Appreciative inquiry
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Definition
A strategy of asking positively framed questions to focus on what is going right within an organization. The aim is to help alleviate resistance to change and to improve processes, products, services, communication, leadership and other issues by focusing on the best possible outcomes and practices using the ‘four-d’ cycle of discovery, dream, design, and destiny
Description
Application to nuclear industry organizations
The nuclear industry has traditionally been inclined to ‘drive forward looking in a rear-view mirror’ by devoting extensive resources to event investigation and techniques such as quality assurance audits, root cause analyses, exception reports and other methods that focus on what happened that was not expected — in other words, a negative deviation from procedures or anticipated results. Indeed, it is and will remain imperative that such examinations be conducted in order to determine what changes could be made to prevent recurrence of the abnormalities. However, the appreciative inquiry approach is potentially an excellent complement to these tools in order to also learn from the countless positive experiences that occur on a daily basis in the nuclear field. In addition to potentially improving plant performance, there are parallel possibilities for improving employee pride, ownership, morale, retention and recruitment.
