Appreciative Inquiry 

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a dynamic process that helps organizations identify and capture what creates peak performance. Through this process the organization is able to replicate those experiences to maximize efficiency and effectiveness and positively increase the organization's services, products and bottom line.

The focus of AI is on what is going right and working well with an organization and not on what has gone wrong. The basis of AI is helping individuals get in touch with the peak experiences that have impacted their work life in a positive way and identify opportunities to build those experiences into their current systems to increase performance.

AI was developed in the mid-eighties by organizational development professor Dr. David Cooperrider, and he, along with Dr. Diana Whitney, have used AI successfully in a number of Fortune 500 companies and other organizations to assist in change management, process improvement, and strategic planning.

The Urban Group incorporates the various stages of AI into many of the facilitated processes for strategic planning, board retreats, organizational development for process improvement, and enhancement of customer service.

By creating new energy that is positive and synergistic, AI can help breathe life back into organizations that have become complacent.

Ruth Urban has attended several workshops on AI and in 2002, she participated in an intensive AI training course conducted by Dr. Diana Whitney at the Taos Institute.