Appreciative Inquiry

The Association of Fund Raising Professionals in the Philadelphia area is having a half day seminar on using Appreciative Inquiry in Strategic Planning. Since we provide clients with strategic planning two of us from the Bucks County Center for Non Profit Management are signed up to go to the seminar. The past week, I spent some time online reading about Appreciative Inquiry. My first thought was that it is like the SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) except for it is just the SO part. However, it is much more than that. Appreciative Inquiry approaches planning from a different angle. The traditional starting question has been-what are our problems and how do we solve them? Appreciative inquiry starts with questions to uncover what the organization does right and why. It is an intriguing approach and I am looking forward to learning more about it.