Appreciative Inquiry: Change at the Speed of Imagination (Paperback)

by Jane Magruder Watkins (Author), Bernard J. Mohr (Author) "AS WE ENTER THE 21st CENTURY, there has been a fundamental shift in how we see and experience the world..." (more)
Key Phrases: customized interview protocol, five generic processes, sociotechnical architecture, David Cooperrider, Avon Mexico, Star Island (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"This is a book about the future of organization development. It is a practical guide to Appreciative Inquiry for organization leaders and organization development professionals and it is a comprehensive explanation at the speed of imagination." --Peter Sorenson, professor and director of the Ph.D. program in organization development and master of science program in management and organization behavior, Benedictine University

"This book is a gift to organization development practitioners. It takes us forward both professionally and personally. It challenges us to shift our perspectives, and deepens our understanding of organizations as organic systems. The book provides practical guidance--and encouragement--to creating sustainable change in large complex systems. Jane Watkins and Bernard Mohr are generous in sharing their wisdom and experience. In doing so they place on us tremendous responsibility for the fate of change efforts through our choice of approach to inquiry."--Cynthia Haddock, senior change advisor, The World Bank Group

Product Description
Appreciative Inquiry--a book in The Practicing Organization Development Series--is for leaders and organizational consultants who are ready to abandon the familiar tyranny of complex change programs. Recognizing that human systems are constructions of the human imagination and therefore capable of change at the speed of imagination, the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) process frees organizations from the restrictive orthodoxy of "deficit based change" and allows them the freedom to mobilize strategic change and focus on the visible and tacit strengths of an organization. AI is capable of engaging whole systems at amazing scales--easily engaging hundreds or sometimes thousands of people, often in a matter of weeks or days, to leverage the positive core of the organization.

Tap into the rich and inspiring "high point" accounts of personal or collective capacity and link this "positive core" to any change agenda. Once you have have determined what is really working, transformations never thought possible are rapidly and democratically mobilized.

"This is a book about the future of organization development. It is a practical guide to appreciative inquiry for organization leaders and organization development professionals and it is a comprehensive explanation at the speed of imagination." --Peter Sorensen, professor and director of the Ph.D. program in organization development and master of science program in management and organization behavior, Benedictine University

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Pfeiffer; 1 edition (February 7, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 078795179X
• ISBN-13: 978-0787951795
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #296,892 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Appreciative Inquiry an Orientation Toward Life and Work, October 9, 2001

By	Jacqueline Sherman (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

Appreciative Inquiry is a way of seeing and being in the world. ... Appreciative Inquiry applied, whether as a planning process or an evaluative process, becomes empowering and life-affirming in any human system. (page 191) The key to sustaining the momentum is to build an "appreciative eye" into all the organization's systems, procedures, and ways of working. (page 152) AI is not simply a tool ... it is a total way of being/working.

As an organization consultant I am interested in three things when learning about and considering adopting an approach or methodology: what are it's theoretical basis, fundamental assumptions and beliefs, basic process, and application to different types of organizational situations. Watkins and Mohr have written a book that offers all three. The opening two chapters ground Appreciative Inquiry in the history of the OD theory and method and clearly explain the core principles and generic processes of AI. The subsequent chapters each focus on one of the five generic processes plus evaluation. Each chapter explains one process in detail, illustrating it with two case examples. The combination of grounded theory and practice facilitates understanding, imagining, and applying. The examples are drawn from different consultants, types of organizations, and focuses of interventions, all of which support a rich understanding of the potential of this approach.

My one wish is that chapter 8, "Finding Innovative Ways to Create the Preferred Future" be expanded. I wanted to read more about an appreciative approach to the Destiny Phase, the most complex part of any change process.

Watkins and Mohr are generous with their knowledge and experience, offering the experienced practitioner enough to begin working from an AI perspective.

This book plus the more academic, Appreciative Inquiry: Rethinking Human Organization Toward a Positive Theory of Change, edited by David L. Cooperrider, Jr. Sorensen Peter F., Diana Whitney, and Therese F.Yaeger, are an excellent package for understanding Appreciative Inquiry: how it developed, its current practice, and directions for future development.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical guide to new change management approach, May 7, 2001

By	Coert Visser "solutionfocusedchange.com" (Driebergen Netherlands) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a fundamentally different approach to problem solving and change management which is gaining worldwide popularity rapidly. While the traditional approach focuses on analysing problems and then fixing what is wrong, AI does just the opposite: it searches for and amplyfies solutions that already exist (in this it is highly comparable to solution focused brief therapy). Quite a lot of good books have been written on AI. The thing I like most about this book by Watkins and Mohr is how practical it is. The authors generously packed it with very useble examples and tools. This makes it very recommendable for AI practitioners.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Practictioner's Guide, April 16, 2001

By A Customer

From my experience in the field, I believe this to be the first comprehensive guide to the application of appreciative inquiry. If you are interested in approaching change in your organization or community, leaving the old deficit-based models behind, then this book will be very useful to you. It contains case studies and practical instructions along with a history of the development of the approach and its underlying theories. It's only drawback is that I wish it was a little more descriptive in some of its application guidance, but this keeps it more focused.