A Preparation Workshop to Develop the Customized, Interview Protocol and Decide on an Inquiry Process
In actual client work both (1) the development of a customized protocol and (2) decisions about how to create the inquiry process are often done during a one- to three-day “preparation workshop.” This workshop typically takes place after the client system has decided that AI is the right approach for them. The attendees at this workshop are, ideally, a microcosm of the larger organization—reflecting as many of the different voices and constituencies that make up the organization as possible, including but not overemphasizing senior management. This group, often called the “core team,” will have been identified and selected as part of the concluding work of the first core AI process of “Define.” Whether this “core team” reports to and is supported by some senior steering group is a function of what was determined in the Define process when the question was asked: “What are the essential elements and conditions that need to be present for this change process to succeed?” Although AI is an energizing and exciting process, in larger organizations we have found it helpful to have some formal linkage between the “core team “and the existing senior management group, if only to ensure that the core team has the resources and support needed from the rest of the organization when necessary.
Typical goals of the preparation workshop are:
- To clarify the difference between the Al approach and the traditional change processes that focus on individual skill building and/or deficit-based problem solving;
- To help participants create their own AI interview guideline (customized protocol) for gathering information;
- To develop a plan (inquiry process) for collecting
information from the interviews and for working with it after it has been
collected, including:
- Who should be interviewed and how?
- Who should conduct the interviews and what training, if any, is needed?
- Who should be involved with the information after the interviews?
- Who should be involved in developing the image of the preferred future?
- Who should be involved in creating the “design” of the new organization?
Because the work that is done in this preparation workshop sets the foundation for the rest of the change process, selection of members of the core group is a critical task.
Seven Steps to Develop a Customized Interview Protocol and Plan an Inquiry Process
Step 1: Select a Core Group and Possibly a Steering Team
Step 2: Orient Participants to the Goals of the Workshop and to Their Role in Meeting the Goals
Step 3: Quickly Get Participants into an Experience of Al
Step 4: Debrief the Mini-Al Experience
Step 5: Share Highlights of the Interviews and Select Topics for Further Inquiry
Step 6: Create Questions to Be Added to the Four Generic Questions
Step 7: Develop the Inquiry Process
The rest of this chapter provides detail about each of these steps as well as notes, sample designs, handouts, and typical task sheets.
Step 1: Select a Core Group and Possibly a Steering Team
With the contact person from the organization, decide whether a formal steering team, composed of the internal and external consultants, along with a few other critical people with influence and/or control of resources is helpful or whether an informal working group is enough. Then select a core group to attend the preparation workshop. This core group is typically a small group and may or may not include all the members of the steering team or informal working group. The core group is selected whenever possible from representatives of each part of the organization and each staff level. Ask them to attend a meeting that will be the beginning of the Appreciative Inquiry process. The meeting can be done in one day; however, if you are working with multiple languages or a complex system, two to three days is much better.
At the beginning of an Appreciative Inquiry process with an organization, it is very important to talk about the inclusive and democratic nature of the work. Encourage the client to involve, as quickly as possible, people from all parts of the organization. The more diversity you have in the core group, which is your planning team, the more you will be working in the spirit and philosophy of AI.
The task of selecting members of the “core group” usually falls to someone in the organization. When possible, work with that person and explain the importance of multiple perspectives and voices. A “diagonal” slice of the organization works well.
The “core group” is the group that creates a Customized Interview Guide and plans the inquiry. It is helpful to have a core group of a few people who will work with you throughout the process to link you to the organization and to co-create the steps in AI. Planning groups can be as small as three or four and as large as twenty or thirty, although in the latter case it is wise to have a core team or three or four who are primary contacts.
Step 2: Orient Participants to the Goals of the Workshop and to Their Role in Meeting the Goals
Begin the preparation workshop by explaining the purpose of the workshop, the agenda, the way you want to work together, and with an introductory exercise. Discuss any logistical issues like location of Rest Rooms, information about the site, etc. Allow time for questions and answers. Using information from the sheet titled “Topic Choice: A Fateful Act” from Chapter 6 explain to the group the importance of the work they will be doing in this step of an Appreciative Inquiry.
Actual Goals and Agenda for a Two-Day Preparation Workshop
This example is drawn from our work with a transnational pharmaceutical company that had asked us to “evaluate” the impact of a major training program that had been conducted by their internal HR/OD division. In attendance at this workshop were members of the staff (both internal OD staff and scientists) who had designed the program.
