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THE
APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY SUMMIT:
OVERVIEW AND APPLICATIONS
-iana Whitney and
David
L.
Cooperrider
Diana Whitney,
Ph. D.,
is internationally
recognized for her
consufting, teaching,
and writing on
innovative, large-scale
processes for positive
social and
organizational change
and has been
instrumental in
integrating appreciative
inquiry in corporate
change and leadership
practices. She is a
partner with David
L.
Cooperrider in the
Corporation for Positive
Change. Clients include
Hunter Douglas, GTE,
SmithKline Beecham,
Nutrimental, the United
Way, and Price
Waterhouse. She is
also cofounder of the
Taos Institute, where
appreciative inquiry is
taught to consultants
and leaders of change.
email:
Whitneydi @aol. com.
David
L.
Cooperrider,
Ph. D., is associate
professor of
organiza tiona I behavior
and cochair of the
Center for Social
Innovation in Global
Management (SIGMA)
ontinuous and unpredictable change marks the envi-
ronment in which most organizations operate today.
C
Organizations that have sustained success over long peri-
ods
of
time recognize change as a process, not an event. Sustainable
organizations recognize change as the ongoing process of organi-
zational life itself.
As leaders, managers, and change agents, we must focus the
attention of our organizations onexpanding their capacity for positive
change. Among the factors that enhance organizational capacity for
change are: large-group forums with full-voice participation among
all stakeholders; attention to the artistic, creative, and spiritual dimen-
sions of work life; and a sense of influence optimism-the belief that
our decisions and actions today do contribute to a better life for
generations to come. The appreciative inquiry
(AI)
summit is avehicle
that facilitates this type
of
group interaction.
Appreciative inquiry is an organization development philoso-
phy and methodology that can enhance the organization’s capac-
ity for ongoing adaptability. (See ”Appreciative Inquiry: An Inno-
vative Process for Organization Change,” by Diana Whitney and
Carol Schau,
Employment Relations Today,
Spring
1998.)
Apprecia-
tive inquiry focuses on an organization’s capacity for positive
change through inquiry into its positive change core-the body of
stories, knowledge, and wisdom, often undiscussed, that best
describes the organization’s life-giving forces and the organization
whenit has been and is at its best. Appreciative inquiry fosters high
involvement and cooperation among organization members and
stakeholders. It changes the internal dialogue of the organization
from problem-oriented, deficit discourse to possibility-oriented,
appreciative discourse. In the words of Tom White, president
of
GTE Telephone Operations,
Appreciative Inquiry can get you much better results than seeking out
and solving problems. That’s an interesting concept
for
me-and
I
Employment Relations Today
Summer
1998
17
CCC
0745-7790/98/2502017-12
0
1998
John
Wiley
&
Sons,
Inc.
Diana Whifney and David
L.
Cooperrider
at Case Western Reserve
University. He is the creator
of
appreciative inquiry and has
supported its introduction in
over
100
organizations
worldwide. He is cofounder,
with Diana Whitney,
of
the
Taos Institute.
imagine for most of you-because telephone companies are among the
best problem solvers in the world. We troubleshoot everything. We
concentrate enormous resources on correcting problems that have
relatively minor impact on our overall service performance
...
when
used continually and over
a
long period of time, this approach can lead
to
a
negative culture. If you combine
a
negative culture with
all
the
challenges we face today, it could be easy to convince ourselves that we
have too many problems to overcome-to slip into
a
paralyzing sense
of hopelessness. And yet
if
we flip the coin, we have
so
much to be
excited about. We are in the most dynamic, and the most influential,
business of our times. We ought to be excited, motivated, and energized.
We can be
if
we just turn ourselves around and start looking at our
jobs-and ourselves-differently; if we
kill
negative self-talk and
celebrate our successes.
If
we dissect what we do right and apply the
lessons to what we do wrong, we can solve our problems and reenergize
the organization at the same time. In the long run, what is likely to be
more useful: Demoralizing
a
successful workforce by concentrating on
their failures or helping them over their last few hurdles by building
a
bridge with their successes?
