The Relevance of AI to Complex, Transformative, Change
Although Appreciative Inquiry is a useful approach to change in any human system at any scale—individuals, dyads, the group (team or family), neighborhoods, and communities—our focus in this book is toward the use of AI in the more complex levels of human systems. We will describe a process that can be used in organizations that are multi-functional and multi-level with multiple stakeholder systems operating in unstable environments. In such complex organizations the sociotechnical architecture, the organizational culture, and the interactions of individuals are highly interconnected—conditions present in for-profit, not-for-profit, or public service organizations.
Change in the essence of such complex organizations may begin, for example, with any of the following seven areas, realizing that transformative change always impacts several or all of the other areas. The seven intertwined areas of transformative change (Beckhard & Pritchard, 1992):
1. Change in the kind of work done within the organization and how it is done in the pursuit of producing the organizations service or product;
2. Change in the roles people hold and the relationships they have with each other;
3. Change in the identity of the organization in the marketplace;
4. Change in the relationship of the organization to customers and the outside world;
5. Change in the mission of the organization;
6. Change in the culture of the organization; and
7. Change in the organizations processes for adapting to continuous shifts in the organizations environment.