Appreciative Inquiry for Collaborative Solutions: 21 Strength-Based Workshops - Softcover

Stratton-Berkessel, Robyn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0470483164 ISBN 13: 9780470483169

Publisher: Pfeiffer, 2010

Synopsis

A practical resource for facilitators who want to introduce positive, strength-based perspectives into their work and trainings, this book provides an overview of Appreciative Inquiry's positive psychology and strength-based change methods. Author Robyn Stratton-Berkessel explores basic principles and practices, shows you how to incorporate AI into existing work, and offers practical advice for designing new trainings. She provides a variety of ready-to-deliver workshops on topics such as leadership, diversity, technology, creativity, change, innovation, learning, collaboration, coaching, and team-building. In addition, she suggests how to make the outcomes of an Appreciative Inquiry session stick and what it takes to make these valuable approaches self-sustaining.

A first in the field of Appreciative Inquiry, this important resource provides twenty one ready-to-use workshops for facilitators, leaders, consultants, and trainers who want to empower others in creating collaborative solutions.

"What you learn in a single book can change everything. Appreciative Inquiry for Collaborative Solutions is Robyn Stratton-Berkessel at her very best?helping all of us open ourselves to our best selves, envision possibilities, and get in touch with our own and other's strengths. A brilliantly applied book?with over 21 workshops ready for prime time delivery?helping leaders tap the revolutionary power of appreciative inquiry or "AI" for creating value for customers, suppliers, team members, shareholders, and families. Are you ready to walk on the strengths-based side of organization development and leadership? This inspiring volume will propel you upward step by step?it takes AI from concept to reality in an eloquent, empowering, and utterly engaging way."
?David Cooperrider, Fairmount Minerals Professor at Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management

"Both inspiring and highly practical, this book will be an invaluable and no doubt well-thumbed addition to your library of Appreciative Inquiry resources, whether you are a novice or an experienced practitioner!"
?Sue James, partner, BJ Seminars

"Ms. Stratton-Berkessel's work leaves the reader with a clear understanding of why Appreciative Inquiry is such a powerful change model. Those new to Appreciative Inquiry will marvel at her unique explanation of the 'phases' of Appreciative Inquiry. Those more familiar with Appreciative Inquiry will enjoy her explanations and examples."
?Timothy Germany, commissioner, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service

"A practical approach grounded in personal experience...[this book] shows that Appreciative Inquiry is not a luxury but a necessity for organizational success."
?Annalie Killian, catalyst for magic AMP, producer of the AMPLIFY Innovation & Thought Leadership Festival, Sydney, Australia

About this title

About the Author

Robyn Stratton-Berkessel is founder and president of L.I.T. Global (www.positivematrix.com). She has 25 years in organization design and development, executive coaching, facilitation and corporate training within Fortune 500 companies internationally. As designer and facilitator, she specializes in Appreciative Inquiry to unleash the power of participation, engagement and collaboration.

From the Back Cover

Appreciative Inquiry for Collaborative Solutions: 21 Strength-Based Workshops

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) offers consultants, change agents, and training professionals a powerful, life-centric approach to leading and facilitating change. This innovative approach taps into the need for more positive and engaging ways to advance communication, relationships and results within organizations. As a participatory method, it encourages all organizational members, employees and leaders alike to work side by side to envision corporate goals and share ideas and action plans on how best to achieve them.

Appreciative Inquiry for Collaborative Solutions is a practical resource for facilitators who want to introduce positive, strength-based perspectives into their work and trainings. This book provides an overview of Appreciative Inquiry's positive psychology and strength-based change methods. It explores basic principles and practices, shows how to incorporate AI into existing work, and offers practical advice for designing new trainings. In addition, the author provides a variety of ready-to-deliver workshops on topics such as leadership, diversity, technology, creativity, change, innovation, learning, collaboration, coaching, and team-building. The author also suggests how to make the outcomes of an Appreciative Inquiry session stick, and also, what it takes to make these valuable approaches self-sustaining.

This important resource is a first in the field of Appreciative Inquiry as it provides twenty one ready-to-use workshops for facilitators, leaders, consultants, and trainers who want to empower others in creating collaborative solutions.

