Aip May 2011 Ai Plus Plus Australia and NZ

International Journal of Appreciative Inquiry May 2011 Volume 13 Number 2
ISBN 978-1-907549-05-2
AI++: Innovations in AI through the Lens of Australia and New Zealand

Guest Editors: Sallie Lee and Dayle OBrien
Inside:
Positive Education, Positive Psychology Change and Grow: PwC Many Voices, One Purpose Unstoppable Positive Social Change Becoming Appreciative Leaders Re-storying for Individual Potential Resilient Leadership Being AI to Do AI Facilitating Strategic AI Interventions Building the Optimal Cricket Operation AI in the Defence Community Creating a Professional Learning Community AI Research Notes: The Roles of Theory and Practice AI Resources: Scholarly Articles and Books
AI Practitioner
May 2011
International Journal of Appreciative Inquiry
Inside:
4
Introduction by Sallie Lee and Dayle OBrien
Combining AI with other strengths-based methodologies and approaches in Australia and New Zealand
Whole System Innovation
8 14 18 24
Pathways to Positive Education at Geelong Grammar School: Integrating Positive Psychology and Appreciative Inquiry by Paige Williams
AI + positive psychology
What Would You Like to Change and Grow? Price Waterhouse Coopers Explores Positive Conversational Habits by Michelle McQuaid
AI + hope theory
Many Voices, One Purpose: Innovations in New Zealand in AI Practice for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect by Liz Kinley and Sally Christie
AI + community development + social marketing
Creating a New Paradigm of Unstoppable Positive Social Change by Lisa Doig and Karen Muller
AI + Values Assessments
Innovation in Practice: Leadership
32 38 43
Becoming Appreciative Leaders: Integrating AI and Strengths-Based Approaches into an MBA Program by Barb Wood
AI + coaching
Re-Storying for Individual Potential by Dayle OBrien

AI + individual strengths
Resilient Leadership: Grounded in a Strengths-based and Appreciative Life by Wendy Campbell

AI + resilient leadership
Innovation in Practice: Facilitation
49
Being AI to Do AI by Max Hardy

AI + personal preparation
AIP May 11 AI++: Australia and New Zealand
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May 2011
International Journal of Appreciative Inquiry
Inside continued:
52 60
Facilitating Strategic AI Interventions by Liz Mellish
AI + knowledge of facilitation
Building the Optimal Cricket Operation by Sandy Gordon

AI + team cohesion
Innovation in Practice: Community Building
65 70
AI and Asset-Based Community Development in the Defence Community Organisation by Dee Brooks and Graeme Stuart
AI + ABCD
Creating a Professional Learning Community: Embedding AI in a Complexity Thinking Framework by Chris Jansen
AI + complexity theory
76
AI Research Notes by Jan Reed and Lena Holmberg

The role of theory, and its relationship to practice: possible differences between the academic goals of individual study, and the collaborative goal of AI
79
AI Resources by Jackie Stavros and Dawn Dole

Scholarly articles and books on AI from 1987 to the present
82
Call for Papers

Guest Editors: David Cooperrider, Lindsey Godwin, Brodie Boland and Michel Avital The Appreciative Inquiry Summit: Explorations into the Magic of Macro-Management and Crowdsourcing
84 85
About the August 2011 Issue

Guest editors: Mette Jacobsgaard and Irene Norlund The Impact of AI on International Development
IAPG Contacts and AI Practitioner Subscription Information
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AI Practitioner
Volume 13 Number 2 ISBN 978-1-907549-05-2
May 2011
Sallie Lee
For fifteen years, Sallie Lee, working through her consulting practice, Shared Sun Studio, has offered creative, practical processes for whole systems, serving as thinking partner, facilitator and strategist for client groups, training over 1000 people in AI. She has worked in Australia annually for ten years. Sallie lives in Asheville, NC. Contact: sallie@sharedsun.net
Dayle OBrien
is an Australian OD practitioner introduced to AI whilst working with the ANZ Bank on their Cultural Transformation Team. Her success and affinity with AI inspired her to begin a consulting practice, paint group, which is dedicated to bringing a fresh approach to Change and OD in Australia. Contact: dayle@paintgroup.com.au
AI++: Innovations in AI through the Lens of Australia and New Zealand

ABSTRACT
Welcome from Sallie and Dayle to the May 2011 issue. There is such a proliferation of interest in AI and strengths-based approaches in the two countries that the twelve articles contained here provide only a small taste, but a rich one. Our hope is that this issue will shine a light on the intriguing applications being tried, bring more Australian and New Zealand AI practitioners out of the woodwork to participate in the global community and help the AI community in both countries to grow.
The idea for this issue of AIP was born at the 2009 AI Conference in Nepal. It grew from a breakfast conversation Sallie and Dayle had with Anne Radford about Sallies experience of working with Australian and New Zealand consultants and organizations over the past ten years. She had just completed a workshop series in Perth, Australia, and had a fresh reminder of her sense over the years that the professionals there were some of the most innovative, up-todate, and well-trained she had encountered anywhere in the world. The conversation turned into a request from Anne that Sallie and Dayle, who lives near Melbourne, guest edit an issue of AI Practitioner on AI evolution and innovation in Australia and New Zealand. Anne was also curious about their observations on the way many practitioners in the two countries combine AI with other methodologies and approaches, to form what Sallie and Dayle began calling AI ++ (Plus-Plus). We decided to pull on that thread of innovation and curiosity. We wanted to hear what people were thinking about and experimenting with, in terms of AI combined with other approaches and with new thinking about its principles and practice. So we put out a call to our colleagues and to the whole AI community for stories of AI ++ down under. This issue is the result. Whats inside We have categorized the articles two ways: Whole System Innovation and Innovations in Practice: Leadership; Facilitation; and Community Building.
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Whole system innovation Four of the articles deal with wide-scope applications of AI, providing some of the most exciting stories we have heard of how AI can make a difference and deliver big visions. They deal with potentially staggering numbers of people in the targeted systems and people taking bold risks to see what might be possible.
Impacting Education
Pathways to Positive Education at Geelong Grammar School: Integrating Positive Psychology and Appreciative Inquiry
Dayle participating at her first AI workshop in 2004
Paige Williams brings us an account of a five-year ongoing commitment to applying Positive Education: Positive Psychology to all aspects of school life in a premier school providing education from Early Learning (3-year-olds) through to Year 12. Appreciative Inquiry is one important way through which the school is developing this at an organisational level a positive institution as a container for positive education. Geelong Grammar has partnered with Dr. Marin Seligman and brought other visiting scholars in positive psychology to the campus to ground and inform their vision of a new model of education.
Impacting a Corporation and its Clients
What Would You Like to Change and Grow? Price Waterhouse Coopers Explores Positive Conversational Habits PwC Australia has integrated Hope Theory and Appreciative Inquiry to inspire otherwise analytically inclined minds into inquiry-led conversations, to satisfy the changing needs of its clients and develop a habit of conversation. They are part way through a three-year strategy to engage their 6,200 auditors, tax advisors and business consultants in a highly visible brand and culture program centred on the practice of asking clients, staff and the communities PwC serve positively challenging questions. So far, there have been more than 170,00 conversations!
Impacting Communities
Many Voices, One Purpose: Innovations in New Zealand in AI Practice for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect In New Zealand, Jigsaw, an association of over 40 organizations, has chosen to champion a paradigm shift through a national social change strategy called Many Voices, One Purpose. This strategy is based on the belief that when we bring together our collective ideas, influence and wisdom, the impossible becomes the possible. As an agency with a dual purpose of preventing child abuse and family violence, and promoting the safety and well being of children, their families and communities, Jigsaw seeks to coordinate opportunities for local communities to discover, believe in and grow their own capacity to ensure the protection and nurturing of their children.
Impacting a Nation
Results from an Oz workshop
Creating a New Paradigm of Unstoppable Positive Social Change Lisa Doig, Karen Muller and team have used AI and an AI summit for the purpose of igniting a nation-wide dialogue to transform the culture in Australia and contribute to unstoppable positive social change. Read about their big vision and tools they have used along the way.
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Innovations in Practice This group of articles captures applications in the areas of leadership, facilitation and community building.
Leadership
Becoming Appreciative Leaders: Integrating AI and Strength-Based Approaches into an MBA Program Barbara Wood, driven by her desire to teach students to be better leaders in diverse business environments and have them take more responsibility for their own learning, has incorporated AI, VIA Strengths, learner mindset and other strengths-based applications into her MBA Leadership Coaching unit.
Inspire Foundation Summit, Sydney, Australia, 2008. One of the authors in this issue, Lisa Doig, was lead facilitator.
Re-Storying for Individual Potential Dayle OBrien, when invited to develop an emerging leaders workshop for one of Australias biggest banks combined AI and Individual Strengths to invite participants to re-story and set new and exciting paths for their futures. Resilient Leadership: Grounded in a Strength-based and Appreciative Life Wendy Campbells personal life experiences and reflections have spawned a new on-line leadership program, targeting resilience-building in leaders of social and environmental change. She shares a very personal account of her path of discovery and reflection.
Facilitation
Being AI To Do AI Max Hardy has written an article that is likely to be of interest to all AI facilitators. He shares what he has learned and noticed so far about what it takes to be AI. His tips can encourage readers to think about their own techniques for being AI.
View of Sydney Harbour, from the Inspire Foundation AI Summit
Facilitating Strategic AI Interventions Liz Mellish, one of the pioneers in AI applications in Australia, brings us her wisdom on maximising the interplay between knowledge of the strategic context, professional facilitation competence and the application of Appreciative Inquiry to benefit the organisation. She walks us through windows of possibility for planning effective strategic interventions. Building the Optimal Cricket Operation Building on his years of experience as a sports psychologist and AI practitioner, Sandy Gordon brings us insights into the Western Australia Cricket Associations [WACA] workshop to look at their operations and how he worked with appreciative facilitation to do it.
Community Building
AI and Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) in the Defence Community Organisation The Defence Community Organisation has been focusing on building selfreliance and broader community engagement within families of Australias
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Defence Forces. This article outlines the way in which the Family Action Centre drew on AI and ABCD in a workshop series that challenged some traditional thinking and generated some exciting possibilities for Defence Force families. Creating a Professional Learning Community: Embedding AI In A Complexity Thinking Framework Chris Jansen, from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, provides a wonderful introduction to complexity thinking, using an approach integrating an AI framework with complexity thinking to inform professional learning processes.
Sallie and Dayle in Barwon Heads, Australia, 2008
Sallie and Dayle: personal history and connection We first met in 2004 when Sallie was consulting to ANZ, one of Australias top five banks, headquartered in Melbourne. It was a long-term project that included a workshop series that Dayle attended. Sallies long-term love affair with Australia and New Zealand began in 1971 when she took time off from university studies in the US and went down under on a year-long adventure. Despite lots of travel elsewhere, including six years living in South America, she never forgot the dynamism and draw of those two fascinating and refreshing cultures. It took until 2001 to make it back to the region. Invited by several Australian colleagues, she found herself in Sydney teaching an AI Foundations workshop. This small workshop spawned others and a network of friendships and professional connections that has brought her back to the Australia/New Zealand at least once a year since then. One connection created a long-term project with ANZ, one of Australias top five banks, headquartered in Melbourne where Dayle and Sallie met in 2004. Dayle spent the first 15 years of her OD practice working as an employee of some of Australias best-known corporate brands. It is only in the last few years that she has stepped out into her own consulting practice (paint group), focusing on AI and strengths-based approaches to change. Her intrigue and connection to AI was sparked when she attended that very first workshop with Sallie, in 2004. We connected at many levels and have enjoyed evolving from student/teacher, to friends and colleagues. We continue to learn from each other and enjoy the times when our work and teachings bring us together, somewhere in the world: actual or virtual summit planning; meeting up at the AI global conferences; or simply sharing thoughts and updates over Skype. In 2008, we were invited to be a part of the support team for the Inspire Foundation (AI) Summit, whose mission is to help millions of young people lead happier lives. We have also cofacilitated AI introductions and trainings in Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth. AI in OZ/NZ Our hope for this edition is that it will shine a light on some of the innovative and exciting work being done with AI and strengths-based approaches in Australia, and draw more Australians and New Zealanders into the global network and community adding to its richness and diversity. AI networking within Australia is in its infancy. David Cooperrider came to Australia for the first time last year invited by PwC. An AI Certificate Program through Case Western was also introduced in Melbourne. We look forward to a continuing presence from Australia and New Zealand in the coming years. We hope you enjoy the collection of articles. Sallie Lee and Dayle OBrien Guest Editors, May 2011
Bondi Beach, Sydney
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Paige Williams
Positive Psychology Project Manager for Geelong Grammar School in Victoria, Australia, is responsible for identifying and developing pathways for the school to implement Positive Psychology principles in the organisation. She has a BA Hons in Business Studies and is undertaking a Ph.D. with the University of Melbourne on her current work at GGS. Contact: williams_paige@ggs.vic.edu.au
Whole System Innovation
Pathways to Positive Education at Geelong Grammar School

