This work describes a wildly popular approach to organizational change that dramatically improves performance by encouraging people to study, discuss, learn from, and build on what's working, rather than simply trying to fix what's not.

Written by the originators and leaders of the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) movement itself, this short, practical guide offers an approach to organizational change based on the possibility of a more desirable future, experience with the whole system, and activities that signal ''something different is happening this time.'' That difference systematically taps the potential of human beings to make themselves, their organizations, and their communities more adaptive and more effective. AI, a theory of collaborative change, erases the winner/loser paradigm in favor of coordinated actions and closer relationships that lead to solutions at once simpler and more effective.

""This book is full of provocative and positive questions that will develop and enhance your team's performance, yielding faster and better results."
" --Julie Meiresonne
Director, Customer Relations
Hunter Douglas Window Fashions Division, Broomfield, CO ""Take time to savor every page of this book. Let yourself be drawn in by the questions. They will transform how you and others work on a day-to-day basis. This book is a meaningful contribution to the field. Grab it."" --Jane Galloway Seiling Senior Editor, The Taos Institute Consultant and Author, "The Membership Organization"

Positive organizational change does not have to be planned or managed top down in a linear, urgent manner. Rather, it can be "unleashed" or discovered by helping people within organizations to identify their own best experiences in the past, and then use them to imagine, design, and bring into being the organization they most want and which works best. The method is called "Appreciative Inquiry." The volume editors and their panel of experts examine how AI works in practice, and how its many (and often surprising) benefits can be realized in just about any organization. The result is a major explication and source book for HR and organizational development specialists and upper level management trying to lead effective change. Detailed case reports from the field show how this unique approach is actually applied and what its consequences are. Readers will learn to identify the "positive core" of any system--the practices and principles that encourage the best in organizational capacity and performance. They will find not only specific outcomes but also some detailed reflections by practitioners on the use of Appreciative Inquiry. A volume summary lays out the themes and lesson that span the cases. Also presented are powerful and novel propositions on how to approach the crucial issues in organizational change. The result is a major explication and source book for HR and organizational development specialists.