The five goals of this two-day preparation workshop were:
1. To clarify the difference between the AI approach to valuation and traditional evaluation approaches.
- Introduce Appreciative Inquiry
- Discuss the shifting paradigm
- Examine the theory of change that underlies this approach (leave time for discussion and Q&A)
- Present Appreciative Inquiry principles and practices
2. To agree on desired outcomes and critical success factors for this evaluation process and how we will get there.
- Discuss the desired outcomes and critical success factors
- Discuss the major phases of the Al Valuation approach and agree on a way forward
3. Jointly develop a customized draft interview protocol for gathering stories using this approach and to practice it.
- Importance of how we capture data and what data to record
- Create a draft customized interview protocol
- Practice AI interviewing skills
4. Jointly create a plan for collecting and making meaning of the evaluation data.
- Identify stakeholders
- Key steps in data collection
- Collect, organize, and compile the information
5. To agree on next steps (actions, responsibilities and dates) for all on the team.
The design of the preparation workshop is shown in Table 5.1.
Introductions for a Mini-AI Interview
- Choose a partner you don’t know or that you want
to know better. Ask the following questions of each other. You will have five
minutes each for the interview.
- Tell me a story about a time in your life when you have felt particularly joyful, creative, successful—a real high point. Make yourself the hero/heroine of the story. Give me the details about what happened, who was there, what you did, etc.
- Without being humble, tell me what it is that you value most about yourself.
- After everyone has finished this mini interview, introduce your partner to the group by sharing a high point in his or her life and one thing that he or she values about him- or herself that you learned from your interview.
Table 5.1. Design for Two-Day Preparation Workshop
Step 3: Quickly Get Participants into an Experience of Al
Introduce the generic interview (that is, the four generic questions) by giving a simple explanation of Al as a different approach to understanding organizations (five minutes). These four questions form a useful preliminary protocol which exemplifies the spirit of Al, while also being easily modified to fit whatever topic the organization has chosen to focus on. For example, in the four-hour workshop presented in Chapter 4, the questions were modified for an academic setting. The people involved in that workshop, having interviewed each other using these questions, went on to work with the data from their own responses to (1) design an overall inquiry architecture which engaged, students, parents, school faculty and staff, school board members, and senior administration within this school system and (2) to develop not one but three customized interview protocols—one for faculty and staff, one for students, and one for other key stakeholders such as parents, senior administration, and school board members. Assign the interview task and review the tips on how to do an Appreciative Interview.
Sample Language for Introducing the Generic Interview
“Appreciative Interviews differ from traditional interviews in that the questions are simply guidelines that lead the person being interviewed to delve into the most creative, exciting, life-giving experiences that they have had in their life and work. It is not as important to answer every question as it is to tell a complete story, evoking the situation complete with details of what happened and the feelings involved. The goal is to help the person doing the interviewing experience as much as possible the situation being described. The interviewer’s role is to LISTEN, occasionally prompting the interviewee to be more descriptive or to enlarge the story. This part of the process is like a monologue by the person being interviewed.”
The Four Generic Questions
The development of the customized interview protocol is frequently done by having core team members in the preparation workshop interview each other using a slightly modified version of the Four Generic Questions shown below:
1. Best Experience: Tell me about the best times that you have had with your organization. Looking at your entire experience, recall a time when you felt most alive, most involved, or most excited about your involvement. What made it an exciting experience? Who was involved? Describe the event in detail.
2. Values: What are the things you value deeply; specifically, the things you value about yourself, your work, and your organization:
a. Yourself: Without being humble, what do you value most about yourself -as a human being, a friend, a parent, a citizen, and so on?
b. Your Work: When you are feeling best about your work, what do you value most about it?
c. Your Organization: What is it about your organization that you value? What is the single most important thing that your organization has contributed to your life?
3. Core Life-Giving Factor or Value: What do you think is the core life-giving factor or value of your organization? What is it that, if it did not exist, would make your organization totally different than it currently is?
4. Three Wishes: If you had three wishes for this organization, what would they be?
Sample Task Statement for the Paired Interview Using the Four Generic Questions
Note: Prior to giving this explanation, you should display a flip-chart page showing the four generic questions, which will be used as the basis for this exercise.
“Select a partner you do not know well or someone you’d like to know better. Participant 1 of the partners will interview Participant 2 for thirty minutes (or up to one hour, depending on the time available) using the questions shown on the flip chart. The interviewer’s role is to ask the questions, to encourage the interviewee to be very descriptive and to expand his or her story. The person being interviewed is encouraged to tell the story in language that evokes the feelings and the experience so that the interviewer can feel that he or she really understands the event.
