Michael Allen's 2009 e-Learning Annual

8.5. THE AI PROCESS

Appreciative Inquiry is an organization development (OD) process, traditionally completed in a group setting over multiple sessions. Because of its basis in constructionist learning theory, the very nature of AI requires people to share ideas with each other in order to literally construct their group vision for the future.

A critical first step is to select the topics for the focus of the Appreciative Inquiry. Topic selection needs to be done thoughtfully and carefully, as Hammond notes that what we choose to study is likely to become our new reality (as cited in Sullivan, 2004).

Next, participants begin a four-step process that AI practitioners call the "4-D Cycle" (Cooperrider, Whitney, & Stavros, 2003, p. 5):

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