Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Approach to Community Engagement

Appreciative inquiry is a positive approach to organisational change. Its focus is on maximising the organisation’s strengths, rather than highlighting problems, and can be an effective tool in enhancing community engagement. The appreciative inquiry model took centre stage in a recent webinar hosted by Granicus Engagement Consultant Leanne Robb and Max Hardy of Max Hardy Consulting.

What is appreciative inquiry?

At its core, appreciative inquiry involves the practice of asking questions that strengthen a system’s capacity to understand, anticipate, and heighten positive potential. It invites organisations to focus on and research what they would like to see more of. With this approach energy is mobilised toward generating momentum in a positive direction. It’s possible to waste a great deal of energy studying “problems” without surfacing any clues as to what to do about them. It also drains energy and adversely impacts morale.

“Whereas traditional methods define and study problems to fix what is broken,” Hardy explained, drawing on the work of David Cooperrider and Diana Whitney, “Appreciative inquiry identifies existing solutions and amplifies what is working.”

Hardy points out that appreciative inquiry relies on six assumptions:

• In every society, something works or has worked.
• What we focus on becomes our reality.
• Reality is created in the moment.
• The act of asking questions in a group influences the group in some way.
• People have more confidence to journey into the future when they carry forward parts of the past.
• If we carry parts of the past forward, they should be what is best about the past.

“If we start asking different questions and inquiring about different things, we can change complex dynamics right then and there,” Hardy said.  “[Appreciative inquiry] is the systematic discovery of what gives ‘life’ to a living system when it is most alive, most effective, and most constructively capable.”

How does appreciative inquiry improve community engagement?

One way appreciative inquiry can enhance community engagement is by focusing on how an organisation develops questions for the community to respond to; questions that assume the community can play an invaluable role in exploring solutions; where the community is viewed as an asset rather than a problem to be managed.

As with any shift in thinking, it is important to have buy-in for appreciative inquiry from the executive team. Hardy will often invite executive teams to consider the legacy they want any engagement process to leave. Invariably they talk about improved reputation, trust, and that all involved consider their efforts to be worthwhile. This can help to inform the classic appreciative inquiry “Four D’s” process:

• Discovery: Appreciate what is.
• Imagine: Dream what might be.
• Design: Determine what should be.
• Destiny: Create what will be.

It is important to frame questions in a way that invites the community to be part of a creative and collaborative process. Rather than pitting people against each other in how the question is asked (e.g., “What is more important—protecting national parks or allowing people to enjoy them?”), it helps to frame the question in a more creative, inclusive way. The appreciative way to ask the question is, “How can we maximise enjoyment of national parks and improve our protection of them?”

How can appreciative inquiry assist in digital engagement?

Appreciative inquiry can be instrumental in boosting digital engagement within a community and it starts with a well-designed, human-centred website. An organisation’s website should:

• Have a clear objective of what people should take away from the site.
• Clearly reflect the organisation’s key messages.
• Convey that what residents think matters and that the community can play an important part in generating solutions or improving options.

The site should be free of clutter and express that the organisation has an appreciative culture and understands how residents are affected by decisions.

Appreciative inquiry helps organisations break down communication barriers with their communities and forge a more trusting and open dialogue. By improving the focus, organisations can better understand community values and maximise their efforts toward an improved solution.

 

To view the full webinar, click here.