Innovation and Collaboration Consulting
Innovation and Collaboration Consulting
"What we ask determines what we find. What we find determines how we talk. How we talk determines how we imagine together. How we imagine together determines what we achieve."
- David Cooperrider,
Founder of Appreciative Inquiry,
Professor, Weatherhead School of Management,
Case Western Reserve University
Appreciative Inquiry: Innovation through Collaboration
Our consulting projects are based on a collaborative, generative, and strengths-based approach to strategic change, called Appreciative Inquiry (Ai). This approach is grounded in a well-articulated theoretical framework and provides a powerful process for generating and co-creating what is desired.
Ai engagements are designed to accelerate shared understanding and catalyze the energy and commitment needed to engage challenges and focus on strategic objectives.
Appreciative Inquiry begins with an investigation into the purpose of the project and unfolds in five distinct phases.
- Definition - explore what success looks like; examine challenges, opportunities, assumptions; scope resources including leadership, steering committee, time allocations
- Discovery – launch project by identifying the “positive core” - the strengths, talents, values, innovations, resources, capital, learning, history, and more
- Dream - envision the preferred future and articulate a shared vision and commitments
- Design – engage in action planning focused on designing what will happen to achieve the desired future
- Destiny – experience the results; adapt and innovate; iterate the next inquiry cycle
The underlying principles of appreciative inquiry have strong roots in educational theory, philosophy, and psychology. The theoretical roots are paradoxical: on one-hand having a no-nonsense, "I already know that" quality; on the other hand, inclusive of complex theories on language and learning that are at the forefront of human and organizational development understanding.
In a nutshell the principles are:
Constructionist Principle: our words create worlds. We are constantly constructing realities in language together based on our previous experiences.
Simultaneity Principle: inquiry is intervention, or the questions we ask are simultaneously opening frames that we attend to at the exclusion of other ways of paying attention.
Poetic Principle: the story of any system is always being being co-authored and open to infinite interpretations. The question becomes what do we attend to and what inspires us to higher ground?
Anticipatory Principle: positive image = positive action. As any sports champion can attest, the images we hold of the future are powerful predictors of what we create.
Positive Principle: a well-grounded, positive focus creates expansive thinking, enhanced relating and heightened energy for change.
Learn more about how appreciative inquiry can energize and elevate your team or organization to new heights in areas of strategic focus.
Contact us to schedule a free, 45-minute call to learn how we can help you or your organization.