THIS FINAL PROCESS ENGAGES (as always) as many members of the organization as possible in bringing to life on a daily and local basis the new images of the future, both the overall visions of the dream stage and the more specific provocative propositions of the redesign stage. It is a time of continuous learning, adjustment, and improvisation. The momentum and potential for innovation is extremely high by this stage of the overall AI process.

For example, one organization transformed its department of evaluation studies, to valuation studies, dropping the “e,” and with it the accumulated negative connotations that have attached themselves to the word “evaluation.” Others have transformed almost every possible function of an organization, changing deficit processes to appreciative ones—focus group methods, surveys, performance appraisal systems, leadership training programs, diversity initiatives, strategic planning, client development, quality management, business process redesign, technology implementation, union management, and employee relations, as well as authority and responsibility structures, roles, and information systems all functioning in an appreciative mode. These changes inevitably create higher levels of excitement, enthusiasm for the work, and commitment from the people involved.

There are many stories about what happens in this “Design” phase of Appreciative Inquiry. One thing is for certain—and no doubt quite clear to you by now—there is no one way to carry this forward. There exist many good participative methods for organization design that can be combined with the appreciative perspective of AI. Those combinations lead to generative and creative ways to structure the organization while, at the same time, enabling those in the organization to use the appreciative approach for acclimating to the inevitable shifts and changes. It is not new news to suggest people will acclimate readily to an organizational structure based on the best of what is and reaching toward the best that can be, particularly if those same people were part of the process that created the environment for such change.

So how does organization design or redesign deal with traditional resistance to change? What happens when the old models and processes that have been so reliable in the past no longer work? How can organizations survive in such a rapid pace of change? Employees in organizations have reached a breakpoint!¹ It is very likely that the methods, models, and solutions that have worked in the past are now not only useless, but often counterproductive.

What, in the real world, is going on today in the giant organizations of every kind imaginable around the globe that face the challenge of keeping up with the unbelievable rate of change in this 21st Century—a rate of change that is speeding up exponentially? It is, indeed, a new reality and an extremely challenging one for those who cling to the ideas of certainty and predictability. And along with the changes taking place in large organizations, those who work as management consultants or organization development professionals are equally challenged by the expanding rate of change and the shifting nature of “reality”!

On a more hopeful note, in the past decade the rate of innovative solutions to problems that didn’t even exist a decade ago, along with creative ways (such as AI) of working in human systems, offers a bit of gold at the end of the rainbow. A classic example is Stavros and Hinrichs’ (2009) The Thin Book of SOAR (Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results), which has spread in the “planning” world of organizations. SOAR replaces SWOT, the traditional planning process of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Mainstream and often widely known and used planning processes like Six Sigma and Lean for organizations are beginning to consider adaptations that use Appreciative Inquiry or other generative and positive processes for change in human systems. One set of processes increasingly successful in these times are the ones that deal with “whole system” change. Many of them are very adaptable and are easily aligned with working from a positive, forward-looking perspective. Included among these methods that work very effectively from the appreciative perspective are:

• The Conference Method™ (Axelrod, 1999)
• Participative Design Workshop (Emery, 1993)
• Open Space (Owens, 1992)
• Whole System Design™ (Mohr & Levine, 1998)
• The ABC Model (Watkins & Cooperrider, 2000)
• Future Search (Weisbord, 1994)
• World Café (Brown, Isaacs, & The World Café Community, 2005)
• The Appreciative Inquiry Summit (Whitney & Cooperrider, 2000)

The key to sustaining the momentum is to build an “appreciative eye” into all the organization’s systems, procedures, and ways of working. Because AI is of the new paradigm, each time you work with it will be different. It has the power of being totally unique to any group that chooses to take this route to organization transformation and renewal.

This core process is ongoing. In the best case, it is full of continuing dialogue; revisited and updated possibility discussions and statements; additional interviewing sessions especially with new members of the organization; and, a high level of innovation and continued learning. And perhaps the most important learning that comes from this continuous process is about what it means to create an organization that is socially constructed through poetic processes in a positive frame that makes full use of people’s anticipatory images and of the realization that inquiry IS change!