After the allotted time, the partners change roles and Participant 2 conducts the same interview with Participant 1.
Everything we do from here on in will depend on the data from these interviews, so please listen intently and make note of words, phrases, and ideas that are present when the person being interviewed is telling an exciting story of a creative and successful experience.”
Step 4: Debrief the Mini-Al Experience
After the paired generic interviews are completed, bring the group together and conduct a short discussion about how it felt to do this process. Make your own comments about what you noticed—the high energy level, the buzz of excitement in the room, the way people were interacting with each other. Give the group a presentation on “What Is Appreciative Inquiry” using the material from Chapter 4 (although you can skip the mini inquiry experience described in Chapter 4). Answer any questions the group has.
Hints on Debriefing the Paired Generic Interview Experience
Ask the group to brainstorm “What was that experience like for you?” It’s very important to keep the group focused on debriefing the “process” of the experience rather than getting into the “content” of the questions or the responses. They will have plenty of time to do that later. It’s also useful to write the short one- to three-word brainstorm responses on a flip chart. This honors all the responses—even those that are not overly positive. Don’t worry if you get a few responses that say the interview was difficult, etc. Remember that this sort of interviewing is counter-cultural for most people and generates a level of closeness between interviewer and interviewee that is not comfortable for some people.
Be patient and highlight the affirmative responses while acknowledging this is a different sort of interview process and they will have a chance to modify it later.
Step 5: Share Highlights of the Interviews and Select Topics for Further Inquiry
Have the groups share the highlights from the stories they heard and select topics. After compiling a list of the major topics in the stories, the group decides on three to five topics that they want to know more about. (If the group is eight or fewer, you can work in one group.) Break larger groups into small groups of two to four interview partners (six to eight people) and have each group do the task.
In a small group, these decisions can be made through dialogue and consensus building. If there are several small groups doing the same task, you can have each group’s work posted on a wall and create a “scatter gram.” To do this, you will need either stickers such as dots or colored markers. Ask the participants to study all of the lists, decide on their three most important topics, and put a sticker or a mark on each of those three. This will give you a visual image of which topics are most important. Then the group can discuss and decide upon the final three to five topics from those that have the most marks.
Sample Task Statement for Topic Identification
“For each question, each person shares what he or she heard—the best story, things that were the most meaningful, good ideas, etc.—as descriptively as possible. (Be careful not to share stories that were told to you confidentially. Ask your partner’s permission if you are unsure.)
“As you listen to the stories, make notes of important topics that seem to be present when people are living into their values as demonstrated in the stories.
“Using your notes, create a list of the topics that have emerged from all the interviews.
“Decide on several topics that the whole group thinks are very important and make a list of those. A recorder captures the topics, ideas, and high points on the flip chart. Have a group discussion about this list.
“At the end, discover the most important overall topics that are the core factors that have given life and vitality to the organization and its work in the world. These will be the topics that you will be asking questions about in the interview guide that you will create for your organization.”
Sample Topics from a Variety of Organizations
From an African NGO
- Spiritual Values
- Commitment to Grassroots
- Development of Human Potential
- Teamwork
From a Financial Institution
- Being the Best
- Shared Ownership
- Cooperation Across Boundaries
- Integrity in Customer Service
- Empowering People
From a Health Delivery Organization
- Winning Organization
- Excellent Service and Quality
- Sense of Ownership
Sample Handout on “Topic Choice—A Fateful Act”
Topic selection is the next step in the Appreciative Inquiry process. Careful, thoughtful, and informed choice of topics is important, as it defines the scope of the inquiry, providing the framework for subsequent interviews and data collection. Topic choice is a fateful act. Your organization will move in the direction of the topics they inquire about.
In choosing topics, you are encouraged to be imaginative and creative. Select topics that are positive affirmations of the strengths of your organization and the powerful entity it seeks to become. Remember …
- Topic choice is a fateful act
- Organizations move in the direction of inquiry
- Involve those who have an important stake in the future in choosing the topics to explore
- Two days or more may be required to identify the additional topics
- Everyone is an active participant
- Diversity is essential
- Vocabulary is not ‘just semantic”—words create worlds
- People commit to topics they have helped develop
Other General Guidelines
- Encourage participants to choose a reasonable number of topics so there will be a manageable number of questions in the customized protocol.
