Appreciative Inquiry Philosophy

Appreciative Inquiry relies on Social Constructionism as its fundamental understanding of the way that people and organizations perceive their reality and structure their existence. Social constructionism is part of a post-modern understanding of the nature of reality and owes significantly to the work of Ken Gergen.

In essence social constructionism postulates that our perception of reality is a social construction. This perception of reality, or the meaning we ascribe to reality, in turn is generative in that it leads to activity. In many situations the results of the activity are confirmatory of the original meaning. Arising from this social constructionist viewpoint is one of the assumptions of appreciative inquiry:

"What we focus on becomes our reality."
From Sue Hammond

Social Constructionism provides an understanding of the Pygmalion phenomena. When a group of equally talented children is divided into two and given to two equally talented teachers who are told that one group is bright and intelligent while the other is slow and dull, by the years end the supposed intelligent group will out perform the supposed dull class on measures of academic achievement. The perception of reality is self-fulfilling.

Likewise if we view congregations as dysfunctional, co-dependent, or troubled and seek to intervene in the congregation's life from that perspective we will only confirm our negative perception and further add to the congregation's problems. Alternatively if we see congregations as places where God is at work, loving and redeeming God's people then we will become enfolded in and part of that redemption.