Appreciative Inquiry (Ai) helps organizations effectively shape their efforts for changing the culture based on what they already do well and on what they aspire to create more of in the future. Ai is based on the principle that human organizations are social living systems – not machines. As such, meaning, relationships, emotional energies, hopes, passion, conversations, commitments and actions must be at the heart of any effort to effectively change an organization’s culture.

In contrast to traditional approaches to change that focus on identifying and solving core organizational problems and deficits, Ai focuses and builds on what is working when the organization is at its best. In doing so, it taps into the collective wisdom, experience, strength, passion and vision of the organization’s people to co-create a better future.

The process begins with a diverse cross-section of both internal and external stakeholders who jointly define the overarching vision and direction that will guide the Ai process in creating a “culture of safety and reliability.”

Next, people throughout the organization engage in a focused inquiry. Together they elicit and amplify the organization’s "positive core" related to their patient safety vision, and they discover what makes those peak experiences possible. People at multiple levels in the organization come together to dream and design how to make those extraordinarily positive experiences the hospital’s new cultural norm. Finally, people individually and collectively generate and commit to specific actions, changes and improvements.