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating mindless happy talk.
Appreciative inquiry is
a
complex science designed to make things
better. We can’t ignore problems-we just need to approach them from
the other side.
Among the most exciting applications of appreciative inquiry
is
the appreciative inquiry
(AI)
summit. An A1 summit differs
from other large-scale meeting processes in that the process
is
fully affirmative. It focuses on discovering and developing the
organization’s positive change core and converting it into strate-
gic business processes such
as
marketing, customer service, hu-
man resources development, and new-product development. It
launches the whole organization into new directions.
Participation at an
A1
summit
is,
by design, diverse and
inclusive of all the organization’s stakeholders-employees, cus-
tomers, vendors, and community members. It
is
generally a four-
day
meeting and can involve anywhere from 50 to 2,000 or more
participants. Ideally all members
of
an organization and a selec-
tion of outside stakeholders attend the summit. In Brazil, a com-
pany of 500 was closed for four days while all employees partici-
pated with approximately
150
customers, vendors, and commu-
nity members in an
A1
strategic planning summit. In another
instance, where 2,500 employees were involved in the inquiry
through the mass mobilization
of
appreciative interviews, 500
employees, leaders, and outside stakeholders attended the
organization’s
A1
summit. In one unique case
of
the creation of an
entirely new global organization,
3
global summits and
10
re-
gional summits of
100
to 250 people each have served to draft a
preamble, a purpose statement, a set
of
organization principles,
a
18
Summer
1998
Employment Relations Today
The Appreciative Inquiry Summit: Overview and Applications
TheAl summit
creates confidence
and commitment in
the organization.
charter, and a plan for the global evolution and work of the newly
emerging organization.
Incredible work has been accomplished by large groups of people
participating
in
A1 summits. The
AI
summit builds and renews
relationships across the organization and among employees, cus-
tomers, and vendors. It creates confidence and commitment
in
the
organization by liberating the ideas and opinions of
all
participants.
It is a high-participation process that makes a positive difference
in
terms of both business results and the elevation of the human spirit.
Al
SUMMIT DESIGN
Although each summit has its own design, there are some
common aspects of successful A1 summits. The four-day meeting
is designed to flow through the appreciative inquiry 4-D process
of discovery, dream, design, and destiny.
A
brief outline follows
as
a
sample of an appreciative inquiry summit design. And it is
offered only as
a
starting point.
Day l-Discovery
organization’s positive change core and includes:
The focus of the day is on the discovery of many facets
of
the
Setting the task focus-brief introduction to the context
and purpose of the meeting.
Conducting appreciative interviews-all participants en-
gage in one-on-one interviews organized around the topics
of the meeting.
Determining who we are at our best-small-group recol-
lection
of
highlight stories and best practices discovered
during the interview process.
Conducting a continuity scan-large-group process to cre-
ate organization, industry, and global time lines in order to
identify factors that have sustained the organization over
time and are desirable in the future.
Day 2-Dream
This
is
a day
of
envisioning the organization’s greatest poten-
tial for positive influence and impact in the world, and activities
include:
Sharing of dreams-small-group discussions of dreams
collected during the interview process.
Enlivening the dreams-small groups discuss specific, tan-
gible examples of their dreams and provide creative, meta-
phorical presentations.
Employment Relations Today
Summer
1998
19
~~
~~
Diana Whitney and David L.Cooperrider
~
~~ ~
Enacting the dreams-group presentations of dramatic
dream enactments to the large group.
Day 3-Design
During the design day, participants focus on crafting an orga-
nization in which the positive change core is boldly alive in all of
the strategies, processes, systems, decisions, and collaborations of
focus
On
the
strategies,
processesy
the organization. Activities include:
decisions, and
collaborations
of
the
organization.
Creating the organization design archi tecture-large group
identifies organization design architecture best suited
to
the group’s business and industry.
