The IEDEIA team likes to take a positive approach during strategic planning. Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a strengths-based approach to change and growth through cooperative capacity building by asking questions. Appreciative Inquiry operates on several assumptions:

• Something is working, leverage that
• What we focus on becomes our reality. Focusing on the positive.
• Acting questions influences the way people and groups think
• What we want already exists, but we have to make it a reality for us

AI doesn’t ignore the problem(s), but shifts from viewing things from a deficiency perspective which is the lens we’re using when we ask, “what are we doing wrong, what’s missing?” But in AI we look for what’s right in the situation and we look for opportunities that can be embraced. When applying AI principles and tools to support DEIA, we utilize AI principles, processes and tools, and utilize strengths-based strategy and relational processes for systems change!

Appreciative inquiry helps in:

• Building the core strengths of an organization.
• Shifting the focus from organizational weaknesses to organizational strengths.
• Letting individuals as well as the industry stick to its fundamental principles.
• Bringing a wholesome change that benefits every aspect of the firm.

AI aims to explain how human growth and organizational success flow in the direction of constructive change because of positive and persistent inquiry, and it works around five core principles:

• The Constructionist Principle
  The constructionist principle emphasizes the connection between social knowledge and organizational destiny (Cooperrider et al., 2008). It states that our beliefs shape our actions. We do what we feel is right, and this forms the organizational culture as a whole. For leaders to be change agents, they must be able to overcome conventional ways of thinking, and “unleash the imagination” of individuals and groups in order to conceive and construct the future.

• The Simultaneity Principle
  Recognizes that the way we question our internal and external systems help in bringing about the desired change. The process of questioning is part of the change process itself. It is important for the organizational leaders, and the change agents within the organization, to ask questions that set the stage for what is discovered.

• The Poetic Principle
  States that performance culture in an organization grows based on expressions and communication with everyone in the organization. Think of being poetic as being “open” with and talking to each other and openly sharing at work, without fear of repercussions. It’s the stories that we share at work, and the emotions within the stories that bring out ideas and possibly solutions.

• The Anticipatory Principle
  Proposes appreciative inquiry happens when we raise questions on things that have meaning to us now, or that will have some value for us in the future. It suggests that an organization’s image of the future is shaped because their leaders share a common discourse or imagination of who they are, how they function, and what they will become.

• The Positive Principle
  Suggests that organizations respond best to positive thought and knowledge and are therefore affirmative systems (Cooperrider et al., 2008). Appreciative inquiry evokes positive emotions like hope, inquisitiveness, and motivation, all of which collectively contribute to changing the work environment for the better. The momentum for lasting and effective change comes from positive affect through affirmative guiding questions that promote group building.

As you can see, guiding questions are the foundation of the Appreciative Inquiry principles.

Although not an official step within the AI process, before you begin it’s important to “Define”. The DEFINE stage reframes the identified organizational issue(s) as opportunities that can be addressed.

Instead of saying: “We will identify the inequities that exist within the organization, and what has caused barriers to entry for some communities of people.”

Say this: “We will uncover opportunities to enhance equity within our community programs and ensure access to all communities of people.”

Appreciative Inquiry works on the principle of collective and participatory decision-making and needs preparation and adaptability. Below are steps that many take to incorporate Appreciative Inquiry into the DEIA strategic development process.

• It’s important to first view diversity as a positive and inclusive perspective. As an organization, if you recognize the unique qualities of each individual, each culture and everyone’s experiences as a positive position and a basic tenant of human decency, this shift will not be hard. If your organizational leaders’ perspectives do not align with a positive psychological frame, it will be difficult for other organizational leaders to view your DEIA efforts from an appreciative perspective.
• The process of creating a clear vision of success and the willingness to work towards that vision embraces the tenets of Appreciative Inquiry and its evolution to Appreciative Leadership. which invites all relevant voices of diverse communities of people and groups to engage in conversations about equitable policies, practices and guidelines, acts of inclusion, and cultures of belonging. (Whitney, Trosten-Bloom, Rader, 2010)

The Appreciative Inquiry framework helps you to look at the personal and organizational levels of diversity awareness and enhances the ability to envision and create inclusive organizations:

Phase I: DISCOVERY – Best of “What is”

The best of “what is” is grounded in observation. In this phase you can/will uncover and acknowledge an appreciation of something that someone said or did. The ideal of “what might be” addresses the vision. Active listening is practiced through exercises such as „pairing‟ where one person speaks and the other listens. This process is neither a dialogue nor a conversation. The group develops working agreements by which all members can agree to abide and to be accountable. As the workshop goes forward, participants are open to greater vision.

In the discovery phase, you ask questions with a positive frame that uncovers:

• Strengths
• Opportunities
• Challenges with a solution of inclusion and equity in mind
• How to facilitate positive frame conversations

You’ll also want to understand:

• Emotional opportunities
• Physical opportunities
• Societal opportunities

Phase II: DREAM - Ideas of “What might be”

This stage provides an opportunity to explore who your organization wants to be when DEIA and a culture of belonging are thriving and sustaining within the organization. The ideal of “what might be” addresses the vision. Active listening is practiced through exercises such as „pairing‟ where one person speaks and the other listens. This process is neither a dialogue nor a conversation. The group develops working agreements by which all members can agree to abide and to be accountable. As the workshop goes forward, participants are open to greater vision.

