Facilitate a full Appreciative Inquiry 4-D cycle from discovery interviews through to destiny commitments.
Human Resources & Personal Development
Appreciative Inquiry and Strengths-Based Organisation Development
Facilitate Appreciative Inquiry's 4-D cycle, strengths-based diagnostics and whole-system summits that surface organisational strengths and sustain generative, engagement-led change.
🗓️Duration5 training days
📚Content4 modules · 8 sessions
🎓On completionAccredited attendance certificate
About the programme
Course Overview
Most organisation development work still starts by hunting for what is broken - gap analyses, root-cause diagrams and deficit-framed surveys that leave people defending past failures rather than building future capability. Appreciative Inquiry offers a different entry point: it treats an organisation as a living system with untapped strengths, and it uses structured interviews, thematic analysis and provocative propositions to turn those strengths into a shared blueprint for change. This course works through the full 4-D cycle - Discover, Dream, Design, Destiny - using a live case that participants carry from affirmative topic choice through to a destiny plan with named owners and review dates. Sessions combine facilitation practice, interview coding and design-workshop simulation, so participants leave able to run discovery interviews, extract themes, draft provocative propositions and convene a whole-system summit. The closing modules extend the method into everyday strengths-based practice - mapping individual talents to team roles, opening performance conversations with contribution rather than deficit, and tracking change through positive-deviance indicators rather than compliance checklists.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Draft provocative propositions that translate positive core-task stories into future-state design statements.
Design and run a whole-system AI summit that engages a representative cross-section of the organisation.
Apply strengths-based diagnostic questions in place of gap-analysis and root-cause deficit framing.
Build a strengths mapping exercise that links individual talents to team roles and stretch assignments.
Evaluate an organisation development intervention using positive-deviance and generative-question methods.
Sustain Appreciative Inquiry change through destiny groups, ownership charters and follow-through review cycles.
Who Should Attend
Organisation development practitioners moving beyond deficit-based diagnostic models.
Internal and external change consultants leading whole-system engagement work.
HR business partners supporting culture change and team effectiveness initiatives.
Learning and development leads designing strengths-based talent conversations.
Team leaders wanting to run positive, participative change conversations with their staff.
Facilitators and coaches introducing appreciative methods into performance and culture work.
Course Modules
Select any module to see its sessions and points.
01Foundations of Appreciative Inquiry and the 4-D Cycle
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1From Deficit-Based Diagnosis to Generative Inquiry
- Contrast problem-solving change models with generative, strengths-based approaches to organisational diagnosis.
- Examine the theoretical roots of Appreciative Inquiry in social constructionism and positive organisational scholarship.
- Identify situations where deficit-based root-cause analysis undermines engagement and ownership of change.
- Map the four phases of the AI cycle - Discover, Dream, Design, Destiny - onto a live organisational case.
Session 2Crafting the Affirmative Topic and Interview Guide
- Draft an affirmative topic choice that reframes a stated organisational problem into a generative inquiry focus.
- Write core-task interview questions that surface peak-experience stories relevant to the chosen topic.
- Pilot an appreciative interview guide with colleagues and refine question wording for clarity and depth.
- Plan a sampling strategy that captures a representative cross-section of roles, tenure and perspectives.
02Discovery and Dream: Surfacing Strengths and Future Possibility
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Running Discovery Interviews and Extracting Themes
- Conduct paired appreciative interviews and record verbatim quotations that illustrate organisational strengths.
- Apply thematic content analysis to interview transcripts to identify recurring life-giving factors.
- Build a strengths inventory that links discovered themes to capabilities, values and successful practices.
- Present discovery findings back to participants in a way that builds shared ownership of the data.
Session 2Facilitating Dream Sessions and Provocative Propositions
- Facilitate a dream session that invites participants to envision the organisation operating at its best.
- Draft provocative propositions written in the present tense that bridge discovered strengths to a future state.
- Test provocative propositions against discovery data to ensure they remain grounded, not aspirational fiction.
- Use visioning techniques, including guided imagery and future headlines, to enrich dream-phase output.
03Design and Destiny: Structures, Commitments and Sustaining Change
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Designing the Ideal Organisation Around Provocative Propositions
- Translate provocative propositions into design statements covering structures, systems and relationships.
- Facilitate a design workshop that prioritises which elements of the ideal organisation to build first.
- Draw social architecture diagrams that show how roles, decision rights and communication flows will change.
- Align design choices with existing governance and resourcing constraints without diluting the aspiration.
Session 2Destiny Planning, Ownership and Follow-Through
- Form destiny groups with clear charters, sponsors and review dates to carry design commitments forward.
- Draft an implementation roadmap that sequences quick wins alongside longer structural changes.
- Design a follow-through review cycle that tracks commitments against the provocative propositions.
- Address common stall points in Appreciative Inquiry rollout, including sponsor turnover and competing priorities.
04Whole-System Summits and Strengths-Based Practice at Scale
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Designing and Facilitating a Whole-System AI Summit
- Plan the logistics, room design and stakeholder mix for a multi-day whole-system AI summit.
- Sequence summit activities across the 4-D cycle to fit a compressed, large-group timetable.
- Brief table facilitators and volunteer hosts on holding generative, non-judgemental conversations.
- Manage large-group dynamics, including dominant voices, scepticism and time pressure, during a summit.
Session 2Embedding Strengths-Based Practice into Everyday People Management
- Build a strengths mapping tool that connects individual talents to team roles and development assignments.
- Redesign a performance conversation template to open with strengths and contribution before development areas.
- Integrate appreciative questioning into onboarding, team-building and change-communication routines.
- Evaluate the sustained impact of strengths-based interventions using positive-deviance indicators over time.
What the participant receives
4 course modules
A structured syllabus
8 training sessions
across 5 days
32 detailed points
Applied, detailed content
Accredited attendance certificate
On completing the programme
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