Selecting high-impact organiza tion design elements-large
group draws on interviews and dreams to select high-
impact design elements.
Crafting provocative propositions for each organization de-
sign element-small groups draft provocative propositions
(design statements) incorporating the positive change core
into the hgh-impact processes, systems, and programs.
Day 4-Delivery
days
of
discovery, dream, and design. Activities include:
The final
day
is
an invitation to action inspired
by
the prior
Generating possible actions-small groups brainstorm pos-
sible actions and share them with the large group.
Selecting inspired actions-individuals publicly declare
their intention for action and specify cooperation and
support needed.
Forming task groups-pen space groups meet to plan next
steps for cooperation and task achievement.
Closing the large-group meeting.
Each summit draws people together for a unique purpose and
task focus and reflects the culture of
a
specific organization. Each
organization’s set of relationships within the company and among
stakeholders (a diverse cultural and geographical mix
of
people),
and ways of expressing its values and
of
honoring relationships
must be considered in the design
of
an
A1
summit to ensure
resonance and generativity among participants.
PRINCIPLES
OF
SUCCESS
The summit is a unique and growing application of apprecia-
tive inquiry that has evolved through the collaboration
of
many
people taking the
best
of
other large-group processes and integrat-
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Employment Relations Today
The Appreciative Inquiry Summit: Overview and Applications
No
matter what the
purpose for the
summit, it must be
clearly articulated and
brought
to
life during
the summit
ing appreciative inquiry. The principles of success are continually
enriched through experiences with efforts of increasing size,
complexity, and diversity. On the horizon is an A1 summit of
3,000
United Way executives from across the country to cocreate and
commit to a new constitution and way of doing business. This
follows a successful United Way summit of
1,800
that was orga-
nized and facilitated to establish concurrence on values and a path
forward for the organization’s future.
Appreciative inquiry summits have been used in the past five
years for strategic planning, community development, and or-
ganization culture change. Reflecting on experiences involving
50
to
1,800
people, the following factors emerge as essential to the
success of an A1 summit.
Clear and Central Task Focus
Summits have been organized for a variety of purposes, such
as launching a union-management partnership throughout
GTE;
strategic planning for the entire company, Nutrimental; for cul-
ture change in numerous organizations in health care, govern-
ment, and consulting services; for economic development in a
region of the country; for citywide community development and
for drafting a charter for a newly emerging global organization.
No
matter what the purpose for the summit, it must be clearly
articulated and brought to life during the summit. Human sys-
tems-communities and organizations-move in the direction of
what they study. During an
A1
summit the task focus serves to
organize inquiry and discussions and, hence,
to
establish direc-
tion for the organization’s transformation.
A
clearly stated task
and a process that is designed in the direction of the task are
essential to a successful summit. The
4
-D process allows the task
to stay center stage while at the same time meeting the human
needs for connection, expression, creativity, and action. An
A1
summit is especially vital when the task at hand is complex and
multicultural, and requires unprecedented levels of cooperation.
At
GTE,
an appreciative inquiry4-D process was used to bring
200
union leaders (CWA and IBEW) and management leaders
together to commit to and cocreate a companywide union-man-
agement partnership. Appreciative inquiry enabled participants
to focus on the significant task
of
creating positive partnerships
throughout the company while at the same time fostering recon-
ciliation within previously antagonistic relationships. The meet-
ing started with palpable tension among participants-most of it
unspoken; and it ended with a resounding vote and call to include
appreciative inquiry training for every employee in the company
as part of the partnership initiative.
Employment Relations Today
Summer
1998
21
Diana
Whifney
and
David
L.Cooperrider
-~
~ ~
The best appreciative
interview questions
generally invite
discussion about past
and future, dreams
and actions,
possibilities and
specifics.
Holographic Beginning
Appreciative inquiry summits begin with appreciative inter-
views into a set of topics to be discussed over the course of the
meeting. The entire agenda is foreshadowed wihn the
fmt
hour or
so
of the four-day meeting.
