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Taos Institute Publishing
Chagrin Falls, OH
2004
Annotation: Translating theory into practice is a creative challenge. The Institute for Creative Change has found amazing success in doing this through the performance of experiential learning exercises. This field book presents exercises that have been organized into Learning Labs that will invite innovative thinking and practice with those familiar with social construction theory as well as those who are newcomers to constructionist thinking. Learning Labs are designed to generate new thinking about diverse societal and professional issues. These exercises promote and enhance creative change strategies for mental health, educational and organizational development professionals. They offer powerful and transformative learning experiences in social construction theory and practice for all who emphasize creative and effective change in their work and in their lives.
Twelve Learning Labs are presented in this field book. They demonstrate the excitement of creativity when there is safety to explore new meanings and possibilities for the future. They are offered in a format that allows for easy duplication. The book also contains an additional chapter addressing theory and the social construction of meaning, the nature of change, principles of creative change, and the practice of creative change. Another chapter describes the social and relational context that has nurtured the development and practice of this theory over the past 40 years. This field book will be of value to anyone who is interested in learning how to generate and facilitate creative and responsible change with social groups of any size.
Online Resources:
Taos Institute Publishing
The Taos Institute
"Problem to Opportunity Exercise."
I ask participants to give me the absolutely worst, most horrible, difficult, hopeless problem they can think of -- anywhere in life or work. Often they come up with things like HIV/AIDS, urban violence, corruption, civil war (as in Nepal).. things like that. So we do a quick 'problem tree' analysis of root causes and its impacts/fruits.. and I ask them the chances of solving it, and to draw a face that represents their feelings about... from which I usually get misearable sad face with tears...
Then I say, "OK, let's flip this into an opportunity.. What's the opposite look like?" Defining the 'problem' as it's opposite, we take that as the topic and go on to do a 40 min. 4D analysis coming up with action plan and personal commitments... always full of energy and fun.. sometimes even skits and dances... Whereupon I do a quick "Opportunity Tree Analysis" and ask for new pictures of faces reflecting how they feel about it all... for which I get, of course, lots of smiling, happy faces and great optimism. Then I ask, "OK, what happened? Did the problem go away? Did the world change during the last 40 min.?" And that opens a lively discussion on the heart of AI, how changing our language, our questions, changes reality... that we have the power to change the world through the questions we ask, through the approach we take... and that leads us into taking their organizational 'problems,' issues, hangups, headaches, and hopeless situations and building an AI workshop around them.
It's an eye-opener... powerful stuff... and I can assure you that I never get any further questions about how AI doesn't really deal with problems....
Training Design Detail
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Strength Building Exercise
Nick Heap
New Directions
Hartfield, United Kingdom
2003, May
Annotation: I have found that creating a light-hearted atmosphere and encouraging people to feel and enjoy laughing about their embarrassment of being positive about themselves, really helps as does sitting close together so people experience everyone else's support. The following activity has worked very well in training and team development sessions. Please don't take my word for it, try it out with friends, family or close colleagues, for fun, it can be very rewarding.
I only have experience of using it in Britain, but we are often quite shy and inhibited people and it works well here. I think the confidence of the facilitator and her/his anticipation of discovering something remarkable is important.
StrengthBuilding
Purpose:
- To build personal self confidence and self esteem
- To help people to know each other deeply
- To show that appreciation and being positive is valuable.
Method
1. The participants are in a small face to face group. In a larger group when time is short, demonstrate the process with one person in front of the group. Then break people into groups of four and five.
2. Each person has a turn of say 15 minutes as the focus of the group.
3. She or he describes an event in which she or he achieved something she or he felt good about. It does not have to about work. Everyone else listens intently.
4. Each group member tells the person above two or three strengths she must have used to achieve it. The person adds one or two of his own.
5. The person states the one strength of all the ones she has heard that she /he likes the best. If people are ready they may own this by going round the group and saying to each person in turn "I am (e g) resourceful!". A facilitator may encourage further growth by encouraging her/him to use a clear and positive tone of voice and posture with no trace of self-deprecation.
6. After everyone has had a turn, ask people how they feel about themselves and the group and what they have learned.
The Effects
People develop in confidence and self esteem as they discover their achievements and skills are valuable. They appreciate the depths in other people and want to know more. The shared and rather intense experience builds group cohesion. People enjoy it too.
Facilitating style
I find it best to be quite light-hearted within a clear structure. I model listening and take part myself if the group is small.
Best wishes,
Nick Heap
01707 886553 and
Web:
New Directions
43 Roe Green Close
Hatfield
Herts AL10 9PD
UK
The call for positive, life-centered approaches to organization, group, and global change has been sounded by many, and it will take many more to fully explore the vast potential just starting to appear on the horizon. But even now, in the first steps, what is being sensed is an exciting direction in our language and theories of change—an invitation, as some have declared, to “a positive revolution in change.”
