Appreciative inquiry coaching
Appreciative inquiry coaching starts from what is already working and builds forward, rather than starting from a diagnosis of what is wrong. It comes from appreciative inquiry, an approach to organisational change associated with David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva. Most of the research is on organisational change and health-care settings, not on one-to-one coaching. In one review of twenty cases, seven showed transformational outcomes (Bushe & Kassam, 2005), so the evidence is real but mixed.
What it is
Appreciative inquiry coaching asks you to begin with a time when things went well, and to find out what made it work. The coach helps you describe the future you would want, then plan the next steps from strengths already present. Its central question is what is already here that can be built on, rather than what is wrong.
The approach follows a cycle often called the 4D model: discovery, dream, design and destiny (Trajkovski et al., 2013). Bushe and Kassam describe the cases they reviewed as following that cycle (2005). When the approach is used with one person, the cycle is adapted; the sources on this page do not test that version.
Where it comes from
David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva developed appreciative inquiry as a way of studying organisations. Cooperrider reflected on thirty years of the approach in a 2017 account (Cooperrider, 2017).
The approach then spread into health care, where its 4D cycle has been examined in methodological reviews of how the phases are carried out (Trajkovski et al., 2013).
The principles underneath
Start with what works
Inquiry begins with times when the system worked well, and asks what made those times possible.
Questions shape what gets built
The questions asked shape the future people imagine, so how a question is put matters as much as the answer it gets.
Asking is already a change
The conversation itself is treated as a change, rather than as preparation for one.
Dream before design
A picture of a preferred future comes before the plan for reaching it, so that the plan serves the picture.
Everyone with a stake is in the inquiry
The people affected are part of the inquiry rather than its subjects.
How a session runs
- Start with a moment, from your work or life, when things went well and you felt most like yourself.
- Describe in detail what made that moment work: what you did, who was there and what you valued.
- Ask what you would want more of if that same quality were present across your work or life.
- Choose one or two parts of that picture and sketch first steps for building on them.
- Agree what you will try, and how you will notice whether it is working.
- Start the next session with what has already moved.
When it tends to fit
- You keep returning to what is wrong with a problem and want a different starting point.
- Something has worked before, and you want to understand what made it work so that you can do more of it.
- You are planning a change and want the picture of the future to come before the list of problems.
What the research shows
Evidence: Some peer-reviewed studies
Research on appreciative inquiry is mostly about organisational change and health-care settings, not one-to-one coaching. A review of twenty cases of appreciative inquiry used to change social systems found transformational outcomes in seven, and it identified differences between those cases and the rest (Bushe & Kassam, 2005). A 2013 chapter by Bushe is titled 'Generative Process, Generative Outcome: The Transformational Potential of Appreciative Inquiry' (Bushe, 2013); this page reads it from its title alone. A methodological review examines how the four phases have been carried out in health care (Trajkovski et al., 2013). Cooperrider's 2017 account is a personal reflection on thirty years of the approach, not a trial (Cooperrider, 2017).
Where the evidence is thin: The studies are case reviews and methodological reviews, not randomised trials of coaching, and most of the twenty cases did not show transformational outcomes. None of the sources tested appreciative inquiry coaching directly.
Sources
- Cooperrider, D. (2017). The Gift of New Eyes: Personal Reflections after 30 Years of Appreciative Inquiry in Organizational Life. Research in Organizational Change and Development.
- Bushe, G. R., & Kassam, A. F. (2005). When Is Appreciative Inquiry Transformational? The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science.
- Bushe, G. R. (2013). Generative Process, Generative Outcome: The Transformational Potential of Appreciative Inquiry. In Organizational Generativity: The Appreciative Inquiry Summit.
- Trajkovski, S., Schmied, V., Vickers, M., & Jackson, D. (2013). Implementing the 4D cycle of appreciative inquiry in health care: a methodological review. Journal of Advanced Nursing.
Where it stops
The approach can feel forced when someone is in real pain: asking for a good story too early can sound like being told to cheer up. Trauma, grief that does not ease, or depression are better worked with a qualified professional first.
The research cited here is about organisational change and health services. The one-to-one coaching version has not been tested in these sources, so their results cannot be read straight across to it.
Focusing on what works can miss a problem that needs examining, such as a repeated pattern that is hurting you or someone else. Those are better taken to a qualified professional.
Practices for this approach
- The Miracle Question: Designing Your Life Without the Problem
A single question that unlocks preferred futures, concrete goals, and hidden exceptions
- Solution-Focused Brief Therapy: Building On What Works
Exceptions, preferred futures, and scaling — solution talk as a change technology
- Feedforward: Future-Focused Feedback That Actually Changes Behavior
Replacing critique with future-focused suggestions — and the mechanisms behind it
- Positive Psychology, Made Practical
PERMA and the well-being exercises, graded honestly on the evidence