This
process, known as a holographic
beginning, allows everyone participating to express their ideas and
share their greatest hopesanddreams for the organizationearly
in
the
meeting. The best appreciative interview questions generally invite
discussion about past and future, dreams and actions, possibilities
and specifics. Participants who are action-oriented and usually have
to patiently await the action-planning phase of a meeting get their
ideas into the conversation early. Everyone sees the flow of the
meeting and gets a clear understanding that what matters to them is
important to the whole group’s process. The link between discovery,
dream, design, and delivery
is
established as the path forward for the
meeting and for the organization’s future.
Initial appreciative interviews set the stage for a full-voice
meeting. All participants have an opportunity to tell their stories
about the organization-past, present, and imagined futures.
Immediately people feel that they are listened to and that their
ideas are valued. Information, ideas, and stories that are gener-
ated during the interviews are referred to throughout the meeting.
For example, the Hunter Douglas strategic-planning process
began with appreciative interviews throughout the company.
Each of the
50
people who would be attending the strategic-
planning meeting conducted one-on-one interviews and asked
one of the interview questions at the start of their regular plant or
staff meetings for several weeks. The companywide interview
topics were culture as a competitive advantage, best in class,
growth, and creative business opportunities.The stories and infor-
mation generated were summarized by each interviewer and
brought to the strategic planning summit.
At the summit, participants were asked to reflect the inter-
views they conducted with one another on the topics of core
capabilities, visions for
2003,
strategic opportunities, and strate-
gies. In this way, the conversations started in the organization
during interviews and plant meetings were woven into the con-
versations that occurred at the summit. Each of the summit
interview topics was then a focus of conversation and decision
making during the meeting. Each discussion was informed by the
rich sharing of stories and ideas that occurred in the initial inter-
views and in the interviews throughout the organization. The
meeting proceeded through the
4
-D process resulting in a compel-
ling vision for the organization and a set of strategies and strategic
objectives.
____~-
22
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1998
Employment Relations
Today
-- -
~-
The Appreciative Inquiry Summit: Overview and Applications
Organization change
efforts generally
focus on the
problems of the past
.
. .
Just at ihe time
when employee
enthusiasm is most
needed, morale drops
and commitment to
the company’s future
flounders.
Follow-up meetings were then held in each of the company’s
four business units to create affirmative images for their future in
the form of strategies and strategic objectives. Acceptance of the
plan and commitment to it as a path forward for the company was
greatly enhanced through high involvement in the appreciative
interviewing process, the summit, and the follow-up business
unit meetings.
Continuity Scan
Organization change efforts generally focus on the problems
of the past, why things must change, and the desired future and
how to attain it. The past is viewed as the necessity for change.
As
a result, organization members often interpret change efforts to
mean that what they did in the past was of novalue. Just
at
the time
when employee enthusiasm is most needed, morale drops and
commitment to the company’s future flounders.
Appreciative inquiry suggests an alternative approach. Rec-
ognition that an organization’s history can be a powerful source of
positive possibilities for the future is central to appreciative in-
quiry. Successful change initiatives balance inquiry into:
Novelty-new and innovative possibilities for organiza-
tion action;
Continuity-those qualities, processes, or practices that an
organization wishes to maintain as it grows in relation to
our global well-being; and
Transition-the specific and tangible practices that will
change.
During an
A1
summit, participants conduct a continuity scan-
time lines
of
the organization, industry, and world that provide
vivid pictures of the organization’s strengths and historical core
capabilities. The questions for disscussion include: What are all
the qualities of your organization, the processes, systems, prod-
ucts, services, or general ways of doing things, that have contrib-
uted to your organization’s success in the past? Of these, which
must be maintained to assure continued success as we move
forward into a new era of doing
business?
The continuity scan enables large groups
of
people to cocreate
an image of their organization. In the process, everyone learns,
and the collective intelligence of the organization expands. Excite-
ment is generated as people make connections about the
organization’s history. As the history is brought into clarity and
focus and becomes meaningful, people are more able
to
imagine
possibilities for their collective future.