"What you learn in a single book can change everything. Appreciative Inquiry for Collaborative Solutions is Robyn Stratton-Berkessel at her very best―helping all of us open ourselves to our best selves, envision possibilities, and get in touch with our own and other's strengths. A brilliantly applied book―with over 21 workshops ready for prime time delivery―helping leaders tap the revolutionary power of appreciative inquiry or "AI" for creating value for customers, suppliers, team members, shareholders, and families. Are you ready to walk on the strengths-based side of organization development and leadership? This inspiring volume will propel you upward step by step―it takes AI from concept to reality in an eloquent, empowering, and utterly engaging way."
―David Cooperrider, Fairmount Minerals Professor at Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management

"Both inspiring and highly practical, this book will be an invaluable and no doubt well-thumbed addition to your library of Appreciative Inquiry resources, whether you are a novice or an experienced practitioner!"
―Sue James, partner, BJ Seminars

"Ms. Stratton-Berkessel's work leaves the reader with a clear understanding of why Appreciative Inquiry is such a powerful change model. Those new to Appreciative Inquiry will marvel at her unique explanation of the 'phases' of Appreciative Inquiry. Those more familiar with Appreciative Inquiry will enjoy her explanations and examples."
―Timothy Germany, commissioner, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service

"A practical approach grounded in personal experience...[this book] shows that Appreciative Inquiry is not a luxury but a necessity for organizational success."
―Annalie Killian, catalyst for magic AMP, producer of the AMPLIFY Innovation & Thought Leadership Festival, Sydney, Australia

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) offers consultants, change agents, and training professionals a powerful, life-centric approach to leading and facilitating change. This innovative approach taps into the need for more positive and engaging ways to advance communication, relationships and results within organizations. As a participatory method, it encourages all organizational members, employees and leaders alike to work side by side to envision corporate goals and share ideas and action plans on how best to achieve them.

Appreciative Inquiry for Collaborative Solutions is a practical resource for facilitators who want to introduce positive, strength-based perspectives into their work and trainings. This book provides an overview of Appreciative Inquiry's positive psychology and strength-based change methods. It explores basic principles and practices, shows how to incorporate AI into existing work, and offers practical advice for designing new trainings. In addition, the author provides a variety of ready-to-deliver workshops on topics such as leadership, diversity, technology, creativity, change, innovation, learning, collaboration, coaching, and team-building. The author also suggests how to make the outcomes of an Appreciative Inquiry session stick, and also, what it takes to make these valuable approaches self-sustaining.

This important resource is a first in the field of Appreciative Inquiry as it provides twenty one ready-to-use workshops for facilitators, leaders, consultants, and trainers who want to empower others in creating collaborative solutions.

What you learn in a single book can change everything. Appreciative Inquiry for Collaborative Solutions is Robyn Stratton-Berkessel at her very best--helping all of us open ourselves to our best selves, envision possibilities, and get in touch with our own and other's strengths. A brilliantly applied book--with over 21 workshops ready for prime time delivery--helping leaders tap the revolutionary power of appreciative inquiry or AI for creating value for customers, suppliers, team members, shareholders, and families. Are you ready to walk on the strengths-based side of organization development and leadership? This inspiring volume will propel you upward step by step--it takes AI from concept to reality in an eloquent, empowering, and utterly engaging way.
--David Cooperrider, Fairmount Minerals Professor at Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management

Both inspiring and highly practical, this book will be an invaluable and no doubt well-thumbed addition to your library of Appreciative Inquiry resources, whether you are a novice or an experienced practitioner!
--Sue James, partner, BJ Seminars

Ms. Stratton-Berkessel's work leaves the reader with a clear understanding of why Appreciative Inquiry is such a powerful change model. Those new to Appreciative Inquiry will marvel at her unique explanation of the 'phases' of Appreciative Inquiry. Those more familiar with Appreciative Inquiry will enjoy her explanations and examples.
--Timothy Germany, commissioner, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service

A practical approach grounded in personal experience...[this book] shows that Appreciative Inquiry is not a luxury but a necessity for organizational success.
--Annalie Killian, catalyst for magic AMP, producer of the AMPLIFY Innovation & Thought Leadership Festival, Sydney, Australia

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Appreciative Inquiry for Collaborative Solutions

21 Strength-Based WorkshopsBy Robyn Stratton-Berkessel

John Wiley & Sons

Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-470-48316-9

Chapter One

Context Setting

PART I PROVIDES a context for this book. The last ten years have been boom years for the strengths movement and positive psychology. Appreciative Inquiry has been delivering positive revolutions in change to all sorts of contexts for thirty years. These new positive, strength-based methods for human and organization development have arrived, and we are ready.

