A Very Brief Introduction to Appreciative Inquiry for Libraries

Wisconsin Library Systems  September 2012 A Very Brief Introduction to Appreciative Inquiry for Libraries

This material has been created by Joan Frye Williams and George Needham for the Infopeople Project [infopeople.org], supported by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian. Any use of this material should credit the authors and funding source. “The task of leadership is to create an alignment of strengths in ways that make a system’s weaknesses irrelevant.” Peter Drucker1

Appreciative Inquiry (often known as AI) was developed by David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva in the 1980s. The approach is based on the premise that ‘organizations change in the direction in which they inquire.’ So an organization which inquires into problems will keep finding problems but an organization which attempts to appreciate what is best in itself will discover more and more that is good. It can then to use these discoveries to build a new future where the best becomes more common.2 Maureen Sullivan introduced the concept to library administration and planning several years ago. She described the four Ds of Appreciative Inquiry:  Discovery: Identify what has worked in the past, examples of high performance, times when the staff felt empowered and effective  Dream: Create a vision that brings to light the collective aspirations of stakeholders. Grounded in the first stage, but asking “What could be?” and challenging the status quo  Design: Construct the library organization created as a vision in the previous stage  Deliver: Identify the individual and organizational commitments necessary to achieve the aspirations set forth in the second stage and further developed in the third stage3 The difference between traditional change management models and Appreciative Inquiry is in the nature of the questions being asked. The problem-solving model would ask, “What problems are we having?” Appreciative Inquiry always begins, “What is working around here?”4 In the paper “Focusing on the Positive: Using Appreciative Inquiry Methodology to Assess and Plan,” Justine Wheeler of the Business Library at the University of Calgary listed several Appreciative Inquiry questions that were used in focus groups at the Library. The paper describing this work is available at http://s36.a2zinc.net/clients/sla/sla2010/custom/handout/speaker0_session244_2.pdf Finally, a large variety of resources for Appreciative Inquiry is available at the Appreciative Inquiry Commons, sponsored by Case Western University’s Weatherhead School of Management, at http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/

1 Quoted in Diana Whitney, Amanda Trosten-Bloom, and David Cooperrider, The Power of Appreciative Inquiry: A Practical Guide to Positive Change, (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. 2010) 2 Adapted from David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva, Appreciative Inquiry in Organizational Life (Research in Organizational Change and Development, Volume 1, 1987) at http://www.new-paradigm.co.uk/Appreciative.htm 3 Maureen Sullivan, “The Promise of Appreciative Inquiry in Library Organizations,” Library Trends, Summer, 2004 4 Joan Cheverie, “Exploring Appreciative Inquiry,” presented at Positive Organizational Scholarship, Washington DC, November 2004, and available at www.libqual.org/documents/admin/HR_nov2004_web.ppt.

This material has been created by Joan Frye Williams and George Needham for the Infopeople Project [infopeople.org], supported by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian. Any use of this material should credit the authors and funding source.