Successful influence still remains open to new appreciations but produces a satisfactory resolution of all the conflicting interests of the stakeholders. The ultimate criterion of successful influence is the effectiveness of the judgments made about the role and relationships between the stakeholders and the elements of the strategy or model of the whole employed. The function of control is to determine the form in which the purpose will be made manifest in the world. Whereas appreciation is open to all possibilities, influence seeks the best probabilities, control must close options down to the one actuality that will be realized in a specific time-frame, with specific production parameters. Control takes the infinite subjective possibilities of appreciation and reduces them to the single objective, produced reality.
Control provides the actual form of a solution.
Whereas the role the appreciative field is to create conditions that avoids or dissolves problems of influence and control, and the influence field reaches a satisfactory resolution between mutually incompatible interests, control is the only level that solves problems. The solution changes reality forever and creates the need for a re-appreciation of current realties. So the process begins again. AIC is not wedded to any particular methodology. It provides a framework that helps organizers choose or design methodologies appropriate to the phase of the organizing cycle and to the local situation.