Integrating Positive Psychology and Appreciative Inquiry
ABSTRACT
Since 2005 Geelong Grammar School has been developing and implementing Positive Education Positive Psychology applied to all aspects of school life. Appreciative Inquiry is one important way through which the school is developing this at an organisational level to ensure that Positive Education becomes an embedded organisational capability.
Geelong Grammar School (GGS) is Australias largest Anglican coeducational boarding and day school. Founded in 1855 and coeducational since 1976, we have been educating young people for over 150 years. Located across four campuses in Victoria, the school offers an exceptional Australian education from three year-old early learning to Year 12. Our students are boarders and day pupils; they come to us from city and country communities, from interstate and overseas. Positive education For a long time at Geelong Grammar, we have understood for many years that parents want schools to teach more than academic achievement. In 2003, this led the school to undertake work in the development of an expanded concept of student health, moving beyond the traditional boundaries to one based on an empirically-driven student wellbeing program incorporating emotional and physical health. In 2005 Geelong Grammar School (GGS) was made aware of Prof. Martin Seligmans groundbreaking work in Positive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Since that time we have continued our work on wellbeing for students as well as teaching and non-teaching staff through a collaborative project with him. This project has been recognised as one of the pioneering pillars of what has come to be defined as Positive Education a theoretical framework that unifies the core principles from the science of Positive Psychology with the practices of education in its broadest sense. Positive Education brings together GGSs considerable experience of pastoral care for young people and expanded concept of wellbeing with the science of Positive Psychology. The overarching aim of Positive Education at GGS is for individuals to flourish. Individuals in this context includes students, teaching staff and non-teaching staff and ultimately the schools alumni and parent
AIP May 11 Williams: Positive Institution
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This project has been recognised as one of the pioneering pillars of what has come to be defined as Positive Education.
community. Flourishing is defined as elevated emotional, psychological, and social wellbeing (Keyes, 2005). We measure it through the Individual Flourishing Questionnaire developed by Prof. Felicia Huppert at Cambridge Universitys Wellbeing Institute. The questionnaire measures: positive emotions; engagement and interest; meaning and purpose; positive relationships; resilience; competence; optimism; vitality; calmness; confidence/self-esteem. Positive Psychology in action In 2008, there was an intense period of training and support for the implementation of Positive Psychology. This included a nine-day training course for GGS staff in January. Prof. Seligman, his family and a number of key members of his team were in residence at the school from January to June. There was a varied and extensive programme of visiting scholars throughout that year. We hosted and learned from some of the leading academics in the field, including Prof. Christopher Peterson, Prof. Barbara Fredrickson, George Vaillant MD, Dr Roy Baumeister, Prof. Ray Fowler and Dr Frank Mosca. Initial work towards curriculum development was also undertaken and key positions and structures were put in place to support the implementation, including the role of head of Positive Education. By the end of 2008, the Positive Education department was established and comprised teachers from over six departments. The start of the 2009 academic year saw the first timetabled, explicitly taught, Positive Education classes at GGS in Year 7, Year 9 and Year 10 (students aged 1316).
Parents want schools to teach more than academic achievement.
Since 2008, more than 250 Geelong Grammar staff teaching and nonteaching have taken part in intensive residential training courses with Professor Martin Seligman and his team of experts through which they have learned and practiced Positive Psychology principles and skills. Teachers are able to use the science of Positive Psychology in their own lives and implicitly in their approach to classes, activities and pastoral care. It is in this way that Positive Education influences every student in the classroom, on the sports field and in their boarding House at each of our campuses, every day. Results manifest in many ways, from observations from staff at improvements in conflict resolution between students, and the powerful impact of having a common strengths-based language shared by students and staff, to one of the school gardeners of 15 years commenting how many students take the time to really stop and have a meaningful conversation since the implementation of Positive Education. In 2010, for the first time, all students from Year 7 upwards took the Individual Flourishing Questionnaire, the results of which are very positive when compared to European norms for an equivalent age-group. From individuals to institution A review of the schools implementation of Positive Psychology was undertaken in 2009, through which it became clear that the desired outcomes for the original project to implement Positive Psychology through all aspects of the schools operation had expanded beyond the scope of one project. In parallel with the review, feedback from staff indicated that incongruence was developing between the values underpinning Positive Education in the student context and aspects of the organisational setting or design.
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It became clear that understanding how embedding Positive Psychology principles in an organisational context would support staff and be beneficial, particularly given their important role in modelling attitudes, skills and behaviours to our students. In doing so, we would also ensure that the desired outcomes for the individual through Positive Education mental models, processes and behaviours were further embedded and supported by organisational culture, norms and practices. As a result, with the over-arching aim of Geelong Grammar School as a flourishing institution, two projects were agreed: The Positive Education Project, which focuses on the individual, and The Positive Institution Project, which focuses on the organisation. AI and Positive Institution From our work with positive psychology, there was a clear understanding of the benefits of taking a strengths-based approach with individuals. The question was how this principle could best be applied to an organisation. Important foundational questions needed to be explored:
The school community benefits from a common strengths-based language shared by students and staff
What does it mean to be a Positive Institution (PI)? What does a flourishing institution look like? How would GGS be different if it were flourishing?
At the time that the PI project was agreed, the school did not have an answer to these questions but recognised it was essential if the influence of Positive Education was to become a lasting institutional and cultural influence at the school, rather than something that only happened at an individual level. Fortuitously, soon after raising these questions, a small team from the school attended David Cooperriders workshop held in Melbourne and discovered AI. Here was a strengths-based approach that worked at a system level and made so many connections with the work we had already undertaken with positive psychology. It was an exciting and energising experience as the pathways and possibilities for holistic, inclusive and generative organisational change opened before us! Introducing AI to GGS 2010 was a year of research, introduction and early implementation of some of the core principles and capabilities used in AI. Here are two key initiatives and their outcomes: Diversity Committee: AI Day, April 2010 The Diversity Committee Strategy Day was proposed as a pilot AI exercise. Feedback from this day would give the schools executive team a basis on which to decide how GGS could move forward with Appreciative Inquiry in a broader organisational context. After a brief introduction to the underpinning concepts of AI and the process itself, a series of AI activities exploring high-point experiences at GGS, and of diversity generally, comprised the rest of the day.
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The simplicity of the AI process surprised me, and the fact that I walked away feeling closer to all those people that participated in the session. participant, Diversity Committee Strategy Day
In Discovery we looked at the diversity-driven affirmative topics of work-life balance, diversity in the workplace and men and women working together and we began our Dreaming by articulating our three diversity wishes for Geelong Grammar School. Whilst not moving into a Design phase for the Diversity Strategy for the school, the group was able to identify clear outcomes and next steps from the days discussions. These have directly informed the community consultation plan that was implemented throughout 2010 and the diversity strategy that was approved by the executive team in December 2010. A few comments from the participants in the day: The simplicity of the AI process surprised me, and the fact that I walked away feeling closer to all those people that participated in the session. When we build relationships we are able to speak honestly with our peers without hesitation because of the mutual trust/care factor, it makes it easier to discuss work practices that require improvement in a non-threatening manner. I enjoyed the workshop component of the day the most discussing our roles, our history, our aspirations and how our work-life could be improved at GGS was amazing. It clarified not only my issues but also gave me an insight into other peoples work-lives and their issues. With the AI process we seemed to get more done than just chatting about the issues of women and men in leadership positions. The process allowed people to have an opinion about issues that can sometimes suggest an us and them attitude. AI was a far more productive process. We achieved a number of clear outcomes, including developing an understanding of the Appreciative Inquiry approach amongst the group, and identifying the positive core by engaging the group in appreciative thinking about GGS.
With the AI process we seemed to get more done than just chatting about the issues of women and men in leadership positions. participant, Diversity Committee Strategy Day
Principals Advisory Committee Retreat: AI Workshop, July 2010 With the positive feedback from the Diversity Day, we were able to secure time for a two-hour AI workshop experience at the annual two-day retreat of the schools leadership group the Principals Advisory Committee (PAC). The purpose of this was to develop understanding and support for AI with this larger group of decision makers. We wanted them to perceive AI as both a philosophy and change process; to experience AI in action; and to explore and understand how it could support GGS as a flourishing institution moving forward. After a brief introduction to AI, we asked the group to reflect and share moments when you have flourished at work and in particular, what did the organisation that you worked for do to contribute to or enable you to flourish? Their collective experience of flourishing at work is shown in the frequency diagram above. It was these words that provided the basis for the dialogue about ways in which GGS could become a flourishing institution. Recognising that the group may not be ready to move to a whole-system summit for now, we chose to take them through the philosophy of AI and ways in
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The school leadership groups collective experience of flourishing at work
which we could begin embedding this into the school, knowing it would resonate with their experience and highlights of positive psychology thus far. A number of underpinning skills and practices to develop included:
The development of a dialogue mindset and practice; Story-sharing as a means of personal and professional development; Implementing strengths-based processes where appropriate such as
appreciative review processes in day-to-day business.
Story-sharing has become a regular part of staff training sessions and staff meetings.
Through the appreciative nature of the dialogue at the PAC retreat, members were able to move beyond their usual thinking and operating paradigms, to one of possibility and capacity. It moved their field of vision upwards and outwards, enabling them to take a helicopter view of ways in which GGS could develop as a flourishing organisation. By reflecting on and sharing personal experiences, they developed a common understanding of why and how that would benefit the organisation and the people within it. The group could see the value of AI to the school, and we were given approval to develop a programme of initiatives to encourage appreciative skills and mindsets, with the possibility of holding a full summit in 2012. Permission to proceed In the second half of 2010 we were able to put our appreciative skills and mindsets development plan into action. Story-sharing has become a regular part of staff training sessions and staff meetings; we shared information about dialogue, discussion and debate; we encouraged and reminded people to access their dialogue mindset and skills through our regular Positive Education Newsletters; and we also facilitated an appreciative review process with a diverse group of staff undertaking a review of the schools activities programme.
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Positive Education influences every student in the classroom, on the sports field and in their boarding house at each of our campuses, every day.
Its 2011 and there is much to do! The school began its journey with Positive Psychology from a student-centred perspective focusing on the individual and teaching them positive psychology skills, so that they might flourish and enjoy purposeful lives. We are now asking others to become involved non-teaching staff and members of the school community and asking our teachers to broaden and develop their thinking and application of Positive Psychology to their work relationships, practices and mindsets. We are also intentionally looking at ways in which current organisational practices, processes and cultural norms help or hinder our progress and ways in which applying positive psychology concepts and skills can help us to continue to develop. It is early in Term 1, 2011, and our work is already in full swing! We are currently in the process of implementing Appreciative Advising (Bloom, 2008) as the basis for our student tutorial system, with the intention of encouraging staff to develop the skills and practices of working with a strengths-based and appreciative framework. I am undertaking Ph.D. research to understand and identify the positive pathways that organisations and GGS in particular can take to operate as a flourishing institution. Development of a pre-intervention battery of questions is currently underway and testing will be undertaken in May, 2011, with the development and implementation of specific positive pathways in the second half of the year. I am confident that AI will be an underpinning influence in many of those and look forward to sharing our further progress and developments with the AI community. References Ben-Shahar, T. (2009) The Pursuit of Perfect. New York: McGraw-Hill. Bloom, J., B. Hutson and Y. He.(2008) The Appreciative Advising Revolution. Stipes Publishing Llc. Fredrickson, B. (2009) Positivity. New York: Crown Publishing Group Huppert, F. A. and J. E. Whittington. (2003) Evidence for the independence of positive and negative well-being: implications for quality of life assessment. British Journal of Health Psychology, 8, 107-122. Huppert, F. A. (2004) A population approach to positive psychology: The potential for population interventions to promote well-being and prevent disorder. In: PA Linley and S Joseph (eds.) Positive Psychology in Practice. Ch.41, 693-709, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons Inc. Huppert, F. A., N. Marks, A. Clark, J. Siegrist, A. Stutzer, J. Vitters, and M. Wahrendorf. (2009) Measuring well-being across Europe: Description of the ESS Well-being Module and preliminary findings. Social Indicators Research, 91, 301-315. Lyubomirski, S. (2010) The How of Happiness. Piatkus Books. Seligman, M. (2003) Authentic Happiness. Nicholas Brealey Publishing.
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Michelle McQuaid
is a principal with PwC Australia, where she has worked with Martin Seligman, David Cooperrider, Carol Dweck and Tal Ben Shar among others on how to create a thriving organisation across brand, culture and change initiatives. She is a graduate of the UPenn Masters of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) Program. Contact: michelle.mcquaid@au.pwc.com
What Would You Like to Change and Grow?

