outrageously so.
The book is organized around the cycle of development and change and eight principles. The cycle is broadly the same as that used by other techniques in the family, but is here called 'the 4-D cycle', the 4 Ds being; Discovery - appreciate what is; Dream - imagine what might be; Design - determine what should be; Destiny - create what will be.
The 'eight principles', taken as a whole, are more distinctive. They are:
1. The Constructionist Principle. Words create worlds and reality is a socially created construct, created through language and conversations
2. The Simultaneity Principle. Inquiry creates change - the moment we ask a question, we begin to create change
3. The Poetic Principle. What we choose to study makes a difference. It describes and even creates the world as we know it.
4. The Anticipatory Principle. Human systems move in the direction of their images of the future and the more positive the image, the more positive the present-day action.
5. The Positive Principle. Momentum for large-scale change requires large amounts of positive affect and social bonding. This momentum is best generated through positive questions that amplify the positive core.
6. The Wholeness Principle. Bringing all stakeholders together in large group forums stimulates creativity and builds collective capacity.
7. The Enactment Principle. To really make a change, we must 'be the change we wish to see'.
8. The Free Choice Principle. People perform better and are more committed when they have freedom to choose how and what they contribute.
None of these principles are unique to AI, but when taken together as explicit principles they form a powerful guide to development and management of the change process.
Most of the book is taken up with describing the cycle through the 4 Ds, liberally illustrated with examples. These steps will be broadly familiar to anyone who is experienced with future search or other change processes, but some of the details and 'flavour' are interesting. For those who are not familiar with these techniques, AI is growing in popularity as a technique, is well supported through associated web-sites and so on and is therefore a good place to start. This book, in turn, provides excellent step-by-step guidance through the technique.
Whitney is also a co-author of Ludema et al. The Appreciative Inquiry Summit. The two books are both good and are complementary, offering a usefully different emphasis to each other.
There is an associated website, the Appreciative Inquiry Commons, that provides a forum for exchange of ideas and experience with AI.
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26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
User Friendly Handbook for AI Interventions, April 22, 2003
This review is from: The Power of Appreciative Inquiry: A Practical Guide to Positive Change (Paperback)
As a practitioner and passionate "convert" to AI from more traditional action research and deficit approach/gap analysis models, I wish I'd had this book 5 years ago when first exposed to AI. It is an outstanding "how to." The descriptions of various designs and activities were pleasant affirmation that the interventions I had designed were "right on." I found the authors' weaving in of actual cases and their candor about when things waned or executives pushed refreshing and reassuring. The model in chapter 2 of "change agenda, form of engagement, and inquiry strategy" is an excellent way of looking at an initiative from the beginning, parallel to Peter Block's "entry and contracting" phase in action research, but in AI language and philosophy. Whitney & Trosten-Bloom add 3 more underlying principles of AI to Cooperrider's original work:wholeness, enactment, and free choice. They are right on in my opinion. What was particularly helpful in this section was the "principle in practice" followed by an example. The tables of suggested steps/sequences for each section describing the 4D model in practice were particularly helpful guides, though the authors continually remind the reader of the improvisational nature of this philosophy and approach to positive change. The whole book was respectful of different learning styles and made meaning out of so much of the earlier, more academic publications about appreciative inquiry. Whitney and Trosten-Bloom have created a very "user friendly," accessible handbook, well organized and written in layman's language. I find it helpful for the current practitioner of AI wanting to learn through the lens of case study snippets, for the novice wanting to learn how it works and how to "do it" before investing the time for more rigorous academic readings, for the manager who wants to approach change in a positive framework, and the OD consultant seeking new, innovative ways to co-create effective, energized workplaces with their clients. Hats off to the authors for this most recent addition to the growing body of knowledge on AI!
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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An outstanding book with a priceless ROI!, June 14, 2003
This review is from: The Power of Appreciative Inquiry: A Practical Guide to Positive Change (Paperback)
First of all, we must note that this is a significant book among the many that have been written on Appreciative Inquiry. This book is brilliantly written with the practioner in mind and is easy to understand. I mentally refer to it as my `happy book' since I grin and feel good each time I pick it up to read. It deals with those pesky questions such as, `what do I do first?' and `how can I get a large organization enthusiastic about using AI?' These ladies also give us some other options than using the AI summit (there are 8 options in all), which can open more possibilities and let us use our own creativity to apply to AI. The book is organized into three sections: Chapters 1-4 explain what AI is and how it works, Chapters 5-10 explain ways to practice AI and the last Chapter 11 deals with why it works so well. Additionally, each chapter gives specific, practical advice on "how to" with charts and case studies. Perhaps the most valuable chapter is in the third section, which answers the questions "why does AI work so effectively? Perhaps you may do as I did and read this chapter first. This is a very powerful and valuable chapter. Although based on sound theory and research, the real value of this book comes from the experiences each author shares with us, which highlights ideas and concepts with specific examples from the field. Appreciative Inquiry can seem to be deceptively simple. Simple, it is not. We have only scratched 5% of the learnings from AI's beginnings and there is so much more to learn and experience. The importance of this particular book is that it can be so helpful for both the novice (the one who is trying to understand what AI is all about) and the experienced practioner (the OD professional who uses AI in her practice). It is both a good first book to read to try to understand the underpinnings of Appreciative Inquiry and a tool book for us more experienced folks. This is a good solid book to have on your shelf that you can refer to often to clarify understandings, theory, and applications of appreciative inquiry. It's a joy to read. I highly recommend it; the ROI is priceless! Helene C. Sugarman
Principle, Dynamic Communication
(Organization Development Consulting using AI) and
Chartered Co-owner of AIConsulting, LLP
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