The  traditional model of strategic planning typically focuses on problem solving and asks the question "what problems are we having" while the Appreciative Inquiry process asks "what is working in our organization".  The underlying theory of AI is that as social beings, we construct reality in our organizations and in our communities based on:

(a) what we talk about,

(b) what we envision together, and

(c) what we study or focus on. 

We bring forward more of whatever it is we pay attention to.  AI is constructed so that we begin to pay more attention to what is life-giving rather than life destroying. (Berkana Institute Website).