How To: Appreciative Inquiry Questions

Appreciative Inquiry questions are always positive questions around affirmative topics. In asking and answering them, we get focused on what has life, meaning and value.

When communities use Appreciative Inquiry, they share in a way that stretches collective vision. By bringing their valued experiences into public view, they become civic actors by choice and can act on behalf of what they value. People see themselves as subjects of a system they can actively transform rather than as objects of a system that constrains their imaginations.

To design good appreciative inquiry questions, remember to:

1. Allow questions to evoke ultimate concerns: ask about high point stories, most valued qualities, etc.

2. Use positive questions that build on positive assumptions; i.e., What about this neighborhood makes you especially glad you live here?

3. Give a thought-provoking, appealing definition of the topic; e.g., "A leader is anyone who wants to help at this time."

4. Present questions as an invitation; use expansive, positive, feeling, experiential words.

5. Enhance the possibilities of storytelling, by asking questions that focus on personal experiences.

6. Phrase questions in a conversational, friendly tone, and listen eagerly as you would to a close friend.

7. Ask open questions to which you do not know the answer, expecting to learn something surprising and wonderful.

8. Value the experience of the person being interviewed.

 

For more resources on Appreciative Inquiry, visit the the AI Commons: http://appreciativeinquiry.cwru.edu

 

Think Positively!

the power of the right question

Ö The person who sets the question sets the direction and has the power of a change agent. (Consider the difference between asking a police chief about crime vs. asking about community safety.)

 

Ö Images of the future are powerful. We move in the direction of what we can imagine.

 

Ö Negative images and conversations weaken us mentally and physically; positive images strengthen us and what we can accomplish.

 

Ö Positive communication is essential to mental health and requires practice. We are surrounded by negative vocabulary and need to replace it with self-confidence and community affirmation.

 

Ö Positive images of youth are essential to creating a social culture in which young people are encouraged to make a contribution. Because many people now see young people as problems to be solved or criminals to be feared, we need to showcase positive stories and images of what young people value and can accomplish and contribute.

 

Ö Human systems want to move in a positive direction (like plants seeking the sun). Positive questions and feedback create energy — like the sun, they literally make it possible to live and to grow. Young people can help create this positive environment and also hold others accountable to doing so. This requires leadership and courage.

 

Ö It is important to name and claim what’s working as well as what needs work. This is a place from which you can build.

 

Human systems grow toward what they persistently ask questions about.

- David Cooperrider and Diana Whitney