- Topics are phrased in affirmative terms.
- Topics are driven by curiosity—spirit of discovery.
- Topics are genuinely desired—people want more of these in the organization.
Step 6: Create Questions to Be Added to the Four Generic Questions
Using the selected topics that the group wants to know more about, write interview questions about those topics. Use those questions, plus questions from the Generic Interview Sheet to construct an interview guide for your organization.
Sample Task Statement for Creating Additional Interview Questions
“Using the chosen topics, create additional questions for the Interview Guide. Make the questions appreciative and affirmative, focused on stories, details, feelings, words that evoke the situation as the person actually experienced it in all of its excitement and creativity.
“Put a complete interview protocol document together as you want to use it in your data gathering. The question formulated for each topic is added to the four generic questions to form a complete Interview Guide that will be used to interview stakeholders in your organization. You may want to write some introductory material to explain the project and the purpose of the interview.”
Sample Handout “Creating the Interview Guide, the Customized Protocol”
Creating the interview guide is an exciting task: What we ask determines what we “find.” What we find determines how we talk. How we talk determines how we imagine together. How we imagine together determines what we achieve.
There are typically five parts to the interview guide, as follows:
1. Stage-setting questions
2. Best experience question focused on the general area of inquiry, such as best learning environment or best cross-gender relationships or best team experience, etc.
3. Values question focused on what people value most about themselves, their work, and their organization
4. Additional questions using topics identified in the topic selection process
5. Concluding questions—somewhat more open, externally focused and offering a place in the interview for identifying things the person wants to change. For example:
- What are the core factors that give life to this organization?
- Looking toward the future, what are we being called to become?
- What three wishes do you have for the future of the organization?
Sample Handout “Key Considerations in Crafting Questions for an Appreciative Inquiry
Effective questions …
1. Are stated in the affirmative and describe what is wanted, rather than what isn’t wanted.
2. Build on the assumption that “the glass is half full” (not half empty!). Because Appreciative Inquiry is based on the belief that positive affect is as contagious as negative affect, Al questions are consciously and intentionally in search of the generative, the creative, the moments of achievement and of joy. Therefore, questions can be preceded by an explanation of the positive intent of the question. AI is seeking the half-full vantage point.
3. Give a broad definition to the topic. (This is OK. Broad definitions give room to “swim around.”)
4. Are presented as an invitation to tell stories—rather than an inquisition about “facts,” for example, “Tell me a story about a time when. …”
5. Value “what is.” They spark the appreciative imagination by helping the person locate experiences that are worth valuing.
6. Convey unconditional positive regard of the person and his or her involvement.
7. Evoke essential values, aspirations and inspirations.
Following are some examples of “half-full” questions.
Leadership. People in this organization have described leadership as the act of facilitating people to come together to accomplish the things they want to do. By assuming leadership, a person or organization helps the people focus and realize their desires and goals that reflect their highest values for achieving the common good. We like the following quotations:
“The best leader is the one that when the job is done the people say, ‘We did it ourselves.’” Lao Tsu
“Here are my people going; let me follow them because I am their leader.” Ghandi
Describe a time or occasion when you experienced this kind of leadership. Tell us a story about it. Be very descriptive. What happened? Who was involved?
Shared Vision and Ownership. Based on actual experiences in this company, members of our core group have concluded that organizations work best when everyone thinks, acts, and feels like an owner of the business. That sense of ownership is highest when there is a shared vision for where the business is heading in the future, when people are involved in major decisions that are relevant to them and their work, when appropriate information about the business is shared openly, when people know the whole picture in terms of other’s tasks or jobs, and when people feel they are at the center of things rather than on the outside.
Tell me a story about a time when you felt most involved in the “big picture” of the organization, a time when you felt most like a partner or even owner of the business. What can we all learn from this experience?
Think about the future, what could this organization do more of to create a shared vision of the future and a heightened sense of ownership at all levels?
Examples of a Complete Customized Protocol
Note: This protocol begins with the opening statement for the customized protocol from the “valuation” project with the transnational pharmaceutical company.