Price Waterhouse Coopers Explores Positive Conversational Habits
ABSTRACT
Imagine priding yourself on a successful career as a technical expert who tells organisations how to identify and mitigate risks, only to discover that your future depends on developing positive conversational habits. This article explores how PwC Australia employed the application of Hope Theory and Appreciative Inquiry to inspire analyticallyinclined minds into inquiryled conversations to satisfy the changing needs of its clients.
When the Australian firm of PwC explained to its 6,200 auditors, tax advisors and business consultants that client research had revealed their technical excellence alone was no longer enough to ensure value you could feel the wave of scepticism ripple through the firm. Traditionally, most of PwCs work involved the collection, review and analysis of financial, tax, legal and business data. But now their clients wanted this information synthesised and contextualised into conceptual narratives and big picture thinking. They also wanted PwC to do it in a way that was caring and didnt induce anxiety by focussing on business threats and concerns. What would you like to be? The firm had been experimenting with the practices of positive psychology within its diversity programs with good results, so the leadership team decided to wrap some of these techniques, especially the premises of Hope Theory (Snyder, 2000) and the practices of Appreciative Inquiry (Cooperrider, Whitney, Stavros and Fry, 2008), in a highly visible brand and culture program to help get people started. A three-year strategy was initiated, centred on the behaviour of asking clients, staff and the communities PwC served positively challenging questions. The questioning platform is based on the phrase What would you like to? and alternate endings are used to initiate different conversations. For example, the first twelve months saw PwC ask, What would you like to change?. One year on, the current investment asks, What would you like to grow? The brand strategy included an advertising component (see images throughout the article). Prior to launching this in the market, PwC undertook two months of extensive internal education, engagement and coaching to help its people understand the promise of delivering an open, interesting, possibility-filled conversation. It had to be acted on by everyone representing PwC. Ready to walk the talk, 400-plus partners committed to taking the first steps and being
AIP May 11 McQuaid: PwC and Positive Conversational Habits
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accountable for asking their clients and their people What would you like to change? What would you like to grow? The leadership team immediately got to work to create the foundations that would better meet clients needs. The firms noble purpose was updated to create a compelling vision of how PwC would build on its strengths to create a more rewarding experience for its clients, people and the communities it served. Values were reviewed to amplify existing behaviours such as collaboration, agility, commerciality and positivity evidenced in the feedback from the firms most satisfied clients. Strategies to realign growth priorities, talent management and performance rewards were designed and put in place. Ultimately however, success would rest on PwCs people accepting and learning to balance their expertise, of identifying and articulating risks, with authentic inquiries about organisational hopes and potential. In a system populated with individuals who were comfortable and successful crunching numbers, this idea made many feel quite anxious. Concerns were raised that if they started asking and inviting broad-based business questions they might not know the answers, and their expert positioning might itself be questioned. Objections were raised that clients would not be keen to pay to hear what was going right in their organisation. In order to ease peoples feelings of uncertainty, leaders heeded the advice of change experts and decided to: clearly script the critical move of engaging in meaningful conversations; shrink the change by focusing on just one question; and build the practice of making appreciative inquiries into conversational habits. (Heath and Heath, 2010) All that was needed now was a way to spark the contagious nature of behaviour.
The aim was to adapt the AI model to inspire inquiry-led conversations that would be relevant to analytically-inclined minds.
What would you like to learn? Even the most experienced partners expressed feelings of uncertainty about the conversational challenge in front of them. To support them, an AI inspired framework was created offering the following guidance:
Begin the conversation by finding out what the clients hopes are for the
future by asking the question What would you like to change?
Ask them When have you experienced this kind of change at its best in
the past? and be sure to let them tell you how it looked, how it felt and how it worked. are today to the future they aspire to. Try using questions like How would you go about making that type of change happen here?
Now help them to begin exploring pathways to move from where they
Finally, gauge their appetite and timeline to act on this desire. Perhaps
ask What would be the first steps you might take?; When would you begin? and Who could help you?
The aim was to adapt the AI model to inspire inquiry-led conversations that would be relevant to analytically-inclined minds. The firm didnt expect anyone to use the framework as a script but rather as an example of how a conversation can flow productively when you are not telling someone how something should
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be done. As PwCs partners began encountering topics that ranged from the role of government in business to the surprising details of personal relationships they found the framework made it comfortable for them to sit outside their roles as technical experts and engage authentically as fellow human beings. What would you like to see? Good progress was being made on the conversational habits when PwCs leadership invited AI founder, David Cooperrider, to the firms annual partner conference to further sharpen the focus. They decided the morning would be spent discovering and dreaming about PwC at its best, and the afternoon would focus on putting the partners conversational skills to the test in small groups with 25 clients. To be honest I wasnt sure what they were doing would really work, said Cooperrider. I was concerned that the question What would you like to change? may open up a deficit-based can of worms. Before I headed to Australia, I had a meeting with the CEO of a US aviation company and so I decided to put PwCs framework to the test. To my surprise, not only did it work but it worked well. Cooperrider wasnt the only person who was surprised. Framed for clients as a learning exercise for PwCs partners, the clients graciously allowed different teams to practice the conversational routine repeatedly. Both parties reported back their awkward first steps, but everyone agreed inquiring appreciatively was entirely appropriate and rewarding, and enjoyable conversations began flowing.
I was concerned that the question What would you like to change? may open up a deficit-based can of worms ... To my surprise, not only did it work but it worked well. David Cooperrider
What outcomes would you like? Twelve months on and the results speak for themselves:
The advertising sparked viral conversations right across Australia
with more than 170,000 people joining face-to-face and online opportunities, enabling PwC to learn more about the hopes of their clients customers (you can see this conversation continuing to unfold at http://www.whatwouldyouliketogrow.com.au). them strengthen and deepen their relationships with clients.
More staff than anticipated are reporting that the campaign is helping Brand health measurements have improved across Australia, placing
PwC as the first or second preferred provider in every state (PwC, 2010).
Finally, the BRW Client Choice Awards (national client-determined
business awards) named PwC the leading professional services firm, the best consulting firm and the market leader for 2010 (Tydd, 2010). the campaign still to run, it looks like PwC is well on the way to making Appreciative Inquiry a conversational habit.
Of course, habits dont change overnight, but with eighteen months of
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References Cooperrider, D. L., D. Whitney, J. M. Stavros, and R. Fry. (2008) Appreciative Inquiry Handbook: For Leaders of Change. Ohio: Berrett-Keohler Publishers and Crown Custom Publishing. Heath, C. H. (2010) Switch: How To Change Things When Change Is Hard. New York: Broadway Books. PwC. (2010) Brand Health Survey. New York: PwC. Snyder, C. R. (2000) Handbook of Hope: Theory, Measurement, and Interventions. New York: Academic Press. Tydd, J. (March 18, 2010) 2010 Beaton Consulting/BRW Client Choice Awards. Retrieved February 18, 2011, from BRW: http://tv.brw.com.au/ video/27360?hl
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Liz Kinley
is the Chief Executive (strategic operations) for Jigsaw Family Services New Zealand. A manager, facilitator and educator, she thrives on managing change and implementing large national projects. She is trained in Appreciative Inquiry and strongly committed to strength-based principles. Contact: liz@jigsaw.org.nz
Sally Christie
is the national project coordinator for Jigsaw. She has been involved in the health, social services and local government sectors for many years. Her passion is discovering how communities can play their part in the well being of children and their families. Contact: sally@jigsaw.org.nz
Many Voices, One Purpose

