Introduction: Appreciative Inquiry in Coaching:
Exploration and Learnings

 

by Barbara Sloan and Trudy Canine

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) Coaching is the practical application of AI Principles to the process in which a trained Coach is engaged by a person (or by an organization on behalf of a person) to function as a counselor and advisor.

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This article explores how mindfulness of Social Construction can enhance coaching and the results it achieves. The author presents guidelines for effectively engaging others in the client’s social system in generative conversations that support both the client and their wider organization or social system. Using this new approach, individuals and their systems are able to create and sustain meaningful and productive change.

Section 1 : Foundations

An Inquiry into AI in Coaching

by Trudy Canine

This article highlights results of interviews with 35 coaching practitioners from the United States, Europe and Australia who have integrated Appreciative Inquiry (AI) with their coaching work. The author, herself a coach for many years, also shares her own insights about how AI has enhanced her coaching effectiveness and contributed to her clients’ successful results.

Section 2: Ai and other cCaching Approaches

Five-Principle Coaching

by Bob Tschannen-Moran

In this article, Bob Tschannen-Moran explores the meaning of the five principles of
Appreciative Inquiry and their usefulness in coaching. Along with the popular “how-to”
approach of the 5-D cycle, conscious and specific application of how the five AI principles
relate to and work with each other promotes the dynamic shifts and new possibilities sought for by coaches and clients alike. By appreciating the syntax of the five AI principles, coaches know what to listen for and how to coach people for transformational change.

Section 2: Ai and other Coaching Approaches

 Personalising the Power of the Positive: AI and Ontological Coaching

 
by Carole S. Napolitano

Although Appreciative Inquiry (AI) typically refers to the 4-stage (Discover, Dream, Design, Destiny) methodology originally designed to facilitate whole-system change, one of the strengths of the appreciative approach, broadly considered, is its applicability in a variety of developmental situations including coaching in general and ontological coaching in particular. This essay explores the complementarity between AI and ontological
coaching and offers some examples of how elements of AI can be incorporated in an
ontological coaching conversation and, conversely, how ontological distinctions can inform the AI process.

Section 2: Ai and other Coaching Approaches

Coaching for Renewal

 
by Dianne Newell

Post-modern-leadership, well adapted to today’s complex shifting organisations, demands
that leaders bring themselves to work with skill to foster organisational renewal. To do so
leaders must practice renewal themselves, and the work of the coach becomes to foster renewal and practices of personal renewal in their clients. What is post-modern leadership, and what does it demand of the leader? What is renewal, and how can a coach work to foster it as a practice? And what are the implications for coaches themselves?
This article explores the concepts and shows how an appreciative approach underpins
coaching for renewal.

Section 2: Ai and other Coaching Approaches

Building Capacity for Change:
The Power of The Body

 
by Roselyn Kay and Robyn McCulloch

This article explores the integration of Somatic Coaching, a coaching process working on,
with and through the body, with Appreciative Inquiry as a means to engage the body more deeply in the process of Discovery, Dream, Design and Destiny. This blend of AI and Somatics contributes to cognitive and physiological shifts leading clients to recall what they care deeply about, gain clarity of purpose and connect to their values, while engaging mind, body and spirit in a commitment to action. Clients create generative, life-affirming
interpretations with depth, velocity and acceleration as they move forward in their world.

Section 2: Ai and other Coaching Approaches

Appreciative Inquiry and
Co-Active Coaching

by Susan Donnan

This article explores the Co-Active Coaching Model through the lens of Appreciative Inquiry (AI). From a process perspective, we compare Co-Active coaching with the Five-D cycle of AI. From a philosophical perspective, we compare Co-Active coaching with the Five Core Principles of AI. Finally, how AI and Co-Active Coaching enhance each other is briefly discussed.

Section 3: Applications and Case Stories

Coaching for Effective
Working Relationships


by Gloria Henry

This article outlines the AI coaching process an internal consultant uses to enhance
working relationships at NPR. It is interlaced with a case study and reflections by the Senior Vice President for Programming on his use of this approach on a daily basis. Details are given for prepping participants for a joint coaching meeting, as well as follow up.

Section 3: Applications and Case Stories

The Crucial Success Element of
a Large Systems Change Initiative


by Tom Osborne

This article describes how AI coaching was the crucial element of success in a large hospital turnaround project. Weaving one-on-one coaching with the Director of Women's Services and system-wide appreciative interventions, we see how a department that was not achieving its target business results moved from "near death" to a new beginning and "rebirth".