In the years since “Appreciative Inquiry into Organizational Life” was first published by David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva at Case Western Reserve University in 1987, thousands of people have been engaged in co-creating new practices for doing AI and for bringing the spirit and methodology of AI into organizations all over the world. The velocity of the largely informal spread of the ideas associated with Appreciative Inquiry suggests a growing disenchantment with exhausted theories of change, especially those wedded to vocabularies of human deficit, and a corresponding urge to work with people, groups, and organizations in a more constructive, life affirming, strength-based and spirited way.
Serving as a conduit to connect and magnify this impulse, this AI Commons is marked by one thing: a spirit of generosity. This site is ours together. It will grow exponentially. Draw from this site. Take what you need. Connect it to others. We invite you to share – your tools, stories, new models, links to other domains of positive change theory and practice, and discoveries. Together we are building a better world. Together we will create a positive revolution in change among organizations, communities, groups, families, for our common, global future
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The call for positive, life-centered approaches to organization, group, and global change has been sounded by many, and it will take many more to fully explore the vast potential just starting to appear on the horizon. But even now, in the first steps, what is being sensed is an exciting direction in our language and theories of change—an invitation, as some have declared, to “a positive revolution in change.”
In the years since “Appreciative Inquiry into Organizational Life” was first published by David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva at Case Western Reserve University in 1987, thousands of people have been engaged in co-creating new practices for doing AI and for bringing the spirit and methodology of AI into organizations all over the world. The velocity of the largely informal spread of the ideas associated with Appreciative Inquiry suggests a growing disenchantment with exhausted theories of change, especially those wedded to vocabularies of human deficit, and a corresponding urge to work with people, groups, and organizations in a more constructive, life affirming, strength-based and spirited way.
Serving as a conduit to connect and magnify this impulse, this AI Commons is marked by one thing: a spirit of generosity. This site is ours together. It will grow exponentially. Draw from this site. Take what you need. Connect it to others. We invite you to share – your tools, stories, new models, links to other domains of positive change theory and practice, and discoveries. Together we are building a better world. Together we will create a positive revolution in change among organizations, communities, groups, families, for our common, global future.
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from A Positive Revolution in Change: Appreciative Inquiry by David L. Cooperrider and Diana Whitney.
Ap-pre’ci-ate, v., 1. valuing; the act of recognizing the best in people or the world around us; affirming past and present strengths, successes, and potentials; to perceive those things that give life (health, vitality, excellence) to living systems 2. to increase in value, e.g. the economy has appreciated in value. Synonyms: VALUING, PRIZING, ESTEEMING, and HONORING.
In-quire’ (kwir), v., 1. the act of exploration and discovery. 2. To ask questions; to be open to seeing new potentials and possibilities. Synonyms: DISCOVERY, SEARCH, and SYSTEMATIC EXPLORATION, STUDY.
Appreciative Inquiry is about the coevolutionary search for the best in people, their organizations, and the relevant world around them. In its broadest focus, it involves systematic discovery of what gives “life” to a living system when it is most alive, most effective, and most constructively capable in economic, ecological, and human terms. AI involves, in a central way, the art and practice of asking questions that strengthen a system’s capacity to apprehend, anticipate, and heighten positive potential. It centrally involves the mobilization of inquiry through the crafting of the “unconditional positive question” often-involving hundreds or sometimes thousands of people. In AI the arduous task of intervention gives way to the speed of imagination and innovation; instead of negation, criticism, and spiraling diagnosis, there is discovery, dream, and design. AI seeks, fundamentally, to build a constructive union between a whole people and the massive entirety of what people talk about as past and present capacities: achievements, assets, unexplored potentials, innovations, strengths, elevated thoughts, opportunities, benchmarks, high point moments, lived values, traditions, strategic competencies, stories, expressions of wisdom, insights into the deeper corporate spirit or soul-- and visions of valued and possible futures. Taking all of these together as a gestalt, AI deliberately, in everything it does, seeks to work from accounts of this “positive change core”—and it assumes that every living system has many untapped and rich and inspiring accounts of the positive. Link the energy of this core directly to any change agenda and changes never thought possible are suddenly and democratically mobilized.
Read the complete excerpt from A Positive Revolution in Change: Appreciative Inquiry by David L. Cooperrider and Diana Whitney.
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The following is a collection of definitions of Appreciative Inquiry which have developed over the years. We invite you to quote these definitions or develop your own. Let us know how people respond to these as you share them with clients, students, colleagues, and inquirers.
