What is AIC?

Appreciation, Influence and Control are the names given to the three fields of power that we use to accomplish any of our purposes, however small or large. For example, your purpose in visiting this website might be a transitory curiosity triggered by one of the key words. Or it could be a conscious effort on your part to find the best way to contribute to the solution of one of the greatest problems of our time. In either case you draw on some combination of these three power fields to achieve your purpose:

1. Your control field consists of everything you control that is relevant to your purpose. It includes, for example, the mental, social and physical resources that you can apply to your purpose.
2. Your influence field consists of all those elements—ideas, people and resources—that you cannot control but which have an effect on the achievement of your purpose.
3. Your appreciative power consists of all those things that affect your purpose but which you can neither control nor influence. These are the conditions that exist in your situation that affect your purpose, e.g., the culture, the weather, lack of knowledge and understanding, motives, feelings of others beyond your sphere of influence.