Providing a Personal Context

"Curiosity killed the cat" was one of the many proverbs my grandmother delighted in repeating to me, as a very young child, every time I poked my head into something new or asked "Why?" It silenced me, as I was upset by the idea of "killing cats." My mother, too, after endless "Why?" questions, in frustration would sigh, "Because I said so" or "'Y' is a crooked letter that can't be made straight." I had to pause to think hard about trying to straighten the letter "Y" and wouldn't dare ask, "Why does it need to be straightened?" Even my father would tell me, "Mind your p's and q's." I couldn't fathom that one. In spite of these early reprimands, it seems my curiosity, love of learning, and desire to seek out new ideas have been my constant guides. These days, whenever I am in a new territory, I am called to go further to explore what's around the corner, over the hill, or beyond the horizon. I am truly satisfied when I discover for myself what I can learn and what new ideas come up that stimulate possibility-thinking and what-if scenarios. After years of following these instincts, I know now that curiosity, love of learning, collecting ideas, and seeing the big picture are my best attributes, or my signature strengths. I am most satisfied when I am playing or working to these strengths.

Little surprise, then, that when I first heard the term Appreciative Inquiry, my neurons lit up and sparks were firing, especially as a trusted colleague had tantalized me with, "You will love this-it's all about finding what works best in people and organizations; it's been called a positive revolution in change." As a facilitator of change, my strength is designing and facilitating workshops from a smorgasbord of tools and methodologies I have learned over the years, and I am constantly on the lookout for new, relevant tools to add to my toolkit. Finding Appreciative Inquiry, or Appreciative Inquiry finding me, was a gift. It has deepened, broadened, and enhanced my way of living and working. Here is a practical framework that looks at the world with a valuing lens. It addresses problems from the perspective of what's working, instead of what's broken, looking for the best in people and situations, not the worst. The worldview of Appreciative Inquiry, seeing people and their organizations as sources of strength and vitality, is a paradigm shift because it begins with the positive and therefore approaches change from that perspective. Instantly, Appreciative Inquiry resonated powerfully. It connected with my instinctive approach to see the glass half-full instead of half-empty. People and organizations are living systems not only amassed with problems waiting to be solved but also filled with unlimited capacity for human relatedness, innovation, creativity, and excellence waiting to be appreciated.

As a life-centric change process, Appreciative Inquiry pays attention to the best in us, not the worst; to our strengths, not our weaknesses; to possibility thinking, not problem thinking. Appreciative Inquiry is an affirming way to embrace organizational change. It is a change method with the perspective that every system, human and otherwise, has something that works right-things that contribute to its aliveness, effectiveness, and success, connecting it in healthy ways to its stakeholders and the wider community. When we are open with each other to truly connect, we find our intersect points, and from that shared place of common humanity we begin to share dreams and aspirations, addressing problems in different ways. One of the ways we do this is story telling. It is through telling our stories that we transcend our differences as we discover our universal connection with others. "Remember, you don't fear people whose stories you know. Real listening always brings people closer together" (Wheatley, 2002, p. 145). With that mind, I begin with some of my stories.

At the tender age of sixteen, my stated career goal was to "maximize people's potential." I didn't know what it truly meant at the time, other than I wanted to help people live their best lives. I followed that intuition, and many years later, I would even say it is my calling. My "maximizing people's potential" has taken on multiple guises. I have contributed in many ways, in a wide variety of roles, switching careers across industries, countries, and cultures, always keen to embrace the newest technologies and evolving methodologies. Over time, continuing to learn and grow, I live with increased conscious awareness. This means two things: first, that I pay attention to as many of the thoughts, feelings, images, connections, judgments, impulses, and desires that flash in and out of my wakeful state and reflect on their appropriateness for the context; and second, that I pay increasing attention to the mystery and magnificence of life itself, cultivating a wonderment, gratitude, and desire to contribute positively to evolving our human spirit such that it benefits all beings and our entire universe.

