My Concerns with Appreciative Inquiry

I get the whole idea that we need to focus on the positive. I understand that creating is different from problem solving. In creating we are trying to bring something new and cool into being. When we problem solve we are trying to make things go away. I know that there is more energy around creating something new than in trying to problem solve what's wrong. I get all that.
One of the reasons I like LIFO (Life Orientations) is that it is focused on identifying ones strengths. However LIFO also teaches that over using our strengths is a good place to look for our weaknesses. I feel the same way about Appreciative Inquiry. Overemphasizing the positive seems to be the root of the weakness of Appreciative Inquiry. Let me explain.

Appreciative Inquiry follows the path of least resistance. It only poses one part of the creative dialectic - the End Result. Fine that is it is positive, powerful, compelling and a pull. The End Result needs to be all of those things. An End Result without a hard view of Current Reality supplies no creative tension to resolve. The other side of the dialectic is missing. With out a strong sense of Current Reality we tend to create structures that oscillate instead of resolving.

One of the hardest things to do is to see Current Reality. To see it, feel it, and own it. If it were easy we wouldn’t have to worry such things as that pesky little concept of denial. I know that when I am lost I need a map and a compass to find my way ( or a GPS on my iPhone - which is a map and a compass combined.) Helping my clients see and own their current realities is the hardest work I do. We consultants get paid for holding up the mirror and speaking truth to power.  If our mirrors only show dreams, future designs, and imagination, I think we do a disservice for those who contract with us for real change.

 Fritz calls framing this dialectic Structural Consulting - where real creation is framed through the tension that naturally occurs when The End Result is opposed by Current Reality. Some one said that Beethoven didn’t create the 5th by brainstorming all the positive notes. Rather he had a clear picture of what he wanted to create and worked iteratively, painfully too, moving his current state closer to his finished masterpiece.

I appreciate Appreciative Inquiry. It a nice effort. But it only goes so far. It reminds me of a wine I had a while back - very fruit forward but not much of a finish.