Business Week story on appreciative inquiry

An article in the April 6 issue of Business Week on appreciative inquiry in the workplace. Fred Collopy, of the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, contrasts it with "deficit thinking," i.e. focusing on problems so as to put a negative spin on an organization. Money grafs:

A somewhat subtler problem with the de facto emphasis on problems is the long-term effect it has on how managers think about our jobs. By focusing so often and so consistently on problems, we come to adopt a kind of deficit thinking. Plans of action that flow from it are concerned with repairing, fixing, and compensating. We spend so much time considering what is wrong with our organizations that we overlook what is right.

An alternative to Deficit Thinking is Appreciative Inquiry. When we engage in appreciative inquiries, we focus on what makes us feel most alive, on our successes and their determinants, and on the strengths of our organization. Instead of emphasizing repairs, we shift our concern to creating more opportunities for success.