“Appreciative Inquiry is the cooperative search for the best in people, their organizations, and the world around them. It involves systematic discover of what gives a system ‘life’ when it is most effective and capable in economic, ecological, and human terms. AI involves the art and practice of asking questions that strengthen a system’s capacity to heighten positive potential. It mobilizes inquiry through crafting an “unconditional positive question’ often involving hundreds or sometimes thousands of people.”
Cooperrider, D.L. & Whitney, D., “Appreciative Inquiry: A positive revolution in change.” In P. Holman & T. Devane (eds.), The Change Handbook, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., pages 245-263.
“The traditional approach to change is to look for the problem, do a diagnosis, and find a solution. The primary focus is on what is wrong or broken; since we look for problems, we find them. By paying attention to problems, we emphasize and amplify them. …Appreciative Inquiry suggests that we look for what works in an organization. The tangible result of the inquiry process is a series of statements that describe where the organization wants to be, based on the high moments of where they have been. Because the statements are grounded in real experience and history, people know how to repeat their success.”
Hammond, Sue. The Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry. Thin Book Publishing Company, 1998, pages 6-7.
“Appreciative Inquiry focuses us on the positive aspects of our lives and leverages them to correct the negative. It’s the opposite of ‘problem-solving.”
White, T.H. Working in Interesting Times: Employee morale and business success in the information age. Vital Speeches of the Day, May 15, 1996, Vol XLII, No. 15.
“Appreciative Inquiry [is] a theory and practice for approaching change from a holistic framework. Based on the belief that human systems are made and imagined by those who live and work within them, AI leads systems to move toward the generative and creative images that reside in their most positive core – their values, visions, achievements, and best practices.” “AI is both a world view and a practical process. In theory, AI is a perspective, a set of principles and beliefs about how human systems function, a departure from the past metaphor of human systems as machines. Appreciative Inquiry has an attendant set of core processes, practices, and even ‘models’ that have emerged. In practice, AI can be used to co-create the transformative processes and practices appropriate to the culture of a particular organization.” “Grounded in the theory of ‘social constructionism,’ AI recognizes that human systems are constructions of the imagination and are, therefore, capable of change at the speed of imagination. Once organization members shift their perspective, they can begin to invent their most desired future.”
Watkins, J.M. & Bernard J. Mohr. Appreciative Inquiry: Change at the Speed of Imagination, Jossey-Bass, 2001, pages xxxi - xxxii
“[Appreciative Inquiry] deliberately seeks to discover people’s exceptionality – their unique gifts, strengths, and qualities. It actively searches and recognizes people for their specialties – their essential contributions and achievements. And it is based on principles of equality of voice – everyone is asked to speak about their vision of the true, the good, and the possible. Appreciative Inquiry builds momentum and success because it believes in people. It really is an invitation to a positive revolution. Its goal is to discover in all human beings the exceptional and the essential. Its goal is to create organizations that are in full voice!”
Cooperrider, D.L. et. al. (Eds) , Lessons from the Field: Applying Appreciative Inquiry, Thin Book Publishing, 2001, page 12.
“Appreciative Inquiry is a form of organizational study that selectively seeks to highlight what are referred to as “life-giving forces” (LGF’s) of the organization’s existence. These are “ – the unique structure and processes of (an) organization that makes its very existence possible. LGF’s may be ideas, beliefs, or values around which the organizing activity takes place.”
Srivastva, S., et al. Wonder and Affirmation, (undated from Lessons of the Field: Applying Appreciative Inquiry, page 42.)
“AI is an exciting way to embrace
Chapter 7:
Generative Metaphor Intervention:
A New Approach for Working with Systems
Divided by Conflict and Caught in Defensive Perception
Frank J. Barrett
Post Naval GraduateSchool
DavidL.Cooperrider
CaseWestern ReserveUniversity
Abstract
This article proposes that one way to help a group liberate itself from dysfunctional conflict and defensive routine is through the introduction of generative metaphor. By intervening as a tacit, indirect level of awareness, group members are able to generate fresh perceptions of one another, thereby allowing for the revitalization of the social bond and a heightened collective will to act. After exploring insights into the recent literature on social cognition and selective perception, a case is presented in which generative metaphor was successfully used to help a dysfunctional group build (1) liberated aspirations and the development of hope, (2) decreased interpersonal conflict, (3) strategic consensus around a positive vision for the future, (4) renewed collective will to act, and (5) egalitarian language reflecting a new sense of unity and mutuality in the joint creation of the group's future. Stages of the generative metaphor intervention are discussed, and propositions are developed concerning those factors that will likely enhance the generative potential of metaphor as an agent for a group development and organizational change.