Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a change discipline...

that sets the stage positively, so that instead of acting out of fear or someone else's agenda, we can remember and build upon what has been most powerful and successful within our individual or collective experience.  AI offers a set of tools and practices that can be used with individuals, groups or entire organizations and communities that desire to make a positive contribution.

At the heart of Appreciative Inquiry is the understanding that positive change is informed by the best of the past, grounded in what is most alive in the present, and inspired by common dreams of the future.  Looking deeply and deliberately into the root causes of success, rigorously searching for factors that bring life to an organization or community, Appreciative Inquiry (AI) generates a powerful collective image of the future built upon our most successful experiences of past and present.  This new image acts as a magnet, collectively pulling us toward a future where our organizations can deliver what the world is calling for.

One of the most appealing aspects of this transformational method is that it can involve large numbers of people.  Rooted in the work of David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva at Case Western University, AI has been used around the world to catalyze positive change.  

Appreciative Inquiry is different from "problem solving" techniques that focus energy on what we want to eliminate or fix.  AI uses a different set of assumptions.

We create more effective organizations by focusing on what we want more of, not what we want less of.

Whatever we want more of already exists, even if only in small quantities.

It's easier to create change by amplifying the positive qualities of a group or organization than by trying to fix the negative qualities.

Through the act of inquiry we create the very social realities we are trying to understand.

Inquiring together into the best examples of what we want more of creates it's own momentum toward creating more positive organizations

Christine Whitney Sanchez often utilizes a combination of Appreciative Inquiry, World Cafe, Open Space Technology and Chaordic Concept to help clients achieve their change goals.  Beginning a systemic change process with Appreciative Inquiry, invites members of an organization or community to discover the strengths that will be preserved, polished and utilized in the future. Then World Cafe provides an opportunity for stakeholders to collectively dream their future.  Open Space Technology and Chaordic Concept takes those dreams to design a system that will bring them alive, with enough coherence and order to respond to the inevitable chaos, making it flexible and responsive to the rapidly changing world. Finally, plans are implemented based on shared commitment for the collective future.

Christine Whitney Sanchez teaches Appreciative Inquiry by itself or in combination with other Methods for Strategic Collaboration. She especially skilled at taking a group of people from an organization through an experiential learning process that poises them to use AI throughout their system.