The questions you ask in the dream stage will help create consensus around your aspirational vision:

• What might we look like to our internal stakeholders?
• How do we want them to feel?
• How do we want them to act toward others?
• What might we do in the community?
• How will they feel as though their voices are heard?

Phase III: DESIGN

In the design phase we highlight the “best of what is” and leverage the organizational resources, competencies and capabilities. In the dream phase you compare that with the “best of what could be” by creating and continually communicating the larger vision.

‍

Phase IV: DESTINY

The final phase in the AI process is known as the destiny, deploy, or delivery phase. During this stage, the organization is intentionally working toward the desired future state that was envisioned during the dream and design phases. The destiny or delivery phase of an appreciative strategic planning process builds on the momentum created earlier in the process by clarifying ideals and goals.

‍

Asking questions from a positive lens can build the strengths of individuals, teams, and organizations rather than highlighting the reasons why things aren’t working or can’t be done. The questions asked during AI can be used when running team meetings, as a facilitator in a group setting, with your leadership team, when analyzing the next steps in a process, or any other situation when you’re wanting to uncover, analyze and explore. This helps participants hone in on answers and solutions rather than problems, challenges, and issues which also motives all to buy into visions, missions, and values, committing to long-term goals.

Below are questions we’ve researched and utilized for various stages in the AI process:

Define/purpose questions:

• Why does our work on this particular project really matter to us?
• What is it that we’re doing here and now that makes us really proud?

Discovery questions:

• What good ideas has come out of the DEIA work we’re doing?

• What effect has it had on the culture within the organization?

• What effect has it had on advancing equity?

• How could we utilize the strength of the team as we work thru the DEIA journey?

• How have we measured our successes?

• How are we collaborating with all departments effectively?
  
• How have we leveraged DEIA champions and change agents?

Dream questions:

• How are we interacting with one another that creates a feeling of belonging?

• What can you tell us about how our brand is perceived within the community that lets people know we’re an inclusive organization?

• What makes us best in culture building?

• How are we demonstrating equity within the organization?
• How would we celebrate that success?
• What strengths can you personally use to make this success become a reality?
• How should this team be structured to make that happen?
• In what direction should we be going to ensure we get successful outcomes?

Design questions:

• Where do we need to start to make positive progress?

• What actions did we take previously that contributed to the success of the previous projects?

• What did we specifically learn that could also be applied in the future?

• What specific steps could we take to start the next project?

• How will we ensure the foundation is laid for future success?

• What measurements will we put in place that will ensure success?

• How will we keep the momentum going when working on our DEIA journey?

• What will motivate others to get the results the organization wants to achieve?

Destiny questions:

• What do you wish your end goal to look like?

• What do you hope to achieve if there were no obstacles?

• What mindset do you require to make it work?

• Which of your strengths are you going to deploy to make this work?

• What new ideas can you put into practice to make this project work?

• What do you think success in the project will mean for the team? The department? The organization?
• What changes do you see occurring as you achieve success with this project?

Questions developed from Champlain College

Champlain College’s AI institute has created a document of sample questions for the AI Model in general—most of these, however, are focused on the Discovery phase of the 4D cycle. These sample Appreciative Inquiry Interview Questions for Discover, Dream, Design, Destiny, and then ‘Apply’, are adapted for a team project scenario.

Review & Reflect Questions

These questions will help in reviewing and reflecting on past and present instances and describing them in more detail.

• What was good about that team project?
• What about that experience was most valuable to you?
• How did it positively affect you?
  • How about your teammates?
  • And what about your clients?
• What was particularly positive/memorable during that project?
  • What sticks in your mind?
• What were the best things about the way you worked together?
  • And how you worked with your clients?
  • How about with other departments?
• What did that feel like for you?
• How could you tell it was working so well?
• How did your teammates have an impact on your actions?

Strengths & Opportunities Questions

Here are questions that shift to the strengths that made them possible and opportunities to leverage or develop those for positive change.

• How did your capabilities and strengths play a role in the project’s success?
• How did collaboration and cooperation influence your outcomes?
• What was the team focused on?
• What was it about your team members that you noticed?
  • What feelings or emotions did you notice in them?
• How do you think they felt?

Integration Questions

These questions are focused on finding themes between the enablers of that positive experience.

• What precise strengths were you and your teammates leveraging during that project?
  • What are some other occasions that you’ve used those particular strengths?
• How might you use them in the future for other positive outcomes?

Examining Beliefs and Values Questions

A set of example items that question underpinning values and beliefs for a deeper understanding of the individuals, the team, and our own social construction of meaning (Coghlan et al., 2003).

