Appreciative Inquiry (AI Model)—if this term is new to you, you are not at fault. It’s a recent buzz that’s been humming in the HR industry for a while. Why? Because it’s claimed to be a strategic driver of organizational change while keeping the environment quite optimistic.
It’s not a blog; it’s your go-to edition for a workplace that’s high in energy and delivers above par performance. In our recent episode of The CHRO Mindset podcast, our exclusive thought leadership podcast, our special guest, Sudipto Mandal, helped HR reimagine employee engagement and recommended shifting the focus on employee energy through the AI Model. Why? Because energy cannot be faked.
So, HR maestros, ready to take a plunge into this pool of corporate fresh insights from our HR & workplace podcast?
Let’s get started!
Table of Contents:
What Is the Appreciative Inquiry Model?
The Appreciative Inquiry Model (AI Model) is a strength-based model that was developed by David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastava back in 1987 to replace the overused term ‘problem-solving’ in the traditional industry. The core idea behind designing this model is to enhance every aspect of the organization positively. How? By allowing individuals and organizations to stick to their fundamental principles and focus on ‘What’s working well.’
So, instead of talking about broken systems, failed leaderships, inefficient processes, the AI model turns the attention toward:
- How can a system be fixed?
- What are the ways to improve leadership?
- Which processes are working and why?
Frankly said, the approach it uses to drive organizational change is to stress on ‘What’s working well or What worked the last time?’ rather than ‘What’s broken.’
The AI model tools prove to be highly effective in lowering team conflicts, removing blame, enhancing work dynamics, and increasing productivity.
The 5-D of Appreciative Inquiry Model:
1. Define:
The first step of the Appreciative Model is to set clear goals. It basically says, ‘What do we want to explore? It brings clarity by defogging chaos and setting goals to achieve. Once the target is set, the organization, team, and employees can discover ‘What’ working for them?’
2. Discover:
This phase is all about exploring the skills and systems that add to the solution. It works as the action plan for the team to find the answer to ‘What’s already working? Or ‘What worked the last time?’ It invokes empathy, solution-driven, and a supportive mindset amongst team members and breaks a problem into smaller chunks.
3. Dream:
During the dreaming phase, the people start envisioning a future that’s possible if the solution is available more than today. The question that defines this stage is ‘If everything went right, how would it look like?’
4. Design:
This is the phase where people collectively start planning about creating a system or building a workflow to make the future possible in the real world. With the question, ‘How do we build it?’ People are more focused on processes that not only work, but they do for a longer period of time.
5. Destiny:
The ‘Let’s make it happen’ phase is all about shared ownership and sustainable momentum. Here, people take responsibility, deliver the best of the strengths in their daily activities and habits, and leaders check in with regular follow-through—to make the envisioned flow at workplace.
Roadway Express’ Inspiring Journey to Enhanced Workplace and Less Chaos
A major U.S. -based freight transportation company that was renowned for its large-scale logistics operations. The application of AI Model on Roadway Express is one of the most cited and popular cases for organizational development and change management in the world. It was one of the earliest large-scale, real-world applications of Appreciative Inquiry in a unionized, industrial setting where traditional problem-solving couldn’t resolve problems.
It efficiently proved the power of AI and showed it can be used even in high-stakes, conflict-heavy environments to transform culture and collaboration.
Roadway Express was struggling with low trust between unionized employees and management, which often led to blame, conflicts, and extremely low productivity.
The Application of the AI Model
Roadway Express launched an Appreciative Inquiry Summit at large-scale which was a 3-day event that invited 200+ stakeholders, including HR, customers, truck drivers, union leaders, and executives.
The 5-D AI Model They Followed:
- Define: To focus on building trust and collaboration between the teams
- Discover: Shared incidences of peak performance and successful collaboration
- Dream: Envisioned a future where everyone’s POVs are valued.
- Design: Participants co-created solutions to enhance communication and collaboration.
- Destiny: Pledged to stay committed to such open-problem-solving events and forums.
Outcomes That Astonished Everyone
- Its share price grew from $14 to $40 in two years with a generation of $17 million additional revenue and $7 million profit in just one year.
- The revenues jumped by 25.7% during the terminals of the specific quarter that held AI summits when compared to the previous years’ quarter. Additionally, it generated $35 million in improvement in that period
- This one event saved around $118,000 annually.
How Can HR Bring the Appreciative Inquiry Model to the Workplace?
HR can implement the AI model by three simple strategies connecting the three main touchpoints—the employee, the leader, and ‘What’s going between them?’
| HR Area | IAI-Driven Approach | Example |
|---|
| Stay Interviews | Ask what’s working, not just what’s missing | “What keeps you engaged here?” |
| Performance Reviews | Focus on strengths and growth areas | “What are you proud of this quarter?” |
| Leadership Coaching | Build on existing leadership impact | “When did your team thrive the most under your leadership?” |
HR’s Action Plan based on 5-D Model of the AI Model
| AI Phase | HR Action | Example Use Case | Tools & Tactics |
|---|
| Define | Identify the core area of focus | Onboarding, feedback culture, or internal mobility | Goal-setting meetings, focus group prompts |
|---|
| Discover | Find what’s working well already | Ask employees: “What was your best onboarding moment?” | Surveys, 1:1 interviews, storytelling sessions |
|---|
| Dream | Co-create a vision of success | “What if new hires felt connected before Day 1?” | Vision boards, employee-led brainstorming |
|---|
| Design | Build systems to bring the dream to life | Rework onboarding touchpoints (welcome kit, buddy system) | Journey mapping, pilot plans, HR design sprints |
|---|
| Destiny | Assign ownership and track progress | Create volunteer squads to run pilots and scale success | Slack channels, Trello boards, internal showcases |
|---|
Food for Thought for HR
Where HR feels strangled to keep the optimistic energy flowing and keep team conflicts minimal at the workplace, the Appreciative Inquiry Model can come as a breeze to de-burden their load. All they must do is to shift their focus from ‘What is not working’ to ‘What is,’ to motivate employees to perform their best in the domain that aligns with their individual strength.