In the mid-eighties, Dr. David Cooperrider, Suresh Srivastva and their colleagues at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, USA challenged the traditional problem solving approach to change management. They introduced the term Appreciative Inquiry and began to look at organizations as expressions of beauty and spirit. In every society, organisation or group, something works. What we focus on becomes our reality.
Reality is created in the moment, and there are multiple realities.
The act of asking questions of an organisation, or group influences the group in some way. If we carry forwward parts of the past, they should be what is best about the past. It is important to value differences. The language we use creates our reality. From The Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry by Sue Annis Hammond.