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Individual Leader Development: An Appreciative Inquiry Approach

Department of Organizational Learning and Development at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Thomas A. Conklin

Organizational Learning and Leadership doctoral program at Gannon University

Scott J. Allen

John Carroll University

The problem and the solution . Leader development, expanding an individual's leadership capacity, may include learning to transform perspectives as one objective.This paper explores how such transformation might be achieved through appreciative inquiry (AI).The authors define AI and transformative learning and articulate a perspective being advanced which highlights the relationship between them. Using two illustrative examples from organizational and educational settings, the authors describe the AI process and propose how the process might be conducted to achieve transformative leader development. Through these examples, they explore the types of affirmative questions that guided participants' conversations and led to commitment to action and shift in perspectives that are important elements of transformative learning.The authors propose that AI may increase a leader's capacity to generate his or her role anew through inner work and an inside-out orientation (Hunt, 1987). They consider ways in which AI can be coupled with other sources of learning, expanding its use beyond a tool for developing organizational leadership capacity through large-systems organizational change to one that is focused on developing individual leader capacity.

Key Words: appreciative inquiry • transformative learning • leader development

Advances in Developing Human Resources, Vol. 10, No. 5, 632-650 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1523422308321950


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