Exploring Appreciative Inquiry and Its Link to Creativity

The purpose of this project was to gain a deeper insight into Appreciative Inquiry and to understand possible connections between this philosophy of change and creativity in general and the creative process in particular. The intention of combining a literature research with a practical application was fourfold: Firstly, this approach would provide insight into the philosophy of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) and its methods and tools. Secondly, equipped with the background knowledge on creativity available to me from the creative studies program and beyond, I expected to discover some parallels and links from AI to creativity during my literature research. Thirdly, the actual application of the AI process as a novice in this field, relying on experience from the creativity area, would allow me to adapt the AI process according to my own judgment. Fourthly it would amplify my knowledge immensely to experience the whole AI process for myself. I found various commonalities between the Appreciative Inquiry and the Creative Problem solving process, ranging from their relation to change, their person focused position and their productive, constructive tenor, to more specific similarities as e.g. both covering comparable steps in their processes, like gathering data and designing certain steps to attain a goal. In sum for me these two processes go hand in hand very well, their strengths combine to a wholesome approach that is more productive and energetic than each of them alone. I found that I want to explore this combination in much more depth, as I saw great potential in taking a more optimistic view on creativity and using creative tools to bolster AI, one of the most effective know change methods today