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In this volume of Advances in Appreciative Inquiry, leading scholars from the fields of management, organization development, information technology, and education come together to chart new directions in Appreciative Inquiry theory and research as well as new intervention practices and opportunities for design in organizations. While diverse in topic and discipline, each of the following original chapters treats the reader to a view of Appreciative Inquiry's revolutionary way of approaching familiar questions of management, organization design, and sustainability.

This chapter provides an in-depth analysis of the cleanup and closing of the nuclear weapons facility at Rocky Flats (RF), Colorado, United States, which was completed 60 years ahead of schedule and $30 billion under budget. We demonstrate how the events leading to the successful completion of the project was an instance of generativity made possible by the Appreciative Intelligence of the project leaders and participants. At the end of the Cold War, production at RF was terminated and experts considered cleaning up of the dangerous facility technically impossible, risky, and impractical. Yet, working in collaboration with contractors, local officials, and community leaders, the RF team achieved extraordinary results. After the unprecedented cleanup, 4,000 acres were transferred to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and became a national wildlife refuge. Generativity is an approach to life that directs our actions toward positive outcomes. For generativity to happen, stakeholders in the RF project had to care about the environment around them for innovative solutions to emerge. Instead of stagnation or blind acceptance of circumstances, they chose to reframe and find new ways to perceive situations facing them. This case study shows that individuals with high Appreciative Intelligent acknowledge present circumstances, choose to reframe, see possibilities for the future, and take the necessary actions to achieve them. They also expand their Appreciative Intelligence beyond their personal lives. At RF, despite the imminent closing of the plant, stakeholders generated socially responsible solutions and transformed a public liability into a community asset.

For decades, the Altiplano farmers of Bolivia had been marginalized by the remoteness of their home and exploitation by the private sector and injustices inflicted by the government. The notion that this impoverished region could sustain economic development might correctly have been described as hopeless. The Altiplano farmers’ inability to develop a sustainable source of income threatened their very cultural identity. The only manner in which the farmers’ culture might be sustained was through charitable donations from international NGOs. But it is exactly in this situation, when obstacles are stacked against success, where appreciative intelligence can provide an avenue to overcome despair. After years of working with NGOs, Javier Hurtado was able to identify a source of value that could provide hope and a path to sustainable development for the Altiplano farmers. This is the story of the impact that one individual's application of appreciative intelligence can have on a community. The Irupana story illustrates how our destinies are shaped by our ability to discover that which is best within ourselves and the communities in which we live. This is the story of Javier Hurtado and Martha Cordero, founders of Irupana Organic Foods located in the Bolivian Altiplano, as they discover the unique potential in the harsh Bolivian landscape and the impoverished peasant farmers that inhabit this setting. Through the framework of appreciative intelligence, the researchers observed the entrepreneurs reframe their circumstances around the positive potential that is within the Altiplano-farming community and its unique natural resources, and create a successful organic foods company.

Appreciative Inquiry is about the search for the best in people, their organizations, and the strengths-enriched world around them. In its broadest focus, “AI” involves systematic discovery of everything that gives “life” to a living system when it is most alive, effective and flourishing, and most capable in economic, ecological, and human terms. AI involves, in a very central way, the art and practice of asking questions that strengthen a system's capacity to apprehend, anticipate, and heighten positive potential. It centrally involves the mobilization of whole system appreciation through the crafting of the “unconditional positive question” often-involving hundreds or sometimes thousands of people.

The ability to imagine our world being arranged along different lines is the first step to achieving sustainability. This skill comes particularly easily to artists and designers, who have been trained to appreciate the unexpected connections among facts, ideas, and images. It also comes more naturally to young people. As designers and teachers, how can we help others take that first step? I argue that museums offer the right settings and tools for opening eyes to seeing new possibilities. Students' personal accounts of their experiences in an art museum demonstrate that private, focused encounters with artifacts from other periods and cultures can trigger the process of seeing the world from new angles. Providing opportunities for business leaders to replicate such experiences of wonder may offer a path to stimulating the innovative thinking so critical for a sustainable future. This chapter argues that cultivating both the imagination and moral artistry are vital to moving from sustainability to achieving sustainable value.