Innovations in New Zealand in AI Practice for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect
ABSTRACT
What does it take to activate and grow community involvement so that helping each other is a normal part of community life and families are well supported to raise their children safely? Through innovations in Appreciative Inquiry practice that draw on community development and social marketing methodologies, local communities are discovering, believing in and growing their own capacity to ensure the protection and nurturing of their children.
Releasing community resourcefulness On Sunday, 17th October, 2010, a unique community event took place in New Zealands North Island coastal town of Thames. Over sixty people, from different parts of the Thames community, shared stories that revealed the wealth of their personal experience of what works best to get alongside children and families in positive and useful ways to promote safe, thriving children and flourishing families. Together, they identified patterns of supportive behaviour that consistently produced positive and helpful outcomes and concluded that if these patterns could be embedded into everyones everyday life in Thames, all local children and families would grow up safe and nurtured. The participants in this community-based conversation have now become the champions of a new social movement in their town. They are at the forefront of new thinking that is gaining traction within and beyond New Zealand, based on the premise that the solution to our unacceptably high rates of child abuse and neglect is already inherent within our communities. Until now we have relied on helping professionals, social service organisations and government systems to find a solution for what has been an intractable issue. This conventional paradigm is now shifting. While professional expertise will always be valued and needed when challenges arise, we have come to understand that families and communities themselves have the greatest capability for looking after their most vulnerable members, once they have had the opportunity to appreciatively reveal their own expertise and resourcefulness and re-claim that responsibility. Thats what the people of Thames began to do last October. As a leading and entrepreneurial national New Zealand not-for-profit organisation, Jigsaw has chosen to champion this paradigm shift through a national social change strategy called Many Voices One Purpose. This strategy is
AIP May 11 Kinley and Christie: Many Voices, One Purpose
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Jigsaw seeks to coordinate opportunities for local communities to discover, believe in and grow their own capacity to ensure the protection and nurturing of their children.
based on the belief that when we bring together our collective ideas, influence and wisdom, the impossible becomes the possible. As an agency with a dual purpose preventing child abuse and family violence, and promoting the safety and well being of children, their families and communities Jigsaw seeks to coordinate opportunities for local communities to discover, believe in and grow their own capacity to ensure the protection and nurturing of their children. The transformational conversation that took place in Thames launched the pilot for Many Voices One Purpose, branded locally as Thames Linking Communities (TLC). This leading edge initiative is funded through a partnership between Jigsaw and The Todd Foundation, a respected and innovative New Zealand philanthropic trust. Innovating through interconnected methodologies Many Voices One Purpose is based on Appreciative Inquiry methodology. It is founded on the assumption that once people experience an appreciative conversation, hear stories validating their own and others successful experiences and absorb the wisdom and skills inherent within these stories, they are more likely to consciously and confidently initiate helpful interactions with others. The propensity for strengthening and sustaining these new helping behaviours over time is further heightened when the appreciative conversation takes place within a community development context, and is combined with a social marketing communications strategy specifically designed to inform and inspire people in ways that promote positive changes in their behaviour towards others. While Jigsaw has worked with each of these three methodologies over the past five years, this is the first time we have purposefully combined them within one integrated project. Early results suggest this innovation has produced a potent catalyst for social change. Table 1 on page 20 illustrates the way that the three methodologies interconnect with ease. They have similar core principles, which in combination strengthen, extend and create. Most importantly from Jigsaws perspective, they are all whole-system oriented, inclusive, empowering and facilitative, and match well with the fundamental assumption that drives Many Voices One Purpose: that all communities are inherently capable entities. We believe that once communities reveal their own resourcefulness and discover that change is both desirable and possible, through the evidence of their own stories, they will take action to bring their own dreams to life, producing their own social entrepreneurs and forging their own pathway to social transformation. Jigsaws relationship with Maori as our indigenous people Jigsaws organisational infrastructure, values and practices reflect the special relationship that was established between Maori (as the indigenous people of our land) and the English Crown, through the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. While historical debates about the meaning of the Treaty provisions continue today, its three foundation principles embody the Treatys spirit and intent, and shape the relationships between Maori and Tauiwi (people who have arrived here since 1840) within Jigsaw. Table 2 on page 21 illustrates principal values that guide Jigsaws relationships with Maori.
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Table 1: Combined methodologies: a potent mix for innovation in child abuse prevention
Appreciative Inquiry In every society, organisation or group, something works
CommunityDevelopment Just about everyone wants whats best for their community
Social marketing People change their behaviour because they because they discover, co-create and chose alternatives that add greater value People do things because they acquire information or skills they did not previously have Change is more effective and sustained when people are collaborators, pollinators and participants within their own change process Change happens most powerfully when people are enabled to become heroes of their own stories
What we focus on becomes our reality
Once people understand others circumstances theyre usually willing to help If people are treated with respect, they usually respond the same way
Reality is created in the moment and there are multiple realities
People have more confidence and comfort to journey to the future (the unknown) when they carry forward parts of the past (the known) If we carry forward parts of the past, they should be what is best about the past It is important to value differences
People have to believe something is possible before theyll work to make it happen
People working together are better off and more successful than people working alone Our differences can enrich the resourcefulness of our communities (The Community Tool Box) Treaty principles in action Partnership - We share decision-making power at all levels within our organisation and its activities. Protection - We work together to protect our indigenous treasures, including Maori mythology, knowledge, values, stories and traditions, Maori language, our shared natural environment and our people. Participation - We partner within our organisation, seeking equality of opportunity and outcomes.
Communities are the most effective place for change to happen, with community leadership and support Respecting, acknowledging and combining our different strengths provides powerful leverage for change (National Social Marketing Centre UK) Jigsaws Vision and Values Vision - Spark the dream thriving children, flourishing families Values - We value all people and act with generosity and integrity. We are inclusive, transparent and collaborative, seeking always to promote genuine, respectful relationships and to provide outstanding service.
(Hammond, The Thin Book of AI)

