Appreciative Inquiry Resources

This page has links to a variety of interview protocols and other resources that are available in ".pdf" format. You may use these in their entirety or adapt them for use to meet a specific need. These resources will also describe some of the appreciative inquiry strategies and outlook.

Note: Many of the resources are provided in ".pdf" format.
Click on the button to obtain a free copy of Acrobat Reader.

If you have created protocols for specific needs and would like to share them with others, we would be happy to post them here with attribution to you and your work. For more information about posting a resource contact Rob Voyle

• Appreciative Inquiry generic interview guide for churches
  This guide has the four generic questions used in an initial discovery process for developing an organizational strategic plan or sense of mission for a church. If a congregational has a poorly defined sense of mission or is seeking a major organizational redevelopment this guide is a useful beginning place. Depending on the information discovered a more specific interview guide may be developed to inquire specifically into areas that the generic uncover.
• Appreciative Inquiry generic interview guide for organizations.
  This is a similar four generic questions designed for use in a secular organization rather than a church.
• Guide to Training Interviewers
  Developed by John Robinson this guide provides an outline for training church members in the art of appreciative interviewing.

The following interview guides are designed to meet specific needs and show how the interview process can be developed to inquire into any aspect of corporate or individual life.

• Appreciative Inquiry interview guide for work place introductions
  This interview guide can be used to introduce people to one another as part of developing team cohesiveness.
• Vestry Retreat Interview Guide
  This interview guide is designed for a Vestry retreat to:
        Positively energize members of the Vestry,
        Develop strategic plans and goals for the year,
        Make explicit what is valuable in the congregation,
        Make the vestry experience creative and rewarding.
• Church Council retreat interview guide.
  This is the same as the Vestry guide with language changed for use
  with a "Church Council."
• Interview guide for personal ministry development.
  This guide was developed as part of a ministry development guide in which the participants learned the process of appreciative inquiry by conducting an inquiry into their own ministry. From the basis of the inquiry participants ere then able to articulate their own personal mission or vocation
• Interview guide for clergy beginning new ministry.
  This guide was developed to identify positive experiences and resources related to making personal changes. It was used as part of a retreat for clergy beginning new ministries.
• Making our Church a safe place for children.
  This interview guide was developed as a partial alternative to traditional child abuse prevention seminar materials mandated for Sunday school teachers and youth workers. Rather than focus on "what not to do" this interview guide seeks stories of participant's experiences of being treated with dignity and being safe as a child. This material is then incorporated into teaching participants how to increase the safety of children in church settings.
• Interview guide for compassion. The interview guide is based on the work of Stephen Gilligan's three facets of compassion: tenderness, fierceness, and mischievousness. It was used as part of a daylong workshop entitled: "Compassion a way of being in the world." Compassion: The Crazy Wisdom of Jesus. This article on compassion by Rob Voyle is based on Gilligan's work and is a chapter from a forth coming book and examines the ways Jesus used the three facets and how we can use them in our work.

Additional Resources

• Imagine a church protocol.
  This protocol is a guided imagery exercise for use after the Discovery phase and part of the Dream phase. Participants are invited to imagine a church in which the best experiences, values and wishes from the Discovery phase are incorporated. This imagined church is then used as a basis for creative art work prior to writing a mission statement or "Provocative propositions" as they are known in AI circles.
• Appreciative Inquiry 5D Model for churches
  This one page model contains the spiral and explanation found on the Appreciative Inquiry page. The model is suitable as a handout for use in introducing appreciative inquiry to others interested in its application in churches.
• Appreciative Inquiry 5D Model for organizations
  This is a one page model generic model that is suitable as a handout for use in introducing appreciative inquiry to others in secular settings.
• Transactional Analysis and Appreciative Inquiry
  This model uses the " I'm OK, You're OK" language of Transactional Analysis to describe how we use appreciative inquiry to provide a context for people to engage one another in a mutual affirming "We are OK" manner.
• Ministry Valuation Page
  This page contains a description and rationale for using an appreciative inquiry process as part of a review of a congregation's ministry. A comparison of traditional performance appraisals and an appreciative process is described.
• Additional resources and links can be found on the literature and links pages.