Appreciative Interviews (AI)
Appreciative Interviews (AI) is a collaborative story building exercise for relationship mapping: it helps participants build useful connections and understand how people, roles, or ideas relate.
How to run it
- In pairs, participants take turns conducting an interview and telling a success story, paying attention to what made the success possible. 7-10 min. each; 15-20 min. total.
- In groups of 4, each person retells the story of his or her pair partner. Ask participants to listen for patterns in conditions/assets supporting success and to make note of them. 15 min. for groups of 4.
- Collect insights and patterns for the whole group to see on a flip chart. Summarize if needed. 10-15 min.
- Ask, “How are we investing in the assets and conditions that foster success?” and “What opportunities do you see to do more?” Use 1-2-4-All to discuss the questions. 10 min.
- Above: An Appreciative Interview underway in Peru
- Generate constructive energy by starting on a positive note.
- Capture and spread tacit knowledge about successful field experience.
- Reveal the path for achieving success for an entire group simultaneously
- All methods All authors IAF Library Library Appreciative Interviews (AI) 762 326 In less than one hour, a group of any size can generate the list of conditions that are essential for its success.
- You can liberate spontaneous momentum and insights for positive change from within the organization as “hidden” success stories are revealed.
Run this exercise live
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Materials:
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Prompts to use +
In pairs, participants take turns conducting an interview and telling a success story, paying attention to what made the success possible. 7-10 min. each; 15-20 min. total.
In groups of 4, each person retells the story of his or her pair partner. Ask participants to listen for patterns in conditions/assets supporting success and to make note of them. 15 min. for groups of 4.
Collect insights and patterns for the whole group to see on a flip chart. Summarize if needed. 10-15 min.
Ask, “How are we investing in the assets and conditions that foster success?” and “What opportunities do you see to do more?” Use 1-2-4-All to discuss the questions. 10 min.
Above: An Appreciative Interview underway in Peru
Generate constructive energy by starting on a positive note.
Run this with your AI assistant +
Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.
Adapt this exercise for my exact room. Exercise: Appreciative Interviews (AI). Readiness: Publishable Draft. Core moves: In pairs, participants take turns conducting an interview and telling a success story, paying attention to what made the success possible. 7-10 min. each; 15-20 min. total.; In groups of 4, each person retells the story of his or her pair partner. Ask participants to listen for patterns in conditions/assets supporting success and to make note of them. 15 min. for groups of 4.; Collect insights and patterns for the whole group to see on a flip chart. Summarize if needed. 10-15 min.; Ask, “How are we investing in the assets and conditions that foster success?” and “What opportunities do you see to do more?” Use 1-2-4-All to discuss the questions. 10 min.. Return a concise facilitator script with timing, wording, safety notes, and remote/in-person adjustments.
Origin unverified
- Where we observed it: The strongest current observations come from Liberating Structures; aggregators are listed as additional observations, not origin proof. (2 sources observed, including Liberating Structures, SessionLab.)
- What that means: we track where an exercise has been observed in public sources. We do not claim to know who created it, or how popular it is.
- No efficacy claims: appearing in this library is not a claim that the exercise is proven effective. Facilitator judgment and context decide whether it works for a given room.
- Method lineage: this exercise shares its method name with work attributed to David L. Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva in our people index. That is a name match, not an origin claim.
- Corrections: if you have evidence of an earlier or more accurate source, read our methodology and trust boundary and tell us.