APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY
AND DESIGN THINKING

Both AI and DT come from a human-centred approach to change. They believe that people can think for themselves, be creative and take charge if the conditions are in place for them to have the autonomy to move things forward.

FMA have been working with AI for many years and have consistently found that it delivers positive outcomes and higher levels of engagement than traditional problem solving methodologies.

Design Thinking takes this to another level, especially around the process of Empathy Journeys and Practical Prototyping. It provides quick and cheap ways of testing and learning, inviting us to fail fast and learn quick.

 

 

Here some Design Thinking Stories.

Resource: Appreciative Inquiry

At its heart, AI is about the search for the best in people, their organisations, and the strengths-filled, opportunity-rich world around them.

AI is not so much a shift in the methods and models of organisational change, but is a fundamental shift in the overall perspective taken throughout the entire change process to ‘see’ the wholeness of the human system and to ‘inquire’ into that system’s strengths, possibilities, and successes.

Useful for

  • Framing large scale conversations
  • Identifying what people care about
  • Connecting to the positive
  • Involving diverse stakeholders

Resource: Appreciative Inquiry

Helpful additional information

Watch a simple film that works through the 4D process.

 

This set of frameworks will allow you to plan and carry out an Appreciative Inquiry. It provides all of the resources (or templates for printing), timings and guidance on the format of questions with the space for you to make these specific to your AI.

Please come to us directly if you need support or you would like to run your plan past us.

Resource: Design Thinking – including 2D, 3D and 4D

The Design Thinking process complements thinking around Appreciative Inquiry, Problem Solving and Process Improvement/Improvement Science and provides a framework that ensures that the design, testing and implementation of change/improvement is human centred and begins and ends with empathy for the people who use services.

In this thinking the work is to look at how change activists can have generative conversations that gather stories and insights from all parts of the system. This will include gathering stories and insights from where things are working really well, not well at all and in the middle – a full spectrum.

The question is: ‘How do we develop people to take that information and creatively iterate and prototype, before they move to testing the change through improvement methods such as the PDSA cycle?

The programme will support people to use Design Thinking, undergoing deep empathy journeys with people who use services and taking creative steps to iterate real game changing ideas.

Useful for

  • Using as a framework to create change
  • Combining many of the resources that are in the Blue Box
  • Engaging teams and people who use services in co-creating the future of products or services

 Resource: Design Thinking – including 2D, 3D and 4D

Helpful additional information

These two short films look at prototyping in different ways

These are useful additional resources.

Additional Resources: Design Thinking – including 2D, 3D and 4D