Appreciative Inquiry Handbook: For Leaders Of Change, Second Edition

One of today's most popular change methods, Appreciative Inquiry (AI) has been used to undertake transformational initiatives in dozens of organizations, ranging from McDonald's to the U.S. Navy to Save the Children. The assumption of AI is simple. Every organization has something that works right — things that give it life when it is vital, effective, and successful. AI begins by identifying this positive core and connecting organizational visions, plans, and structures to it in ways that heighten energy and inspire action for change. The authors provide background information on what AI is and how it works, and offer sample project plans, designs, agendas, course outlines, interview guidelines, participant worksheets, a list of resources and more. This second edition has been extensively revised, updated and expanded throughout with new material, new tools and an entirely new chapter on case applications.

About the Authors

Dr. David L. Cooperrider is professor and chair of the SIGMA Program for Human Cooperation and Global Action at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. He has served as researcher and consultant to a wide variety of organizations, including Allstate, Capgemini, Ernst & Young, GTE-Verizon, Roadway Express, Nutrimental, World Vision, Cleveland Clinic, Imagine Chicago, American Red Cross, and United Religions Initiative. These projects are inspired by the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) methodology, of which he is co-originator. He has been recipient of Best Paper of the Year Awards at the Academy of Management. GTE was awarded the 1998 Best Organization Change Program by ASTD.

David has designed a series of dialogues using AI with 25 of the world’s top religious leaders, started in 1998 by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who said, “If only the world’s religious leaders could just know each other . . . the world will be a better place.” Using AI, the group has held meetings in Jerusalem and at the Carter Center in Atlanta. David was recognized in 2000 as among “the top ten visionaries” in the field by Training magazine and has been named in Five Hundred People of Influence. He is past president of the National Academy of Management’s Division of Organization Development and a cofounder of the Taos Institute. He has lectured and taught at Stanford University, MIT, the University of Chicago, Katholieke University in Belgium, Pepperdine University, and others. David has published 7 books and authored more than 40 articles and book chapters.

Dr. Diana Whitney, president of Corporation for Positive Change is cofounder and director emeritus of the Taos Institute. She is an internationally recognized consultant and keynote speaker and a pioneering thought leader on the subjects of Appreciative Inquiry, positive change, and spirituality at work. She is a fellow of the World Business Academy.

She is an award-winning writer and author of six books and dozens of articles and chapters, including Appreciative Inquiry with David Cooperrider and The Power of Appreciative Inquiry with Amanda Trosten-Bloom. In addition, Diana has edited five collections on Appreciative Inquiry, including Appreciative Inquiry and Organizational Transformatio and Positive Approaches to Peace Building.

Diana teaches and consults in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. She has lectured and taught at Antioch University, Case Western Reserve University, Ashridge Management Institute in London, and Eisher Institute in India and for Human Value in Japan. She is a Distinguished Consulting Faculty at Say-brook Graduate School and Research Center.

The focus of Diana’s consulting is the application of Appreciative Inquiry to strategic planning, mergers, large-scale transformation, service excellence and leadership, and management development. With 30 years of consulting, her clients include business, government, and social profit organizations: Merck, British Airways, Hunter Douglas, GTE-Verizon, GE Capital, Johnson & Johnson, and Sandia National Labs.

Diana serves as adviser to the United Religions Initiative, a global inter-faith organization dedicated to peace and cooperation among people of different religions, faiths, and spiritual traditions.

Dr. Jacqueline (Jackie) M. Stavros possesses 20 years of strategic planning, international, and organizational development and change experience. Jackie is an associate professor for the College of Management, Lawrence Technological University, where she teaches and integrates Appreciative Inquiry and other approaches to strength-based change in her MBA and DBA course work.

She uses Appreciative Inquiry (AI) to work with clients to build dynamic relationships and to facilitate strategic planning and leadership development sessions. Clients have included ACCI Business System; BAE Systems; Fasteners, Inc.; General Motors of Mexico; Jefferson Wells; NASA; Tendercare; United Way; Girl Scouts USA; Orbseal Technologies; and several Tier 1 and Tier 2 automotive suppliers and organizations in education.

Jackie has worked and traveled to more than a dozen countries in Asia, Europe, and North America. She has presented on AI and SOAR framework at Hewlett-Packard, the American Dietetic Association, PricewaterhouseC-oopers, National City Bank, and the Detroit Chamber of Commerce. She has coauthored another book in AI, Dynamic Relationships: Unleashing the Power of Appreciative Inquiry in Daily Living, and dozens of book chapters and articles. She recently coauthored a book chapter for Berrett-Koehler’s new Change Handbook titled “SOAR: A New Approach to Strategic Planning” and coedited a series of articles for the international journal The Ai Practitioner on “SOARing to High and Engaging Performance: An Appreciative Approach to Strategy (aipractitioner.com).

She earned a doctorate in Management at Case Western Reserve University on Capacity Building Using an Appreciative Approach: A Relational Process of Building Your Organization’s Future. Her MBA is from Michigan State University, and she has a BA from Wayne State University. Jackie is an associate for the Taos Institute and an editor for Taos Institute Publishing. She is a board member of the Positive Change Corps, a virtual global organization that focuses on strength-based approaches to teaching and learning in primary education (Pk–12th grade). She is a member of the Academy of Management, the Organization Development Network, and the Organization Development Institute.