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Appreciative Inquiry:
The early years
Appreciative
Inquiry was initiated in 1980 at the Cleveland Clinic by
David Cooperrider, a graduate of the Masters program at
Benedictine University in Lisle, while he was working on
his doctorate at Case Western.
As a young 24 year old doctoral student, David
Cooperrider was involved in a conventional diagnosis and
organizational analysis of "what's wrong with the human
side of the Organization?" In gathering his data, he
became amazed by the level of positive cooperation and
innovation he saw in the organization.
David
obtained permission from the Clinic's Chairman to focus
entirely on a life-centric analysis of the factors
contributing to the highly effective functioning of the
Clinic when it was at its best. Everything else was
ignored. As the team asked the clinic's employee’s
questions focused on the positive aspects of their work,
a wave of energy and innovation was unleashed.
The team had unwittingly tapped
into the organization's positive core.
The subsequent report created such a powerful and
positive stir, that the Board called for ways to use
this method with the whole group practice
Then in 1984 Cooperrider made the first public
presentation of his still evolving ideas about AI
(Appreciative Inquiry) to the Academy of
Management where his ideas were met with great challenge
that AI is Pollyannaish, debate because there are such
"things" as problems, and even laughter to even consider
organizations as "miracles" of human interaction,
dialogue, and infinite imagination.
However, in 1988 - Frank Barrett and David Cooperrider
team up to work with a Hotel management team locked in
seemingly unending conflict. Breakthroughs occurred. A
paper they wrote on the use of AI (Appreciative
Inquiry) won the "Best Paper of the Year"
Award in 1988 at the same National Academy of
Management.
David then goes on to be elected president of the
organization development division of the National
Academy of Management.
In 1992 Imagine Chicago is created. This is a major
community development effort based heavily on AI
(Appreciative Inquiry) principles and
practice.
In 1997 GTE received an award for "Best Organization
Change Program" in the country for the work done through
Appreciative Inquiry.
In 1999 David Cooperrider was asked to facilitate and to
bring Appreciative Inquiry into a program for religious
leaders across the world's great religions.
Appreciative Inquiry suggests a growing disenchantment
with exhausted theories of change, especially those
wedded to vocabularies of human deficit, and a
corresponding urge to work with people, groups, and
organizations in a more constructive, life affirming,
strength-based and spirited way.
Find out how this applies to you
and your organization.....
If you are interested in developing a High-Performance
organization or would simply like to schedule an initial
conversation of "discovery" by phone or
in-person...click here. |
