What is an Appreciative Inquiry Summit?
This is not your typical planning meeting!
The WHOLE SYSTEM participates — a cross-section of as many internal and external stakeholders as possible-people and groups that care about and have a stake in the future of the organization. This means more diversity and less hierarchy than is usual in a working meeting, and a chance for each person and stakeholder group to be heard and to learn other ways of looking at the task at hand.
TASK FOCUSED — a summit is task focused, not simply an educational event or a conference. We are here to accomplish the task of building our vision and plan of action for becoming a sustainable company in ways that benefit the business and our society-creating new sources of shareholder value, employee and customer value, and societal value.
Future scenarios — for the organization, community or issue — are put into HISTORICAL and GLOBAL perspective. That means thinking globally together before acting locally. This enhances shared understanding and greater commitment to act. It also increases the range of potential actions.
People SELF-MANAGE their work, and use DIALOGUE and INQUIRY — not "problem-solving" — as the main tool. That means helping each other do the tasks and taking responsibility for our perceptions and actions.
COMMON GROUND rather than "conflict management," is the frame of reference. That means honoring our differences and then discovering areas for action where we have strong common ground.
APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY ("AI") — To appreciate means to value-to understand those things worth valuing. To inquire means to study, to ask questions, to search. AI is, therefore, a collaborative search to identify and understand the organization's strengths, the greatest opportunities, and people's aspirations and hopes for the future.
COMMITMENT TO ACTION — Because the "whole system" is involved, it is easier to make more rapid decisions, and to make commitments to action in a public way-in an open way that everyone can support and help make happen.
More Information
For more information, please visit http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/
Public Relations work created by graduate Robyn Estabrook