“Thank you for giving time to participate in this evaluation study. We are coming to the end of the rollout of the discovery simulation in its current form. So the purpose of this evaluation study is to gather information on:
- How people have made connections from the simulation experience to their everyday work
- How we might follow up and further leverage the simulation in the company
- How we might enhance our use of simulations within the company in the future
“Before we start. I would like to explain a little bit about what we are going to do because it may be different from what you are used to. This is going to be an ‘appreciative interview.’ I am going to ask you questions about times when you see things working at their BEST. Many times interviews such as this ask questions about things that aren’t working well—the problems—so that we can fix them. In this case, we’re trying to find out about things at their best—the successes—so that we can find out what works and do more of the things that work.
“I’m interested in identifying and understanding those areas and situations where your participation in the discovery simulation has helped you in your work. I’m interested in you and your work and in understanding more about those times when you feel you are excelling and any connections that you might make between that and the discovery simulation.
“All the information provided will be treated as anonymous and will be used to ensure that the company is capitalizing on its investment in the discovery simulation. My interest today is in learning from you and your experiences. I will be summarizing the information I capture today with data from other interviews. No names (unless permitted) will be associated with the overall summary or report. Please let me know if you are interested in receiving the summary and we will make sure to send it to you. The probable time frame is two to three months from now.
“I’m confident that it is through these collected comments, experiences, and suggestions that we will find what enlivens the Discovery organization and how the simulation contributes to making it a better place to work. The interview takes approximately one hour. Do you have any questions?”
Actual Interview Protocol for Participants in Discovery Simulation
1. Before we get to the questions about the discovery simulation, I’d like to know a bit about your experience here at (the company) and I’d like to do it in the style of Appreciative Inquiry. Could you tell me a story about a time at [this company] when you felt particularly excited, creative, productive? What happened? Who was involved? What part did you play?
2. Now I’d like to ask you about your participation in the discovery simulation. Can you tell me a story about a high point when you felt excited and engaged in the course of participating in the discovery simulation? Looking back at that experience, what made it exciting? Who was involved? Describe the event in detail. Are there other high points? Probe: What did you learn that you valued?
3. One of the purposes of the discovery simulation is to provide opportunities for you to learn about both the Discovery process and about your style of working with a team. The desired outcome is for you to feel that the things you experienced during the workshop are useful in your work in the organization and in your life in general.
a. In that context, can you tell me some examples (stories) of ways that the things you experienced during the simulation workshop have had a positive impact on your work and/or the quality of your life at work? Tell me a story about that. What happened? Can you tell me another story (example)?
b. [Give a copy of the list below to the person you are interviewing.] As you look at this list, are there any stories that come to mind on any of these areas?
- Your leadership style and skills
- Your interaction with other departments
- Your membership on a project team
- Your ability to champion your research effort
- Ability to manage projects
- Planning/strategy of your existing research effort
- Willingness to take risk
- Make decisions, that is, termination; go, no-go; phase change, etc.
- Managing in the context of the discovery portfolio
c. If you had three wishes for how we leverage our investment in the discovery simulation program, what would they be? (Future simulations? Things that would be helpful to you on your job in the future? Ideas for further use of this simulation? Etc.?)
4. Now, I’d like to ask you a few questions about the discovery organization itself:
a. What is it that you value most about the discovery organization?
b. In your opinion, what is the core value (driving force; essence; underlying principle; life giving force) of the discovery organization. What is it that, if it did not exist, would make the discovery organization totally different than it is now?
c. The future of organizations is greatly impacted by the images we hold. Our images are often expressed in our desires and hopes for the future. In that context: if you had three wishes for the future of the discovery organization, what would they be?
Step 7: Develop the Inquiry Process
Create a stakeholder scan—a list of individuals or groups you know to have a stake in the outcomes of the change process. Decide whether you want to have core group members conduct multiple interviews or whether you want to bring large groups of people together in an AI Summit meeting—or some combination of both. Create a plan for how the data will be synthesized and who will be involved in the development of the image of the preferred future and the “design” phase of the AI process.
Successful data collection/narrative exploration requires the identification of key stakeholders in your organization—those who have a vested interest in or strong impact on the organization’s growth and future and who can supply you with valuable insights into your selected topic area(s). After identifying the stakeholders, you will need to make arrangements for preparing your interview questionnaire, collecting the data, recording the information, and collating or distributing the data. The data you collect at this stage will serve as the basis for the next stage—creating the organizational dream.
Sample Handout: “The Stakeholder Scan”
Stakeholders are those people who have a stake in the organization’s future. They may be inside or outside the formal boundaries of your organization. Categories of stakeholders might include:
- Employees (various segments and levels)
- Board of directors
- Funders
- Regulatory agencies
- Neighbors of the organization
- Unions
- Vendors/suppliers
- Alliances/partner organizations
- Clients/customers
- Family members
- Competitors
- Etc.
