Another day with Don Hanna today – plenty of work with the appreciative inquiry approach to change management. (Interesting quite – it’s not change that needs to be managed, but the people affected by it!)
Appreciative inquiry does stand up as a reserach methodology of sorts, but is primarily a methodology to be used in the process of managing change. The primary focus is on “appreciating” what is working and building on that, as opposed to the traditional mehtods which begin with by “problematizing” everything and working from this perspective. This often results in deficit model thinking.
That sounds refreshingly refreshing. “Problematizing” always ends up a moan fest and a “I wouldn’t start from here” party.
I agree – and would say that’s pretty true from what I’ve observed over the years – so I’d far rather join conversations with inquiring minds than spend hours trying to work through things with people who have 100 reasons why they can’t do this or that!