Cooperrider, David L. and Whitney, Diana, Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Revolution in Change, 2005.

This short guide provides an introduction to the author’s brand of change management. Appreciative Inquiry, or “A-I,” is a technique that works by asking questions intended to strengthen a system’s capacity to heighten positive potential.

In an AI process, a series of questions is used to define the group’s “positive core.” That’s the term that AI practitioners use to describe “the essential nature of the organization at its best,” a collective view of the organization’s strengths, capabilities, resources, potentials and assets.”

The approach begins with the identification of the affirmative topics to be studied. Since we tend to move in the direction of what we study, the choice of where to focus organizational attention on is both essential and strategic. The topics provide a framework for collecting stories, discovering and sharing best practices, and creating a fully conscious work environment.

Once selected, the topics -- like "inspired leadership," "optimal margins," or "culture as competitive advantage" -- are used to launch a 4-step process known in AI as the “4-D Cycle”:

• Discovery: This phase is a search to understand the best of “what is" and "what has been." It begins with the creation of appreciative employee interview questions intended “to generate stories, to enrich the images and inner dialogue within the organization, and to bring the positive core more fully into focus.” Much change may actually occur in this preliminary stage, including:

  The formation of new relationships that bridge traditional barriers. A mapping of the organization’s positive core, and Organization-wide sharing and learning from stories of best practices and innovations.

  
  
• Dream: Once questions have been used to elicit an understanding of what exists now, it is time to explore "what might be." Groups of people from across the organization engage in “thinking big, thinking out of the box, and thinking out of the boundaries of what has been in the past.” The result may be innovative strategic visions and an elevated sense of purpose.
  
  
• Design. In this phase, choices are made about "what should be." Systems, structures, strategies, processes and images are adjusted and better aligned with the organization’s highest potential.
  
  
• Destiny. This final phase focuses specifically on personal and organizational commitments and paths forward. The result may be an extensive array of changes throughout the organization in areas such as:

  Management practices, HR processes, Measurement systems, Customer service systems, and Work processes and structures.

  
  Although the book could be frustrating to readers who want more background, it is a good choice for readers who want to quickly learn how to use Appreciative Inquiry as a means to foster change by focusing on organizational.