Task: Once the group has finished writing their Interview Guide, have them brainstorm all of the possible people who could be interviewed. It is fun to make a large chart of this and to write names in different areas or colors according to their connection to the organization. Once they have all possible names, you will need to help them decide how many interviews they can reasonably do and to identify those people on their list that are the most important to be interviewed. Remember that the same guidelines apply to those interviewed as to the team itself—maximum diversity!
Task: Create an assignment sheet that lists:
Task: Finally, create a report sheet for the interviewers to fill out after each interview. An example of such a sheet follows. However, there are many ways to organize the information from the interviews and it is important that the members of the organization be clear on what they want to capture and how.
Example of an Interview Summary/Report Sheet—Pharmaceutical Company Valuation Project
Task: Ask interviewers to fill this sheet out immediately after their interview.
Interviewee name:
Department:
Years of experience in this company:
Current roles in the company:
Past roles in the company:
Date/location of simulation attended:
DMC/team member/other in the simulation:
Interview location (US/UK):
Interviewer name:
Date of this interview:
Stories
- What were the most compelling stories that came out of this interview about the simulation workshop?
- What were the most compelling stories that came out of this interview about how the learnings were applied?
Learnings
- What were other learnings/applications reported in this interview?
Wishes
- What were the three wishes for the discovery simulation?
- What were the three wishes for the discovery organization?
Values
- What were the individual values?
- What was the core value for the discovery organization?
Quotes
- What were the most quotable quotes that came out of the interview? (What questions do these relate to?)
Implications
- What did you learn through this interview that will make a difference in how you/your company plans and manages other training designs?
Creating a “Report” of the Interview Data
There are many ways to use the information from the interviews at this point. The important thing is to make it available to the whole community, especially to that part of the community that will be working on the Dream and Design phases. Of course, it is always preferable to have as much of the organization as possible involved at every phase. Work with the people who are available, and always build into any planning some ideas for ways to gain consensual validation from the whole organization.
If you create a summary sheet for each interview (see the example above), it is possible to compile all of that information by category. Another possibility is to create a “story” book that captures the most compelling stories and quotes. Another way is to have continuing dialogue in many different places with a wide cross-section of the organization.
The important thing at this point is to understand that the information gathered and compiled is the raw material for the dreams for the organization, those visions that people in the organization create based on the best of what is as told in the stories (continuity) to inspire the articulation of the best of what will be (novelty). The Design and Delivery stages create the transition processes that create the desired future.
The final work of this second core process is the generation of an agreement on the process (plan) for the inquiry. The core team, during the preparation workshop, typically does this work once the rationale for the use of stories is understood and the customized protocol has been developed. In the event that the core team reports to a guidance group, it is obviously advisable to have ongoing connections between the core team and that group as the core team works out its plan to move the AI process forward. These connections might be as formal as having one or more members of the guidance group be a part of the core team’s deliberations during the preparation workshop or the connections might be as informal as having core team members “buddy up” over lunches or coffee with their counterparts on the guidance team.
The role of the consultant here is to co-create with the client system in a manner that continues to ensure that the change process is “owned” by members of the client system and not the consultant. This may mean helping the client system (in this case the core team and others) explore the various choices and scenarios for each of the five questions relating to the development of an Inquiry Architecture. It may also require the consultant/AI practitioner to help client system members apply the five core principles of AI to their discussion of the inquiry process. For example, the traditional guideline for determining how many people to interview revolves around the concept of “representative sampling,” getting the minimal number of people identified from whom you could create a so-called “accurate picture of the situation.” Our five AI principles, however, suggest an interviewing strategy that is as inclusive as possible, a strategy that recognizes that by engaging as many people as possible we are creating a highly unusual but positive form of energy, a form of critical mass moving in the direction of the inquiry questions.
For example, the Constructionist Principle reminds us that it is through dialogue that we learn about and make sense of our world. The Principle of Simultaneity reminds us that through our act of asking questions we shift the focus of the dialogues. The Anticipatory Principle reminds us that we are drawn toward the images we create in our dialogues—particularly when they are attractive images of the future. We also know from the Poetic Principle that when people are involved in story telling, they will be involved not only at the level of their heads but also at the level of their hearts. In addition, we know from the Positive Principle that as people start to talk about life-giving forces during the interviews, the positive affect created will be highly contagious.