-
Employment Relations Today Summer
1998
23
Diana Whitney and David L.Cooperrider
-
-
~
-
One
of
our clients
likes to talk about
changeasaprocess
of
having our answers
questioned, rather
than having our
questions ans wered.
The continuity scan allows an organization to honor its elders,
the successes of the past, and to grow on a foundation of positive
potential. When dreams and designs for the future are grounded
in stories of past successes, energy and enthusiasm are generated
and allow for cooperation, change, and continued success.
The continuity scan serves to
jog
the organization’s memory
and to help members recall long-forgotten successes, strengths,
and dreams.
It
serves to enrich the conversational field for deci-
sion making about the future. In one exemplary situation, the Taos
County Economic Development Summit, the time line and conti-
nuity search created such a positive learning community among
the
200
government, business, environmental, educational, and
social-service leaders gathered that they proposed the time line
tour the schools and then be hung in a local museum. Their ability
to see on one very large sheet of paper the multicultural history of
the community, and to engage with one another in inquiry about
significant historical turning points set the stage for the cocreation
of the county’s first collaborative economic development plan.
The Appreciative Dislodgement
of
Certainty
One
of
our clients at GTE likes to talk about change as a process
of having our answers questioned, rather than having our ques-
tions answered. And indeed change required a dislodgement
of
certainty.
To
change we must be curious and open to new possi-
bilities-personally and organizationally. In a hallmark project
called “Imagine Chicago” appreciative interviews were conducted
by
consultants, executives, educators, and students. The best
interviews by far were those conducted by the students. The
children, it seems, are natural ”agents of inquiry.’’ The lesson is
clear to those who would be leaders
of
change: Approach the task
with a child’s sense of wonder and curiosity.
Appreciative inquiry varies from other approaches to change
in that
it
centers on positive change. Key to the success
of
an
A1
summit is the appreciative dislodgement
of
certainty. Clients
often ask, ”Don’t we have to make the case for change by portray-
ing our problems so that we all understand them?” Our answer
is
clearly
”no,”
the case for change comes through the discovery,
dream, and design of positive possibilities that are
so
inspiring
that they energize and provoke action in their direction. Positive
images lead to positive actions. During an A1 summit, certainty is
disturbed through generative interview questions, bold envision-
ing of the organization’s future, and creating provocative propo-
sitions describing the desired organization design. In an A1 sum-
mit, certainty is dislodged and replaced with potential actions
grounded in the organization’s positive change core -its sense of
-
24
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1998
Employment Relations Today
~
Storytelljng as
a
means of expressing
ideas and interests is
highlighted over lists
of facts and
information.
The Appreciative Inquiry Summit: Overview and Applications
positive possibility. The organization’s positive change core is
reflected in stories and dialogues throughout the process. Great
stories make impossible actions seem possible and provide impe-
tus for change.
During a meeting
at
Sandia National Laboratories, one partici-
pant shared
a
highlight from his interviews. He told the story of an
executive who, when he was with the company, regularly took
new employees on trips to the Pentagon. He would
go
into
HR
and
ask for the names of the
two
to three newest employees and then
he would
go
meet them and invite them to
go
on high-level
business trips. Employees loved the guy. He was a great manager,
and this was just one of the things he did. After hearing the story
and reminiscing about the executive in the story, the group
decided to renew his practice as a step toward greater manage-
ment credibility.
__
__
Employment Relations Today
Summer
1998
25
From Negotiation to Narrative Communication
The forms of communication predominant in an organization
inform its capacities and generative potentials. Negotiative forms
of communication set
a
tone of separateness among people who
must each look out for their own interests. Narrative forms of
communication are inclusive and invitational. They allow values
to be expressed, questioned, and adapted. They ignite the human
spirit of curiosity and creativity. They contain seeds of wisdom
grounded in experience.
The A1 summit privileges narrative forms of communication.
