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.

Have just spent a fascinating day with Don Hanna from the University of Wisconsin, Extension, who is in Wellington for the week. (More details of who Don is and the work he does can be found in the extended entry link).
We had a great discussion around the theme of appreciative inquiry - something Don introduced me to a couple of years ago when he was here as a keynote speaker at the DEANZ conference.
appreciative inquiry is an approach to organisational change based on the premise that ??organisations change in the direction in which they inquire.?? I’ve been attempting to adopt this approach in the work Iv’e been doing over the past two years, and can really vouch for its effectiveness. Amazing how differently people react in a change environment where there is a positive focus, rather than the traditional approach which tends to problematize everything.

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