Introducing Appreciative Inquiry into the Australian Department of Defence: Research and Reflections

The Australian Department of Defence is undergoing substantial reform, including a focus on evolving its workplace culture. Appreciative Inquiry is a tool that may be able to assist Defence; however Appreciative Inquiry has never before been applied in the DoD, so a pilot study was recently undertaken to test the methodology. Despite the limitations imposed by the sample size and composition of participants that were involved, the article concludes that AI should be implemented more broadly to elicit change throughout the DoD. The article concludes with the author’s personal insights and reflections