Storytelling
as
a
means of expressing ideas and interests is high-
lighted over lists of facts and information, data presentations, and
either/or descriptions. Meaning is made among people,not among
facts and data. Information at its best provokes the collective
imagination and liberates people to fully step into the future.
Organizations do not exist separate from our images
of
them.
They are made and imagined in conversation. They are carried
and conveyed in the stories we tell. Tom White, a GTE executive,
describes organization culture as, ”the stories we tell about our-
selves and our organization and then forget they are stories.”
Summit participants are guided
to
attend to ”rapport talk” rather
than ”report talk” and to listen for stories, told by others, that best
highlight their own hopes and dreams. When participants draw
a
blank, they are guided back to the interview(s) they conducted
and reminded that good ideas are meant to be borrowed. The
summit process is rich with storytelling
as
the vehicle for making
meaning among
a
large multilogic group
of
people.
Among the significant transformations catalyzed through ap-
preciative inquiry is that of the Cathedral Foundation. Through
Diana Whitney and David
L.
Cooperrider
the
AT
process, the organization reenvisioned itself from an orga-
nization that cared for the elderly by providing meals and home
services to an organization dedicated to changing the way their
community and the world thinks about and imagines aging. This
dramatic transformation came as they conducted interviews
throughout their community and heard story after story about
people not wanting to get old, not appreciating our elders, and not
understanding the significance of intergenerational relationships.
The stories they heard served as
a
catalyst to launch a long-term
inquiry into positive images of aging. Believing that human
systems move in the direction of what they study, the Cathedral
Foundation is committed to a world where aging and the role of
elders are again revered in stories and in action.
Inspired Action
The focus of an
A1
summit is not common ground. Although
a ”sense of the meeting” does emerge,
it
does
so
as conversations
are focused on higher ground-those ideas and possibilities that
excite, inspire, and compel action. In one-on-one interviews,
small-group discussions and the whole-group participants are
encouraged to seek the most moving, innovative, and the most
meaningful ideas, not the most frequent or most common. The
logic is that if people get excited and inspired talking about
something, they will be excited and inspired to do
it.
The goal is to
highlight emotion, affinity, and meaning in organizational deci-
sion making.
As
an element of strategic planning at Hunter
Douglas, summit participants were invited to assess both the
market value (What is the potential for positive financial gain?)
and the affinity value (Why do you like this idea? Does
it
excite
you and call you to action? Will
it
inspire pride in you, the
organization, and among stakeholders?) of
a
proposed strategy.
Resulting decisions reflect the organization’s potential as well as
its motivation.
Highly committed action flows from participation in the sum-
mit. Appreciative inquiry summits, however,
do
not result in
a
prioritized list of action items nor an action plan signed off by all
participants. The process of focusing on action commitments
flows from the earlier processes of discovery, dream, and design.
For example, during the United Religions Initiative Global Sum-
mit, participants discovered the roots of cooperation within their
own traditions and life experiences, they envisioned the possibili-
ties for a United Religions Organization, and they designed the
components of
a
charter to launch the organization. The delivery
question was then, what research and development needed to be
done in the coming year to be able to draft a charter at the next
The
focus
of
an
AI
summit is not
common ground.
26
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1998
Employment Relations Today
The Appreciative Inquiry Summit: Overview and Applications
annual global summit. Participants identified
R&D
areas, self-
selected into R&D groups and organized for a year of inquiry and
experimentation. During the same meeting, regional groups met
and, inspired by the rich conversations, committed to a wide
range of actions to create and nurture local and regional United
Religions activities.
In a business case, the
100
attendees at the Hunter Douglas
Focus
2000
Summit on organization culture self-organized into
groups convened to create a mentoring program, redesign the
employee orientation to emphasize cross department knowledge,
establish a Hunter Douglas University, spread appreciative in-
quiry throughout the organization, maintain communication
among all levels, shifts, and departments, and conduct a high-
involvement strategic-planning process. At this time, nine months
after the summit, all
of
the groups are reporting progress, and
several are piloting programs for companywide application.