Table 2: Working together within Jigsaw
Treaty principles Tika - doing the right thing Pono - doing it with integrity Aroha - driving it with sincerity
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Its like an octopus: a body of people who are at the centre driving the new ideas, and then new tentacles growing out into every corner of our community. member of the Thames community
The Thames Linking Communities [TLC] rollout We chose Thames as the pilot location because, as a compact service town of only 6,000 people, it is a discrete entity. This made it realistic to design a community development initiative which, over time, would touch the life of everyone living there. It was an additional bonus for the TLC pilot that our national project manager Sally Christie lives there, so she could immediately access a wide range of networks across the local community. With any community based initiative, Jigsaw always works in relationship with its local partner agency so the readiness of CAPS Hauraki to warmly welcome the initiative and the immediate support offered by Kaye Smith, in her role as the local child advocate for child witnesses of family violence, were both vital success factors for community trust and engagement. As Many Voices One Purpose has been implemented in Thames through TLC, we have brought our strengths together for the same cause: the safety and well being of our children. This has involved:
Engaging with mana whenua (local Maori tribal leaders and their
representatives) from the outset;
Seeking their mandate and blessing so that all local people, both Maori
and Tauiwi, feel fully welcome and able to participate;
Involving a bi-cultural team in the design of the TLC launch day
and conversation design and creating a conversation that enables everyones voice to be heard;
Inviting mana whenua to open the day with a Maori process of welcome; Strengthening local cultural understanding and relationships and
seeking to ensure that Maori cultural concepts, values and protocols become embedded into every aspect of the initiatives design and delivery.
Working together in this way has been an essential element in ensuring that Maori living in Thames can experience TLC as inviting, inclusive, strength-based and beneficial for their tamariki (children) and whanau (extended families). During one of Sallys earliest local conversations about Many Voices One Purpose, a member of the Thames community, who had no prior experience with child abuse or professional service delivery, summed up the initiative in one sentence: Its like an octopus: a body of people who are at the centre driving the new ideas, and then new tentacles growing out into every corner of our community. Imagine that every day in our community every family had someone to call on to share their hopes, their good times and their hard times. Lead the change. Together we have the skills to make this happen. As this concept of the octopus caught on, a small local coordinating group quickly emerged, engaged strongly with the concept of community ownership and leadership, and excited by the sense of local empowerment and the hope for change this initiative engendered. They organised the launch event for what came to be called TLC and publicised it widely with an inspiring
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Collage created by TLC community
postcard, utilising social marketing language to promote the benefits of personal responsibility and invite every person in our community to accept responsibility for actively supporting the families and children of Thames. The bi-cultural conversation design team included Sally and Kaye on behalf of the local coordinating group, with Tau Huirama and Liz Kinley from Jigsaw. At first, we struggled to discover the question that would most perfectly engage participants hearts and minds in purposeful story telling and conversation. Then Tau created a breakthrough by taking it back to his own personal experience, recalling positive memories of large whanau Christmas gatherings at his aunts home: the deliciousness of her homegrown strawberries and the way this memory has sustained his life-long sense that abundance is possible even in the simplest of life styles. Within moments we had our central question: Can you tell me about a time when something someone did for you or your family created a good experience that has had a lasting and positive effect on your life? Signs of positive impact in Thames: where to from here? Unsolicited feedback received throughout and immediately after the TLC launch day reflected participants excitement about being part of a meaningful change initiative for their community. As one participant wrote to the coordinating group: What can I say? What a tremendous opportunity it was to really connect with each other. After the first round of really meeting with another person I was hooked. And the day just got better. It was a delight and a pleasure to hear the round up of the ideas that had emerged from the process. What couldnt we achieve, if we took the time more often to really listen?
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It was a delight and a pleasure to hear the round up of the ideas that had emerged from the process. What couldnt we achieve, if we took the time more often to really listen? participant in TLC launch
Its clear that an abundance of goodwill, curiosity and commitment has been awakened in Thames and is ready to provide a robust community-owned platform for the next phase of TLC development. A further community event in March, 2011 has now increased the size and spread of people involved and agreed the next set of actions for generating and spreading new helping behaviour through all parts of the community. A DVD of the highlights of the original conversation has proved to be a valuable resource for enhancing and mobilising further action at both personal and community agency levels. Community members attending recounted stories that illustrated their own personal behaviour changes in relation to helping others. Their comments demonstrated significantly increased levels of self-reflection and intentionality. For example: I now listen much more; I find being consciously present when someone is with me makes a huge difference; I make a point of acknowledging strangers. Community agency representatives also reported agency-based behaviour changes, with many who have traditionally worked in silos now coming together to share resources. Beyond the boundaries of Thames, other communities where Jigsaw has partner agencies are eagerly exploring options for their own involvement. Some of these are geographical locations, while others are communities of interest such as sporting networks and large community-based workplaces. In the words of one group of TLC community participants: It is about the rebuilding and weaving of the fabric of our community into a cloak that fits us all. References The Community Tool Box, http://ctb.ku.edeu Hammond, S. (1998) The Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry. Plano, TX: Thin Books. National Social Marketing Centre, UK. www.nsmc.com
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Lisa Doig
is director of Corporate Evolution Pty Ltd, a leadership development consultancy based in Perth, with associates worldwide. She is part of McKinsey&Companys global network of facilitators. She specialises in Appreciative Inquiry Summits, Executive Team Alignment, Leadership Development, and coaching and training facilitators. Contact: lisa.doig@corpevolution.com
Karen Muller
a practice expert with McKinsey&Company, has over 20 years experience in consulting. Her focus is organisational and people issues, especially culture transformation, change management, and leadership development. Karen holds a Masters in Coaching Psychology and HRM from the University of Sydney, and an MBA from IMD, Lausanne. Contact: Karen@Muller.id.au
Creating a New Paradigm of Unstoppable Positive Social Change

