Appreciative Inquiry as a Potential Tool to Nurture Creativity: A Path to Drive Innovation

Background: The Four “D” S Of Appreciative Inquiry

The four “D”s of Appreciative Inquiry are discover, dream, design, destiny which address a topic which need to be maturedly framed through positivism and need to be contextual(Cooperrider & Whitney, 2000; Cooperrider et al., 2003; Ludema et al., 2003). The domain of intervention through a choice of topic is one of the key factors for accomplishment of any transformation or innovation initiative in a system. An organization mostly tend to progress in the direction through simple and commonly asked questions. “Inquiry is intervention ... even the most innocent question evokes change” (Cooperrider & Whitney, 2000). Attentiveness in any human system is depleting at a high rate and it holds true for any conventional organizations as well (March & Olsen, 1989). Therefore framing of topics become important to attract and hold attention and also facilitates resource is channelization. Every question is rooted within it with a range of possible opportunities and directions. They evoke imagination and creativity among the members in an organization and stretch them to think beyond their normal paradigms (Bright, Cooperrider, & Galloway, 2006).

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  Discover: During this phase the organisational members explore the attributes which provide life to the organisation . Emphasize and illuminate those attributes even if the moments of excellence is less, the task is to zero in on them and continue discussion around the attributes that made them possible. Valuing the “best of what is” opens the way for envisioning hope and prospect by removing the certainty of current shortfall. (Ludema, Cooperrider and Barrett ; 2006).

A director of an education institute conducted an Appreciative Inquiry session with a group of close to 200 faculty members by sharing their positive stories associated to their classes and relationship with their students.