WHEN
TO
HOST
AN
Al
SUMMIT
An A1 summit
is
the intervention of choice when
the task
requires high levels
of
participation and cooperation.
The ratio of
monologue to dialogue during a summit is about
10
percent
monologue to
90
percent dialogue among participants. There are
no
formal leadership presentations. Everyone who attends comes
with equal voice. There is not a separate leadership group that gets
the two-hour briefing while everyone else attends the full meet-
ing. All stakeholders attend the meeting and are mixed into
discussions that span boundaries. The A1 summit is a high partici-
pation, full-voice process.
The summit works best when there is a need
to accelerate the
process ofchange.
It can serve to launch an initiative such as the
GTE,
union management partnership or the United Religions initiative.
It can serve to accelerate culture change or business development,
as in the case of Nutrimental-in the six months following the
company A1 summit, sales increased
300
percent, and profits are
up as are employee enthusiasm and commitment to the company’s
success. The capacity to bring large numbers
of
people together
in
a participatory process enables change to occur rapidly and suc-
cessfully.
Through experience with highly diverse and at times conflict-
ing groups, we have discovered the summit’s capacity for
bidding
and nurturing relationships and cooperation among diverse groups
of
people involved
in
high stake, high innovation
work.
Participation in a
summit affords opportunities for relationship building across
functions, shifts, and levels in the organization as well as with
customers, vendors, and community interest groups. The summit
The
summit
works
best when there
is
a
need
to accelerate
the
process
of
change.
Employment Relations Today
Summer
1998
27
Diana Whitney and David
L.
Cooperrider
provides
a
rich field for informal conflict resolution and reconcili-
ation
as
people work affirmatively together toward the task focus.
The summit is
a
prime vehicle for merger and acquisition integra-
tion. Sharing stories, getting to know each others’ hopes and
dreams, and working affirmatively together build relationships
that endure. Relationships made during a summit frequently lead
to
ad
hoc cooperation for the good of the organization. Enhanced
cooperation
is
an outcome of most
A1
summits.
Organizations today often face the task of
integrafiq
and
iiiakitig
seme
out
of
a
wide
range
of
change
initiatives.
Appreciative
inquiry serves well
as
the umbrella process for integrating mul-
tiple change efforts.
As
a
philosophy and methodology, it pro-
vides a set of principles and practices that when enacted can
enhance employee participation and hence commitment to change.
Culture change, for example, requires
a
phased process weaving
new ways of relating and working throughout the organization.
When
all
changes occur via appreciative inquiry, the process has
integrity and makes sense. The summit serves as an integrating
event. It is
a
time for envisioning the organization in the future
and
for putting order into all of the change initiatives under way.
Relationships made
during
a
summit
frequently lead
to
ad
hoc cooperation for
the
good
of
the
organization.
CONCLUSION
The new millennium brings with it
a
context
of
globalization
and
a demand for organization development processes that engage large
numbers of people, on line, and
in
person simultaneously in the
cocreation of our shared future. Modern behavioral science, small-
group theory, and systems theory have served
us
well as foundations
for organization development principles and practices to date. Anew
generation of organization practices is being evoked as we enter the
21st century.
Tlus
new generation of practice will be appreciative in
nature, rather than problem oriented. It willbe radically participatory
as it invites
a
cornucopia of diverse voices to be expressed and heard
in the cocreation of higher ground for the future of our global village.
The appreciative inquiry summit is a process for moving an organi-
zation toward its highest potential-the highest ideals imapable
among its employees and stake holders. It
is
an invitation for partici-
pants to discover what gives life-to themselves and their organiza-
tion. It is an opportunity for participants to dream of what might be
possible if their most cherished values are enacted as organizational
realities. It is
a
rigorous process for participants to design an appre-
ciative inquiry organization. And it is
a
time to engage with one
another in meaningful ways
so
that today’s interactions, conversa-
tions, and stories become the seeds of
a
well-lived destiny.
+
28
Summer
1998
Employment Relations Today
