This learning pathway is for those who want to go beyond understanding Appreciative Inquiry and begin applying it with confidence in real projects, teams, and organizations.
The Certification experience is where your skills come to life. Through a guided, cohort-based process, you’ll design and lead an appreciative project that matters to you—supported by expert faculty, coaching, and a global community of practitioners.
If you’re ready to confidently apply Appreciative Inquiry in your work, this is your next step.
The Appreciative Inquiry Certification is more than a credential. It’s a signal that you can lead with strengths, elevate engagement, and guide real transformation. In a world defined by complexity, rapid change, and burnout, AI practitioners bring something rare: the ability to help people and systems thrive.
1. You become a strengths-based change leader. You learn how to shift conversations, teams, and strategy toward possibility — helping people tap into their best selves and co-create meaningful futures.
2. You gain credibility that opens doors. AI Certification from the Cooperrider Center — the global home of Appreciative Inquiry — is recognized worldwide and rooted in decades of field leadership.
3. You learn by doing. You apply AI to a real initiative and graduate with a Deliverables Portfolio that demonstrates applied competence.
4. You transform the way you lead, coach, teach, or facilitate. AI gives you tools to elevate performance, build psychological safety, and spark innovation — through the art of better questions.
5. You join a global movement of positive-change leaders. Certification connects you with practitioners across sectors: business, education, nonprofits, healthcare, and government.
The Certification program is a six-week guided, cohort-based experience that helps you apply AI to a real project — and become certified.
The Certification experience is where skills become practice. You’ll work with a supportive cohort, expert faculty, and professional coaches to design and lead an appreciative project that matters to you and your organization.
What’s Included
Time Commitment
Most participants spend:
We schedule the weekly Zoom meetings after we know who is enrolled, so we can account for everyone’s time zones — East Coast, West Coast, and often international participants as well.
All sessions are recorded, and while the experience is best when you are deeply connected to your learning peers, it’s fine to miss a few meetings if needed.
Upon successful completion, you’ll earn your Certified Appreciative Inquiry Practitioner credential from the David L. Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry and an official Certificate signed by both David Cooperrider and Lindsey Godwin.
This program is open to participants who have already completed the Appreciative Inquiry Foundations course.
If you have not yet completed Foundations, you’ll need to do so before joining Certification.
If you know you are ready to commit to Certification, you can enroll for the bundled Foundations + Certification course, which saves you $195 for committing early.
If you want mastery, credibility, and real-world impact, this Certification is for you.
Interested in learning more about AI? Want to help you or your organization grow in positive ways? Have research or real-world successes to share?
Thanks for reaching out! We will be in touch soon.
