Have you noticed how you feel when someone criticises you, makes negative judgements and points out everything that is wrong? You might feel upset and deflated. It may sap your morale and energy and you might become defensive or resistant. This is our standard approach to performance management and organisational change. Appreciative inquiry is a different approach, pioneered by David Cooperrider. His starting point is that we already have a great bunch of people who are well trained, well motivated, doing their best and doing lots of things successfully. Ask, ‘What’s working well already?’ As you draw out the answers with questions and exploration, you find a wealth of knowledge, much of which is unconscious. When you take a genuine interest, people feel appreciated, open up, and engage. For example, suppose you wanted to find out how to better regulate a financial market. That knowledge is already there. It is just that people might not know they know it. So, ask, ‘What can be even better?’ Then, ‘What would the ideal look like?’ You generate a wealth of new ideas from the very people who know how to do it. When you ask the final question, ‘How can we make this happen?’ you already have a group who own the ideas and are motivated to implement them.

What is already great about Western Civilization which we should preserve and cherish?

What could be better?

What would the ideal look like?

What changes and innovations are already here and happening?

How can we make this happen?