It was in 2003 that I signed up to experience and learn about Appreciative Inquiry from its co-creator, David Cooperrider, at Case Western Reserve University. Approaching change from the mindset of existing strengths and discovering the healthiest, most alive experiences sounded most compelling. Here was a way to embrace wholeness: to view organizations as centers of human relatedness, where members are invited to discover their strengths through learning about and with one another, sharing their high-point stories of performing at their best. Here was a way to build on these stories of excellence by using our imaginative capacities to dream what we aspire to and, furthermore, to co-design flourishing environments for work and/or play that are a fusion of our own grounded realities and our highest aspirations. It was also thrilling to learn how positive psychology builds our resiliency and contributes to health and happiness over time. I was re-energized to find a method that initiated change from a healthy, positive foundation instead of the traditional "It's not working"/"We've got a problem" mindset. Reflecting on my personal and professional life, I became aware that, had I been more conscious of my innate talents and strengths earlier in my life, how much more joyful, productive, efficient, and healthy that might have been ... and, that's speaking just for me. Imagine the flow-on effects to all those I have lived and worked with. Their lives would have been so much easier as well! While I intuited my career goal to maximize people's potential very early in my life, it is taking a lifetime to increase my knowledge, find congruent tools, and develop my skills to the point at which they have become interwoven into who I am.

Waking Up

This book is written for facilitators, change agents, trainers, and leaders. It's a practical how-to book to help bring Appreciative Inquiry and its positive, strength-based approaches into organizations and communities easily, effectively, and efficiently. As you continue to read this book and learn more about these approaches, you will become aware very quickly, if you haven't already, that Appreciative Inquiry is more than a practical method to be able to do things in an energized, collaborative, and generative way; it is very much a way of being in the world, a philosophy. As the creator of the collaborative workshops, my intention in writing this book is to inspire you to experience the value and joy that comes from working and living with increased awareness of your strengths, building your positivity ratio (Fredrickson, 2009), and become more consciously aware of all your thoughts, feeling, actions, and interactions in all ways at all times. Appreciative Inquiry is a process that integrates all three of these goals. It is a pathway to building trusting, flourishing, conscious environments.

As trainers, we generally encourage our participants to work toward unconscious competence in acquiring new knowledge, skills, and attitudes. The intention is to be able to perform at a level of competence without conscious awareness: that is, we can do it without thinking. As our skill level increases, our performance becomes easier. Remember how it was to learn a new computer program? Before we launched into such a new endeavor, we had no level of competence: we didn't know what we didn't know. We describe this initial stage as unconscious incompetence. We muddled through, acknowledging soon enough that we were not fully competent. We realized we needed some training or coaching to attain a level of competence.

With training and coaching, we worked at it and we improved. We performed some functions from memory, but for others we had to refer to the manual, and still we would make a number of errors. We felt a little awkward and self-conscious; we were not yet fully confident. However, we had come to a good place. We had become aware of what we didn't know, so we moved to a level of conscious incompetence. With increased awareness of our incompetence, we took more lessons and focused on what we needed to learn. Our performance improved even further and our initial stress levels lessened as we became more conscious of our growing competence. Performing now with greater ease and comfort, we had attained a level of conscious competence. With even more practice and investment of our time, we reached a level of performance wherein we could use the software program without referring to manuals or having to consciously access steps from memory. It became "second nature to us"-just like riding a bike. We could just do it. We were operating at a level of unconscious competence. We had moved from unconscious incompetence to conscious incompetence to conscious competence and then unconscious competence.

