This study involved a Colorado public charter high school using appreciative inquiry (AI) to provide leadership of the organisation with strategic decision-making that aids in the creation of a new teaching curriculum. Leadership discovered an effective means of change to its academic curriculum for the school year 2009?2010 and assisted with the schools charter renewal. A series of focus meetings and individual interviews were held to identify four core competencies for the school and its leadership. Discovering how to implement this change while keeping this vibrant organisation alive allowed it to function as a cohesive whole. AI is a positive design-based approach in organisation development and focuses on the generative aspects within an organisation to celebrate, recognise and foster the actions that the organisation is accomplishing well. The school’s principal envisioned a picture of what the school’s future should look like using AI to identify strategic ideas to apply to decision-making that would embrace a new and improved vision for the school.