1. How did you manage your feelings/emotions and those of your colleagues?
   1. How did you manage your clients’ emotions?
2. What images did you envision that helped you achieve those outcomes?
   1. How do you feel those contributed to your success as a group?

Applying It Elsewhere Questions

Here, example questions that build on what we know about the positive core, and how we can leverage that knowledge (of strengths) to grow and flourish.

• How might these precise strengths help your team succeed again in the future?
• What particular strengths can you focus on more as a group, for similar positive results?
• Which of these images might be useful in continuing your group’s success?

You can review the document in its entirety HERE.

‍

Appreciative inquiry tools and exercises come into the picture at the third and fourth stages of the 4-D cycle. Broadly, AI tools are a set of rules or practical hacks that we can use individually or as a team to aim for a positive change at an organizational level. AI tools are strategic planning and practice tools that create a pathway for moving your organization forward, with a positive frame, thru an initiative, project or program development. Appreciative inquiry tools also help in:

• Bringing together individuals who share similar traits and behavioral patterns within an organization.
• Providing quantitative analysis and feedback that fosters organizational growth.
• Inspiring people to initiate the development process.
• Facilitating each other with skills, knowledge transfer, and training to maximize productivity as a whole.

Below are great links to external toolkits that we have found to be very helpful in developing your DEIA journey:

Expandable: PC3: Appreciative Inquiry Coaching Toolkit

This PC3 coaching toolkit is based on the 4 D’s of appreciative inquiry – discovery, dream, design, and deliver. It follows a step-by-step approach and discusses practical strategies of AI that work best in each of the four stages of the 4-D cycle.

Expandable: Knowledge Sharing: Toolkit

The KS toolkit for AI is successfully applied in personal and professional uses. The KS toolkit overviews the basics of how and when to use AI.

Expandable: Chaplain Education: The Do It Now Appreciative Inquiry Toolkit

The Do It Now Appreciation Toolkit is a collection of appreciative inquiry exercises used in an AI workshop in Nepal, 2000. The tasks are varied and explained in details in the downloadable resource in the toolkit. The Do It Now Toolkit is a highly recommended set of exercises that individuals at any stage can use to build their skills thoroughly.

Below are a few AI activities that you can work as is, or you can customize for various people and settings. Some of the AI tools and exercises may vary depending on context and the target population.

The problem to opportunity exercise

This exercise will help you work thru appreciative inquiry principles by challenging an existing problem area(s) and replacing them with potential opportunities. This begins by reframing from a place of LACK (deficit) to a place of opportunities (positive psychology).

You can learn more about this exercise here.

Individual self-discovery

This activity involves giving paper and pen to each participant and asking them to recall and sketch one of the happiest moments of their lives. As they share their “happy” moment, each person will describe a brief narrative of the story they have sketched. The IEDEIA team likes to use “The story of my life”. On a black sheet of paper that they fold in half, they put the following information:

• Front cover gives a name of a movie, book or song that would describe the story of their life.
• Inside left tells the happiest moment they can remember.
• Inside right tells what’s most important to them.
• Back cover shows how they plan to spend their retirement.

The task benefits the respondents and the audience in three main ways:

• They relive a happy moment of the past and experience the positive emotions related to it.
• They can reflect on their inner feelings and emotions while they narrate the stories.
• Also, by listening to others asking, individuals gain insight into what an AI session looks like and how they can make the most of it with their narratives and questions.

Group discovery

This is an interactive AI exercise used in many organizational setups to promote employee engagement and team spirit. The activity is to form groups and discuss the achievements of each member of the team.

The administrator encourages each team to represent their achievements pictorially and share WHAT made them proud about these moments, and WHY.

Appreciative acknowledgement

A positivity booster, this short exercise fills the respondents with energy and appreciation about each other. One or more persons are randomly chosen to come up and share one good thing that they like about each person present in the room.

Appreciative acknowledgment can be one long session allowing all participants to get their chance or it can be a daily component in an AI workshop where respondents take turns to appreciate each other every day for a few minutes in between sessions.

The aim is to build a mutually benefiting relationship among participants so that they can see and bring out the best in each other.

Morning news exercise

The morning news exercise involves collecting useful bits of information from the daily news and reading it as is, then reframing the information and presenting information that highlights what’s working well, as well as any opportunities that exist.

Dream exercise

As the name indicates, this is an imagery-based exercise where the participants close their eyes for a couple of moments and imagine themselves returning home after an extended stay outside.

The administrator guides the respondents to think about everything they would have wanted to achieve by then and try to feel the emotion of returning home after so long. After the session is over, participants take turns to come up and share in detail what they imagined, how they saw themselves, and what changes they desired to see in their lives after so long.

Appreciative communication exercises

Susan Gaddis, a certified life coach and wellness guide, coined a manual for positive communications systems and appreciative inquiry. Her works focus on building awareness on the benefits of clear communication and appreciative introspection.

In the ‘Good Communications’ manual, she has put forth some simple, scientific, and objective AI measures that are easy to understand and provide a quick analysis of how appreciative we are towards ourselves and others.

Learn more about her exercises here.

‍