While performing at a level of unconscious competence works for us at both neurological and physical levels to protect us from stimulus overload and help us to do things efficiently, it is not enough. It seems we are awakening from the complacency that comes from operating on autopilot and performing in a perfunctory way. Staying at this level will not maximize our full potential. Since the beginning of this century, neuroscience has taught us so much about the magnificence of the human brain, which is extremely exciting, as we think about all there is still to learn. It is not only in science that exciting discoveries are being made, but technologically and sociologically we are also making speedy progress. As next-generation trainers and developers, our work is much more than training to develop skills, knowledge, and attitudes so that our clients perform at a standard of unconscious competence. Today, there is an imperative to move beyond unconscious competence. To participate fully in the complex and interdependent world of which we have always been a part, it behooves us to embrace our lives as fully conscious human beings: to be awake to our whole selves and step up to our highest potentials so we can live our lives to the fullest. To be the best we can be is to maximize our potential, to recognize and honor our strengths, to continue to develop them and facilitate others to invest in their own strengths.

To help us move in such a direction, we need to develop another competence: a reflective competence. The term, used originally in the fields of education and social work, refers to the ability to be fully aware of oneself, one's thoughts and feelings in a given situation-namely, seeing the dynamics as they are being played out in the full context of the situation. It could be equated with taking a "third position" where you are the fly on the wall observing all that is going on, including how you are simultaneously constructing your part in the situation and responding to it and those involved. At the same time, you are in the movie and watching the movie run before your very own eyes. In the organizational context, we have moved beyond simple data collectors, information users, and knowledge managers to co-creators of new knowledge. The hope and possibility of our time is to apply our new knowledge, skills, and increased consciousness in our homes, schools, hospitals, communities, businesses, and corporations with wisdom.

Shifting the Paradigm

The historian of science may be tempted to exclaim that when paradigms change, the world itself changes with them. -Thomas Kuhn

As a student at Sydney University, in Sydney, Australia, I was informed that it took about thirty years for new theories about our world to make it into the mainstream. Making it into the mainstream means that new theoretical concepts and knowledge become accepted, integrated, or even supersede the prevailing paradigms. Despite our electronic evolution in the last twenty years and the speed and volume at which information can be shared, still we have been slow to act on new knowledge and apply it wisely. Our human capacity to hang on to what is familiar and comfortable is hardwired. "Why fix it, if it ain't broke?" has been a dominant worldview that supports a prevailing paradigm that the only time to improve a system-human or otherwise-is to wait until something fails, goes wrong, or is a weakness or a problem.

This old paradigm of focus first on weakness is played out every day in most of our homes, our schools, our institutions, and our places of work and worship. The behaviors, the processes, the decisions that are described as weaknesses or problems are the first to grab our attention. We focus on the things that "need fixing." As a consequence, those behaviors, thoughts, feelings, decisions, and processes that are working well and bring us successes don't attract the same attention or the investment of resources. We invest energy, money, time, intellect, and emotion into things that don't work for us instead of putting energies into those things that will give us an easier and a much-amplified return for our efforts and investments. Simply, what we focus on gets done. Punters at the racetrack do not place their hard-earned money on the weakest horse in the race. They bet on the best and the strongest. Owners and trainers of racehorses invest in nurturing and developing the strengths of each individual horse. It's not to say that they discount or ignore their weak areas. They work on the principle that the return on investment will come from developing what is already a natural strength in each horse.

When training for triathlons, cycling was my strength, running was in the middle, and swimming was my weakest stage. To perform at my best, it was the cycling I needed to excel at. I could get into the zone when I cycled. I was at one with the bike, torso parallel to the road, legs dancing on the pedals, feeling the exhilaration of my rhythmic cadence, the wind flowing over me as I challenged myself to go faster and faster. It was hard work and it was pure joy. I trained in running, but it took much more effort to feel pleasure above pain. No matter how much I trained, I would never bring my running up to a standard that would exceed my performance on the bike. When it came to swimming, I trained just to be able to compete-damage control, as it's known. Swimming was hard work for me. I lacked the same joy I experienced in cycling. Had I invested all my time in my weakest stage, I would have jeopardized my overall performance and would have certainly dampened the pleasure and rewards I got out of participating in triathlons.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Appreciative Inquiry for Collaborative Solutionsby Robyn Stratton-Berkessel Copyright © 2010 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: Pfeiffer
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0470483164
• ISBN 13: 9780470483169
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208