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# 2.1 Provocative propositions

In Session 2, you identified a ‘positive core’ as a stimulus for your inquiry, which involved gathering stories of ‘best experiences’. Cooperrider, Whitney and Stavros (2008) refer to this as identifying ‘the best of “what gives life”’ (p. 162). Importantly, Cooperrider and Whitney (2005) also emphasise the importance of images of possible futures emerging from the positive and concrete examples of the past that have been encountered in the earlier phases of the inquiry.

In Session 3, you explored individual and perhaps collective ideas about ‘what might be’. Creating a ‘provocative proposition’ involves combining these two to craft a ‘compelling picture of how things will be’ when the imagined future is enacted (Cooperrider, Whitney and Stavros, 2008, p. 162).

## Activity 2 Laying the foundations

Allow a minimum of 20 minutes

Return to the themes you identified in your individual or collective story at the end of Session 3. These are the foundations from which you will design your planning in this session. For each of these themes:

1. Return to the stories, metaphors and images that you have collected throughout the process so far. Where do you find material that relates to your chosen theme? As you explore these materials, make notes of the key words that emerge that best represent the ‘positive core’ of this particular theme.
2. Either individually or collaboratively, take some time to reflect on these words, reviewing and refining them until you are satisfied that they capture the essence of the theme. Keep these words to hand for the next activity.

### Discussion

The key words that you have collected have emerged from activities in which you have honed your ‘appreciative gaze’ and explored positive possibilities for the future. The following case study is an example in which this kind of appreciative inquiry forms the basis of a collaborative approach to establishing a writing community in a university.

## Case study: core themes of the innovating and designing phase

The inquiry was driven by a desire and commitment among a small group of academics to create a work culture in which time for writing and research was an integral part of their academic work on a regular basis. In the ‘Immersing and appreciating’ phase of the inquiry, participants collected images, poems and stories of occasions on which they had been able to write without hindrance, enabling them to identify a ‘positive core’ for their inquiry: ‘building a strong writing culture in our university’. The collection of words, phrases and images that emerged in the ‘Imagining and dreaming’ phase of the inquiry helped to identify three core themes to be worked on in the ‘Innovating and designing phase’:

- the writing space
- creating time
- developing writing confidence and competence.

For each of these themes, the group gathered, reviewed and refined a set of words that best represented each theme in turn. To these they added an image that captured the essence of the ‘positive core’ of each theme. For example, here is the representation of the first theme, ‘the writing space’:

- communal
- shared
- nourishing
- sociable
- purposeful
- creative
- dialogue
- reflection

Figure 3 The kitchen table

The metaphor that resonated most with the group in the stories and metaphors they shared was the idea of sitting around a kitchen table, writing and chatting together in a sociable, yet purposeful, manner. This reflected the idea of the kitchen as the hub of the home, a sociable and creative space where things of value are produced.

Drawing on the combination of the image and accompanying words, the group produced a provocative proposition that would underpin the design phase in relation to ‘the writing space’:

The writing space will be one in which participants can write individually but in community with others. It will be a space where creativity and dialogue are actively encouraged in ways that nourish and encourage the writing of one another.

## Activity 3 Creating provocative propositions

Allow about 15 minutes

Using the words that you collected in the second part of Activity 2, can you write a ‘provocative proposition’ that best captures an ‘imagined future’ that will underpin the next part of the appreciative inquiry process?

You may have completed Activity 3 individually or in collaboration with others. Either way, your provocative proposition should capture a sense of excitement and anticipation about what might be possible that gives momentum to the planning process. These provocation propositions will form the basis for thinking about how you can actively design for inquiry in the next section.

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OpenLearn - An appreciative approach to inquiry
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