ABSTRACT
In 2010, we conducted an Appreciative Inquiry Visioning summit with the purpose of igniting a nationwide dialogue to transform culture in Australia. The goal of the one-day summit was to create a shared vision and roadmap for the Big Conversations contribution to unstoppable positive social change. A values diagnostic tool provided a key innovation in the 4-D planning model. This article walks you through the steps of the summit, outcomes and learnings.
It is the language of values that people use to map their world. It is what can inspire them to take action and move them beyond their isolation. Barack Obama The Big Conversation The Big Conversation1 is a cross-sectoral network that is seeking to create unstoppable social change in Australia through values dialogues. Its objectives are simple start a broad dialogue, through small group conversations, on values in Australia what they are currently, what we want them to be, and what we need to do to get there. Instead of waiting for someone else to have these conversations, we are beginning and facilitating a grass roots national dialogue to build awareness and ownership of the cultural agenda. The Big Conversation began as a group of passionate individuals from the private, NGO and public sectors who were concerned about the impact of the global financial crisis on the future direction of the country. They sensed that this was a critical moment in time when proactive dialogue about who we are and who we want to be could create a powerful viral effect at all levels in society. It could shift the level of consciousness in the country. We need to make these important conversations bigger and louder. We need to talk about our values, because this is where our decisions and our actions come from. What values best reflect how our society should operate? What values does our society want to see in the future? We want to know what Australians think. We want to start a conversation. A Big Conversation! The interest spread. A committee was formed to take the idea into reality, spearheaded by the Emerging Leaders for Social Change (ELSC), a network of emerging leaders from all sectors social, government and private who
1 http://bigconversation.org.au
AIP May 11 Doig and Muller: Unstoppable Positive Change
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The collective vision and potential to create mass change is indeed a reality. Margo Ward, CEO
want to create positive social change in Australia. The committee also included management consultants to the private sector. There were challenges in our ability to represent the whole system: aligning on what success would look like; determining how to narrow down such an all encompassing topic to one that is manageable and can create tangible impact; and finally, creating an outcome that sustains peoples energy and commitment. With these challenges in mind, our answer was to organise a Visioning Summit. The Visioning Summit On 13 September 2010, the Big Conversation conducted an Appreciative Inquiry Visioning Summit with the purpose of igniting a nation-wide dialogue to transform the culture in Australia. The goal of the one-day summit was to create a shared vision and roadmap for how the Big Conversation could contribute to unstoppable positive social change. In launching such a big process, we learned new lessons that we believe add value to the current practice of Appreciative Inquiry. A values diagnostic tool provided a key innovation in the 4-D planning model: the addition of a new D a Diagnostic phase prior to the Dream. This diagnostic tool measured Australias personal values, current culture values and desired culture values. Its value in this AI Summit is that it provides a picture of the where we are now current perceived reality and then lifts the group to a higher level dialogue around who they are (their personal values) to what the group most desires for the future (the desired values) an invaluable set up for Dream. We conducted the one-day Visioning Summit through a 5-D process. We will walk you through the steps of the summit and outcomes, to demonstrate how the Diagnostic phase fit as well as to share how using AI advanced the definition and direction of the Big Conversation.
Table 1: Visioning Summit: 5-D Process Discovery
Purpose
Outcomes
Build on our passion and best of Critical success factors of what the current culture; experiences of creates unstoppable change for what creates unstoppable positive culture transformation change, and wishes for the future National values survey debrief: reality check on what are the current personal values, current culture and desired culture both at a society and organisational level Ignite the interest and passion of the participants to create an inspiring picture of the future in which the Big Conversation has played a part Compelling case for change Understanding of the gap between where we are and what we desire as Australians Shared vision of what the Big Conversation could achieve
Diagnostic (new)
Dream
Design
What are the key themes for what High level vision themes we need to do to achieve the vision and some high level steps for how to get there What we can do in the next 30 days to maintain momentum Next steps to action
Delivery
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Figure 1: Building on the collective experience
What excites me about change is: its big, its coming and its inevitable. Its so exciting to meet a group of people who know that and who realise that. We cant avoid that, its the future. Cale Johnston, Year 12
Discovery phase The Discovery phase followed the AI process of paired shares in tables, identifying the strengths and passion of the participants. The questions included: Recall a high point time in your life when you felt you were living one of your values that you are most passionate about either at work or in the community.
When have you been part of, or observed, positive change that then
became unstoppable? It could have been a major change (e.g. Obamas election, the end of apartheid, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Sorry apology, company restructure), or something smaller, but meaningful to you (a local community movement, a change in a school or work team). the ideal Australian culture of the future?
Imagine, if anything were possible, what would be your three wishes for
The shares and synthesis at the tables created high energy and connected the diverse group of participants. There was a buzz in the room. The outputs from this phase outlined the strengths upon which to build towards our desired future: Diagnostic phase (prior to Dream) One of the innovations that the authors have included in their AI summits in the Australia/Asia region is a Diagnostic phase that we share with participants prior to the Dream phase. Because our audience is primarily large corporates, with often cynical and skeptical senior managers, we have found greater engagement by creating a Current Reality Check between Discovery and Dream. This meets participants IQ needs to have well-researched analysis and scenarios and can strengthen the compelling case for change. It allows participants to let go of their IQ needs (and fears) and frees them to enter the EQ/SQ arena of Dream. In
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A social movement to enable greater social change inclusion can and will happen. Belinda Morrisey, Executive Director
Maslow2 terms, it allows participants to have their safety, emotional and mental needs met first, which then allows them to let go and move to a self-actualised dream. In this summit, the Diagnostic phase incorporated the first-ever national values survey of Australia as the compelling case for change. A statistically valid sample of Australians shared how they see the current culture, their aspiration for a future desired culture, and their personal values which can be used to leverage this culture shift. Using Barretts National Values Assessment We used the Barrett Values Centre National Values Survey diagnostic.3
Barrett Values Survey: Who we are, what we value and who we want to be
AI Process
Powerful AI Dialogue
Originally based on Maslows Hierarchy of Needs, Barrett Values Centre [BVC] has developed a model called the Seven Levels of Societal Consciousness depicting how all human beings, organisations and nations grow and develop in seven specific stages. We have used this diagnostic for corporate culture transformations with our clients for about ten years and now incorporate it into most AI visioning summits. It offers an analytic window on what is usually regarded as intangible: peoples core personal drivers, their current perceptions of reality, and their desired future. At the same time, the nature of the values survey taps into emotions and an individuals sense of meaning. It immediately creates a heartconnected basis for conversation. It is a good fit with AIs approach. The personal values indicate core strengths that can be built on. The current values bring to the surface the reality of todays starting point, while the desired future values relate to the dream. The alignment or tension among the three lenses leads to more grounded, yet at the same aspirational, dialogue between the Discovery phase outcomes and the Dream. It gives the client language and a great sense of alignment as they enter the Dream phase. The database was compiled by one of the countrys leading public opinion polling houses in December 2009 at the height of the global financial crisis (GFC). Australian personal values The top ten personal values rang true of Australian values, including humour, family, honesty and, interestingly, compassion. The pattern of values showed a people who value relationships, self-development and a strong sense of cohesion. Australian current culture values The top five current values showed were limiting bureaucracy, crime/ violence, blame, wasted resources, materialistic. In Barrett terms, limiting values represent entropy, or the amount of dysfunction in the system. The appreciative
2 Maslows Hierarchy of Needs See http://www.valuescentre.com/ . culture/?sec=barrett_model for the way Barratt Values Centre has adapted the model. 3 http://www.valuescentre.com
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view of entropy is that it represents the amount of positive energy that can be released and applied to creating our desired culture and dream. The only positive values in the current society were freedom of speech and economic growth. Australian desired culture values The desired culture values were a reaction to the current limiting values and included care for the elderly and future generations, and creating effective government services. Current values were seen as less about personal experience and more about media headlines. It created that burning platform for change why should I get involved in this dialogue and ignited a vision that allowed people to get in touch with their innermost desires for the Australia of the future. The lesson we learned for AI Summits this is a powerful diagnostic to use to elicit meaningful conversations.
Figure 2: Australian personal, current and desired culture values
Dream: vision We followed a process for dream through self-reflection, sharing of dreams as a table and then developing a creative expression of the dream. We voted on the dreams that evoked the most energy from the group. What emerged was a realisation that Australia is currently lacking an Australian Dream an Australian identity. In the past it was the lucky country. What became clear through the dialogue was that there is a vacuum in the national dialogue around the new Australian Dream. It was an aha moment. This was something that the Big Conversation could bring into the national dialogue.
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Sharing the dream
Delivery: taking accountability Kick start the process with key leaders in my context. Get involved. Make sure Im living my values regardless of my environment, its too important to ignore. Keep on keeping on! I try and weave the Big Conversation into most meaningful conversations that I have. The new conversation has begun ... Key takeaways from the summit Through a diverse group of forty key influencers in Australia, a common view emerged that what we yearn for most is a new Australian dream. We confirmed that values data and the AI conversations are a unique way to create conversations that connect people at a deeper meaning level and add value to many current conversations about Australias future. Actionable ideas emerged and attracted excitement in the room, to be implemented by participants who signed up to each theme area. What next? Following the summit, members of the working group met to consider the Design themes that had emerged, together with data from values debriefs that had been run. In prioritising the ideas, they used a number of criteria, including impact on community wellbeing, unique contribution and passion and enthusiasm. As a result, three focused initiatives have been established for 2011: Create greater public awareness around the need to define a new Australian Dream. Plans are underway to develop a narrative about how the Australian Dream has developed and changed in the last half century and to provide a call to arms to define what it should be now using social media and community conversations. Many of the ideas surfaced in the Dream presentations at the summit.
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Today reinforced my belief that at our core we all want to live in a better world. Amanda Fajak, Group Manager Business Transformation
Influence greater values-based decision making in a broad range of
decision makers in Australia by promoting conversations and valuesbased tools. Being Index, for inclusion in the national measures of health of the country. This was another of the ideas to gain traction in the summit.
Influence the inclusion of an annual values survey, alongside the Well
A task force, including some of the attendees from the summit, has been established to address each initiative. The agenda for the Big Conversation seems more focused, more manageable, and aligned to the passions of the group and wider stakeholders. In addition, the national values data are being released freely through the Big Conversation website so all parts of the system can initiate values dialogues in their communities. We have developed a facilitator pack to guide people through the values debrief. At the end of the session, we ask three questions that will be forwarded to the Big Conversation for collation and synthesis of what is emerging from within the whole system: What is positive about the values survey results? What can we build on for the future?
What are the top three Big Ideas for what we can do to get to our
desired culture?
What mindset shift is required?

To close the sessions, we asked each participant what action will you now take? and to share this around the room. The feedback we got from this last question was that this was the most powerful part of the session when people take personal accountability and choose to be the change they want to see in Australia. The focal point for synthesis of the national debriefs is the Centre for Social Impact (CSI) a partnership between the Business Schools of the University of New South Wales, the University of Melbourne, Swinburne University of Technology and the University of Western Australia. We are working with CSI to have the greatest impact at a national level. Lessons learned There were a number of lessons learned: Adding the Diagnostic phase prior to the Dream created more validity and greater grounding to the AI aspirational visioning process, ensuring that Dreams are not divorced from reality. An alternative we have used in other work is to place the Diagnostic after the Dream, before Design. In this case, the Diagnostic informs the Design and Delivery phase and results in expansive and practical ideas and action plans. The values survey is a useful addition to a visioning summit. As it works at three levels intellectual, emotional and meaning it quickly engaged the group, critical for developing an inspiring vision. While the current values were not entirely consistent with the idea of focusing on strengths, they are the current perceived reality. Participants found hope and inspiration in the shared personal values and desired values for Australia.
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Figure 3: Design: Vision themes Looking back from success
Today we experienced the impact of mobilising/ harnessing the latent power of existing groups towards a singular, unifying and inspiring purpose. Paul OByrne, Sustainability Project Manager
In most AI Summits, there is a clear owner the client organisation and the client leader who is responsible for the summit process and outcomes. In this scenario, there was no organizational hierarchy or inner decision making core, and thus no one owner. The working group was the primary decision making group, a moveable feast of some 20-plus people! This made defining topics more complex. In hindsight, running a mini- summit with the working group would have helped us refine the agenda. A pre-summit would also have helped the working group to communicate to the invitees. While there was a written invitation, the key method of recruitment was one-on-one conversations. On the summit day, we found there was more than the usual need to position why we are here. We were limited in time from 9am-3pm to achieve the objectives. This was a real stretch and towards the end of the day we were not able to offer the level of dialogue around key themes in Design that the group desired. In hindsight, we would have limited the AI process to include Discovery, Diagnostic and Dream only. Finally, this experience has reinforced our belief in the power of AI to provide generative structure to complex situations to deliver productive results. One of the participants summed it up nicely at the end of the Summit: Today we experienced the impact of mobilising/harnessing the latent power of existing groups towards a singular, unifying and inspiring purpose. (Paul OByrne, Sustainability Project Manager)
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Barb Wood
an experienced organisational behaviour specialist, has been teaching at the UWA Business School for nine years. Trained in Open Space Technology, Appreciative Inquiry and other diagnostic tools, Barb encourages individuals to take responsibility for their actions and create an environment for selforganisation which leads to sustainable change. Contact: barb.wood@uwa.edu.au
Innovation in Practice: Leadership
Becoming Appreciative Leaders

