Twenty cases of the use of appreciative inquiry (AI) for changing social systems published before 2003 were examined to look for the presence or absence of transformational change and the use of seven principles and practices culled from a review of the theoretical literature on AI. Although all cases began by collecting stories of the positive, followed the 4-D model, and adhered to five principles of AI articulated by Cooperrider and Whitney, only seven (35%) showed transformational outcomes. Highly consistent differences between the transformational cases and the others led the authors to conclude that two qualities of appreciative inquiry that are different from conventional organizational development and change management prescriptions are key to AI's transformative potential: (a) a focus on changing how people think instead of what people do and (b) a focus on supporting self-organizing change processes that flow from new ideas.
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