Appreciative Interviews

Purpose

Appreciative Interviews invite participants to discover and share stories of success and peak experiences within their work or community. By focusing on what works rather than what is broken, the method generates positive energy, surfaces hidden strengths, and reveals patterns of success that can be amplified. Use it when a group needs to shift from deficit-based thinking to a strengths-based approach.

At a glance

• Group size: 6–60 people
• Duration: 40 minutes
• Difficulty: Beginner
• Facilitation style: Semi-structured
• Setting: Indoor / Remote-friendly

How to run

1. Set up (5 min): Share the interview question (e.g., "Tell me about a time when you experienced collaboration at its best. What made it possible?"). Explain the format.
2. Interview round 1 (10 min): In pairs, Person A interviews Person B. The interviewer listens deeply, asks follow-ups, and captures key elements.
3. Interview round 2 (10 min): Swap roles.
4. Small-group synthesis (10 min): Two pairs join to form a quartet. Each person shares the highlights of their partner's story. The quartet identifies common success factors.
5. Plenary harvest (5 min): Quartets share the success patterns they found with the whole group.

Materials needed

• Printed interview questions (one per person)
• Note-taking paper and pens
• Flip chart for harvesting themes
• Timer

Pitfalls & common mistakes

• Letting the interview become a casual chat — provide clear prompts and remind interviewers to dig into the "what made it work" part.
• Rushing the synthesis — the pattern-finding step is where the strategic value lives.
• Choosing vague questions — the more specific and grounded the prompt, the richer the stories.

Inclusion & accessibility

• Pairs create psychological safety for sharing personal stories.
• Provide questions in written form and in multiple languages if needed.
• Allow flexibility for people who prefer drawing or diagramming their stories over verbal narration.
• Be aware that some stories may carry emotional weight — create a respectful, unhurried atmosphere.

Variations

• Appreciative Interviews + Storyboard: Pairs draw their partner's story as a visual narrative.
• Large-group Appreciative Interviews: In a conference setting, do a single 5-minute pair exchange, then harvest by show of hands or digital polling.
• Thematic deep dive: Run multiple rounds with different questions, each probing a different success factor.

When NOT to use this

Avoid Appreciative Interviews when the group is dealing with an urgent crisis that requires immediate problem-solving — positivity-focused methods can feel dismissive in acute distress. Also not ideal when participants have no shared experience to draw from.

Source & further reading

Rooted in Appreciative Inquiry (Cooperrider & Whitney). Adapted as a Liberating Structure by Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless. See liberatingstructures.com.