Integrating AI and Strengths-based Approaches into an MBA Program
ABSTRACT
This paper explores the significant learning outcomes that occur when combining an experiential classroom design with Appreciative Inquiry and strengths-based approaches within an MBA program. Describing a successful series of delivery techniques in a Leadership Coaching unit, the author presents key process steps, learning outcomes and student reflections.
For almost a decade, Ive been curious about how to teach Master of Business Administration (MBA) students to be better leaders within their diverse business environments. Driving my teaching practice have been three concurrent pursuits: 1. Challenge students to explore the beliefs that underpin their assumptions and behaviours in their work as leaders and managers. 2. Facilitate opportunities for students to link theoretical frameworks to new effective ways of managing and leading within their organisations. 3. Investigate how Appreciative Inquiry and strength-based approaches accelerate the learning process. Background My initial training in Appreciative Inquiry and later in strengths-based approaches exposed me to the power of using a desired future as a mechanism for change. I had experienced significant personal fulfilment when I discovered my own new possibilities and sought to engage with these by capitalising on my available strengths. It inspired me to consider ways and means of linking these techniques to the MBA teaching environment (Wood and Gordon, 2009). Given that MBA classes vary in size and represent a wide combination of student experiences, beliefs, ideas and values, I knew that my teaching would benefit from taking advantage of this diversity and its implicit and explicit strengths in the classroom. I have endeavored to establish a learning environment through techniques such as role-plays (real-plays), pair-shares, presentations, scenarios, debates or discussions, all of which focus on real-life, pragmatic business challenges. I wanted to offer an environment where students could: a) take responsibility for their own learning; and b) learn from each other through true experimentation (Grant & Greene, 2005).
AIP May 11 Wood: Becoming Appreciative Leaders
AI Practitioner
May 2011
The Learner and Judger discussion enabled me to better tap into my inner resources and desires. Quote from MBA student
Creative activities that obliged the students to think about new ways of leading in challenging business events enabled me to link the strengths-based approach through an AI lens. I was amazed at how quickly students could move from a problem-focus to a solution-focus (Green & Grant, 2003). With careful engineering, these activities inspired a feeling of being safe AND encouraged the students to acknowledge the strengths that they (and others) brought to their various organisational environments. MBA Leadership Coaching I became more confident that this kind of setting supported students in progressing and learning what they needed to know. These early successes created a further impetus for me to reshape and reinvigorate my MBA units. My greatest teaching innovation has come in the MBA Leadership Coaching unit. The goal of the unit is to give students the FUNdamentals of coaching. Coaching has been shown to contribute to an improved ability to strengthen their influence (become a better leader) and to make targeted changes in their own work life. The unit considers how to become a better coach as well as a stronger recipient of coaching. Not only do I use an expert coaching panel during the unit to explore the qualities of good leadership coaching practice and its applications but also experiential learning components to dig down into the students personal and professional experiences (Clutterbuck, 2007). The unit is delivered over five days spread throughout the teaching term to maximise the opportunity for students to reflect on their learning between delivery dates (Brockbank and McGill, 2007). The four-part key AI and strengths-based activities are summarised below: Part one: judger versus learner mindset At the outset, students are asked to consider whether they work in their organisation using a learner or judger perspective (Adams, 2007). Judgers tend to be reactive and automatic. They are inclined to be inflexible and rigid in
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their approach to problem solving. They use either/or thinking and appear selfrighteous to those around them. Judgers are afraid of difference, defend their assumptions and use a primary mood of being protective. Learners, on the other hand, are accepting of self and others. They are reflective and thoughtful; flexible and adaptive; and value differences. Learners are inquisitive and use both/and thinking. There is a natural tendency for learners to question assumptions and this often creates a natural predisposition for a learner to become a skilful coach (Wall, 2007). The primary mood for a learner (and a coach) is one of curiosity. Part two: VIA strengths assessment In the second part of the Leadership Coaching unit, students are asked to complete the VIA strengths test from the Authentic Happiness site. Students bring their top five VIA strengths to class and view the DVD The Truth about You by Marcus Buckingham (Buckingham, 2008). In a pair-share experience, they identify on a likert scale from 1 to 10 the effort/focus they put into, and the corresponding level of satisfaction that they achieve, in each of the following domains: work/career, wealth, health, family/home, friends, personal time and personal development. Students are asked to reflect on how they use their strengths in each of these domains and ultimately how this corresponds to their satisfaction and effort. Part three: systematic vs. systemic change in organisations In the middle part of Leadership Coaching, students are challenged to think about how they might embed coaching within their own organisation by considering relevant change processes. In this discussion, students deliberate on systematic and systemic change techniques (Clutterbuck & Megginson, 2008). A systematic change process is the label given to a logical and orderly, topdown approach to embedding coaching. A systematic coaching change would be initiated by the senior managers of an organisation who would ensure that a consistent coaching language was used across the organisation. This type of change process is comprehensively rolled out uniformly across all parts of the organisation. Within the class, students review organisations (National Australia Bank, for example) which have effectively used a systematic approach to coaching with impressive outcomes (McShane & Travaglione, 2009). This is contrasted with a systemic approach to change where managers within organisations have a strong sense of what they wants to accomplish and there exists a feeling of going with the flow. Leaders in systemic change look for pockets of interest and build on them. Strategy emerges and often occurs from the ground level up within the organisation. While staff can identify where they are going, they dont know the exact path that will be taken. As things work well within the organisation, they are repeated. The systemic approach infers that systematic integration is often not enough in organisations. Because change has all kinds of unintended effects, large and complex organisations require an incremental approach where the systemic approach is effective and necessary. Students learn that coaching can be infused into organisations using both systemic and systematic change practices. Leaders skilful in coaching can
I observe others developing their independence and creativity and feel inspired by their energy and encouragement. Quote from MBA student
A coaching culture facilitates an open communication style where people can outwardly challenge each others thinking and focus on innovation, not just status quo. Quote from MBA student
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support systemic change by becoming coaching champions in various pockets across an organisation. The infectious nature of coaching means that these pockets of coaching activity can ripple across the organisation, often providing a significant impetus to organisational change. Alternatively, systematic change requires careful planning and foresight which can be strengthened by the deliberate conversations and dialogue which coaching advocates. Part three provides appropriate reflective space and energy to give students the chance to think more clearly on what they can do as leaders in their own organisations to support change, and this leads seamlessly to the final section of the unit. Part four: using AI within Leadership Coaching Leadership Coaching concludes with an Appreciative Inquiry approach as a means of getting students to think about (through their strengths) how they can embed coaching within their own organisations. In this experience, the interview guide uses the following framework: i. Peak Work/ Life Moments: A peak moment when you were truly engaged ii. Identify how your strengths have been used within your organisation to create an attractive and effective culture. Please reflect on your own experience of times when youve been a leader with an effective group or team that accomplished the goal by using your strengths well. You may have been the formal or informal leader of the team making your own contribution to the overall teams or groups success. Choose one experience and tell me the story of that experience in more detail what happened? iii. Please project yourself into the year 2015 ... You have just achieved a truly extraordinary result as a leader (formally or informally), something that you have always wished you could be part of, that makes an enormous difference in the quality of work undertaken in your organisation or in your life outside work. There is a strong feeling of collaboration and cooperation. Staff communicate well and follow through on their roles and responsibilities in a consistent and energetic manner. At the heart of this success are strong coaching skills that will contribute to ongoing accomplishments.
Systemic change creates a culture of continuous learning where people feel like they can take risks to strive to achieve new goals. Quote from MBA student
What have you achieved? How have you succeeded? How has this extraordinary outcome enhanced the quality of your life,
your organisations life and the life of the people you serve? Learning outcomes from using these techniques in teaching Ive discovered that introducing the judger versus learner mindset discussion at the onset of teaching creates the opportunity for students to truly reflect on whether they use the learner mindset as often as they believe they do. Similarly, when given the opportunity to identify and clarify their strengths, students express a true passion for learning. There is significant pleasure when
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students confirm their top five strengths and explore with others how these strengths are being used within their domains. Despite their relative inexperience in coaching, the strengths-based approach enables students to have thoughtful, effective coaching conversations (Skiffington and Zeus, 2006). In practice coaching sessions outside class, students have repeatedly (without provocation from me) asked their coachee to take the VIA strengths test prior to their first coaching conversation. Students infuse their coaching (both as a coach and when being coached) with the knowledge of strengths and report on their ability to better attain selected goals. (Orem, Binkert and Clancy, 2007) Common questions in the coaching process include:
In what roles or activities can staff expect to see your best

