A way of being organized; self-generating networks of communications such as the Internet; according to Fritjof Capra, a human organization will be a living system only if it is organized as a network or contains smaller networks within its boundaries.

Those elements or experiences within the organization’s past and/or present that represent the organization’s strengths when it is operating at its very best. A life-giving force could be a single moment in time, such as a particular customer transaction, or it could be large in scope. It can be any aspect that contributes to the organization’s highest points and most valued experiences or characteristics.

An organization, a community, or any human system made up of an entire organization, or community; it can involve hundreds or thousands of people.

The set of questions developed around a positive topic or topics that is used to conduct an appreciative interview, most desirably face to face and paired.

Approaches to change that are self-organizing and flow from new ideas rather than implementation of centrally or consensually agreed upon targets and plans.

Standard approaches to change in which attempts are made to implement centrally or consensually agreed upon targets and plans.

A framework that can be used in the Design phase of AI to identify stakeholders and design elements relevant to a particular macro Provocative Proposition; it also can be used to identify design elements for which micro Provocative Propositions can be developed (Mohr & Watkins, 2003).

When successful, AI generates spontaneous, unsupervised, individual, group and organizational action toward a better future. My research suggests that when AI is transformational it has both these qualities: it leads to new ideas, and it leads people to choose new actions (Bushe).

Choose the positive as the focus of inquiry; inquire into exceptionally positive moments; share the stories and identify life-giving forces; create shared images of a preferred future; and innovate and improvise ways to create that future (Mohr & Watkins, 2002).

The topics we choose to study or inquire into and the questions we ask determine the events and answers we find.