performance?
Given your organisations objectives, where do you think you could

make your greatest contribution?
What should your supervisor try and avoid asking you to do?
Coaching is powerful in that it can transcend all levels of the organisation (i.e. the CEO can coach a front line staff person in certain moments). Quote from MBA student
The systematic versus systemic coaching change process discussion gives students added insight on ways that they can create change within their organisations regardless of their positional power. Students often comment on the liberation that AI gives them in expressing thoughts, ideas and observations. Coaching moves from being an activity to a new way of infusing a positive culture through the AI experience (Fredrickson, 2009). Its much more than adding a tool to their leadership toolkit. Its a new way of thinking about their organisational environment and the manner in which they wish to lead in the future. The AI focus enables students to build on already existing capacity within their environments and to think about how they can reinforce their new way of working with others. The class simply provides a safe environment in which students can experiment, receiving thought-provoking feedback from expert coaches who join the class as well as from their student colleagues. I will continue to keep copious amounts of qualitative data about the leadership coaching experience, and remain convinced that linking strengths with AI will be sustained in my future MBA teaching. The following quote summarises well the student experience in this area: I use my strengths in coaching by asking more and different questions, both at home and at work. I have been particularly influenced by the GROW model, Appreciative Inquiry, Open Space and Marilee Adams questioning tools. I like to think (hope) that Ive gotten better at separating my stuff from whats happening, particularly in times of conflict. In being able to accomplish this separation, Im able to lead more effectively in various contexts. References Adams, Marilee. (2007) Change Your Questions, Change Your Life: 7 Powerful Tools for Life and Work. Berkeley: Berrett-Koehler.
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May 2011
AI causes co-workers to support and challenge each other and to collectively influence change upwards, downwards and sideways. Quote from MBA student
Brockbank, A. and I. McGill. (2006) Facilitating Reflective Learning through Mentoring and Coaching. London: Kogan Page. Buckingham, M. (2007) The Truth about You: Your Secret to Success. Nashville: Thomas Nelson. Clutterbuck, D. (2007) Coaching the Team at Work. London: Nicolas Brealey. Clutterbuck, D. and D. Megginson. (2008) Making Coaching Work. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Cox, E., T. Bachkirova and D. Clutterbuck. (eds) (2010) The Complete Handbook of Coaching. London: Sage. Fredrickson, B. (2009) Positivity. New York: Random House. Grant, A. and J. Greene. (2005) Coach Yourself at Work. Sydney: ABC Books. Greene, J. and A. Grant. (2003) Solution Focused Coaching: Managing People in a Complex World. London: Momentum Press. McShane, S.L. and T. Travaglione. (2009) Organisational Behaviour in the Pacific Rim (3rd ed), Roseville, NSW: McGraw-Hill. Orem, S., J. Binkert, and A. Clancy. (2007) Appreciative Coaching. San Francisco: John Wiley and Sons. Skiffington, S. and P. Zeus. (2006) Behavioural Coaching: How to Build Sustainable Personal and Organisational Strength. North Ryde: McGraw Hill. Wall, B. (2007) Coaching for Emotional Intelligence. New York: AMACOM. Wood, B and S. Gordon. (2009) Linking MBA Learning and Leadership Coaching. International Coaching Psychology Review, vol. 4, no. 1, London, British Psychological Society.
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May 2011
Dayle OBrien
is an Australian OD practitioner. She was introduced to AI whilst working with the Cultural Transformation Team of the ANZ Bank four years ago. Her success and affinity with AI inspired her to begin a consulting practice, paint group, which is dedicated to bringing a fresh approach to Change and OD in Australia Contact: dayle@paintgroup.com.au
Re-Storying for Individual Potential

ABSTRACT
What is it about AI and a strengths-based approach that allows us to re-story? This article outlines a talent development workshop, for one of Australias biggest banks, that combines AI and Individual Strengths to allow individuals to re-story and refocus their efforts in line with their true potential.
AI and re-storying for organisations Appreciative Inquiry as a framework for individual development is new territory for me. As an OD and Employee Communications practitioner, my affinity with AI was initially sparked by its ability to shift whole-systems, and for them to stay shifted. Before being introduced to AI, some of my work had been in developing employee communication campaigns to align external and internal corporate brands. The work often involved identifying and articulating key messages and innovative ways to get those messages adopted as the stories of the organisation. In theory, these stories would enable the kind of thinking and behaviours that modelled the desired brand and culture. In reality, it requires a huge investment of resources and time before individuals adopt and respond to such stories. AI instantly felt like a much more effective vehicle for enabling change! Without an opportunity to re-story (to explore the stories of our histories and re-frame them so they might generate possibilities and positive action), there is often an attachment to stories about times of languishing, rather than flourishing. Recently, a client commented on how intrigued he was by the tales his team shared about the way things are around here. A poorly managed re-structure had happened more than ten years earlier, resulting in the redundancies of much-loved workmates. He noted the resilience of that story and how even newcomers adopted these stories and related ways of being in the company when the current situation is that this team has a unique opportunity to carve out a new identity. So, whilst our history can shape the very best of who we are, it also limits us unless we actively look for the generative alternatives or allow new stories to move us forward.
AIP May 11 OBrien: Re-Storying
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May 2011
Without any opportunity to re-story, there is often an attachment to stories about times of languishing, rather than flourishing.
AI can help teams, organisations and whole systems not only explore and reframe their current realities, but also bring forth the best of their experiences, and create new stories that tap potential and facilitate growth. Re-storying for individuals One specific example of this, and the focus of this article, is a workshop series for National Australia Bank [NAB], one of the four major banks in Australia. At the beginning of 2010, I was approached to design a workshop module for one of their talent development programs, aptly named Elevate. The Elevate program is aimed at new leaders and emerging talent. They are broadly identified by the company as individuals who are at a tipping point in their careers and are most likely to move into more senior roles in the next 12 18 months. These rising leaders need to understand enough about themselves their values, preferred environments, strengths, interests and passions to be able to direct and pursue a career that taps their full potential and allows them to flourish as individuals In ways that reflect the desired organisational culture. Table 1 outlines the high level 4-D design of the two-day workshop, titled Exploring your Strengths. What has emerged as the real story and innovation behind this workshop, however, is the power of AI and a strengths-based approach to allow individuals to re-story in ways that facilitate growth, potential and flourishing.
Table 1: High level 4-D design and allocation of key workshop activities for the two day workshop
Participants are asked to select an artefact and talk about what, from their childhood and adolescence, has shaped them as adults. Story 1 - Individuals look over the results of their VIA survey, take some time to make sense of it, then begin to share stories of how they see their VIA Character Strengths (www.viacharacter.org) showing up in their lives. In pairs, they conduct an AI interview that explores the times when they feel most connected to their best self what this feels like, what they are most proud of, and , how they might bring more of their best selves to their lives. In this interview they are encouraged to think more broadly than their VIA character strengths. The output of the discovery phase is a visual representation of their positive core. They tell the story of this to the whole group. Fellow participants are invited to ask appreciative/generative questions to enrich the story. Story 2 - Participants reflect on a dream question about their hopes for themselves ten years from now. They create their own personal dream about what might be possible and what they want to create, expanding their boundaries and focus. Participants create a series of Provocative Propositions for each element of life such as Career, Net worth, Community, Relationships, etc.
Design/ Destiny
Dream
Discovery
Improvisation actors spend time with the whole group on a range of activities designed to introduce playfulness, shift energy and help participants get out of their heads This session also deals with any fears they may have for standing in . front of the group and telling their new story. Story 3 - The workshop culminates in every individual taking 1-2 minutes to tell their new story of their best self knowing that their story will continue to emerge , and evolve. They commit to some immediate next steps.
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The workshop design incorporates three distinct points for participants to pause, reflect and tell their new story. At each point their story shifts and evolves a little more, getting closer to one that accesses their true potential. In the process, between the Story 2 and Story 3 sessions, improvisation actors are brought in to accelerate the shift through a series of activities designed to challenge any limiting beliefs around taking risks and being in the moment, through physical activity and play. The program in action: Ellens story (Background) When Ellen embarked on the Exploring Your Strengths workshop, she was in a high profile, high pressure, high achieving and highly sought-after division of NAB. A large part of her role was related to mitigating major risk. Ellen came into the room happy and proud to be recognised as a leader within the organisation. She has strong values and work ethic, and has always believed that through hard work, she can achieve. She does work hard, is loyal and grateful for the opportunities she has and does not let the occasional illness slow her down. Her career path is quite specific and she has interests outside of work that are important to her. She is in the eyes of herself and others successful. The opening story (Story 1) Ellen chose a shiny, gold, pointy party hat as her artefact to represent her childhood. Not because her childhood was full of parties, but because the hat was a mountain of gold. It represented her belief that anything is possible and that she could get to the top by working hard. She was raised in Sweden a country of lots of possibilities and access to a good education. She remembers always feeling secure and safe, travelling the world as a teenager, exploring different countries and cultures, and realising how lucky she was to have been born in Sweden. Positive core my best self (Story 2) Ellens positive core expression was a vibrant, colourful collage of a multitiered cake. It turned out her secret passion was baking beautifully decorated cupcakes. She could go home at night, completely spent from a stressful day in the office, and spend several blissful hours baking these little creations. In her words these were hours of happinesstime doesnt matter because I am creating something beautiful that is appreciated. In sharing her story and noticing the response from others as well as noticing herself in the moment, Ellen was able to connect with some of her strengths (and her best-self) that had been lying latent, or were being thwarted by aspects of her role that required an extrinsic and pessimistic focus. The closing one-minute story (Story 3) Ellens final workshop story of her best self was mostly an open book. She left the workshop feeling uncertain about what to do next. She had been inspired by the stories of others and left hoping to be able to find a way to bring together the baker and the banker. Three month reflection (over a coffee) In the time since the workshop, Ellen has changed roles. She is now working in a Relationship Management role at the bank. This change did not come easily: her
Happiness doesnt have to be glamorous Even though I am surrounded by lots of extravagant and glamorous people in my life I have realized that my positive core is about being simple, rock-like. I can bring that to my friends and family, and not feel I have to be something else. Participant 1
It was such a revelation that I could be myself at work, that I could work on my real strengths, not just keep relying on my learned behaviours. Ellen
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manager resisted the move, told her she was mad to turn her back on an area that people were lining up to get into. Throughout the process, Ellen held her resolve and made the move. In our feedback interview, she was glowing, really beaming: This is a role where I think I can be myself, bring my creativity, express opinions and use both my work and life experience. When I asked her what about the workshop had resonated for her, she said it changed the way I was thinking about my strengths and how life should fit with work, not the other way around. I had always thought that you work hard to be good at things and I had a fear of failure. Ive been sick so many times from illnesses related to stress at work but still didnt make the changes I needed to make. I just pushed myself harder it was such a revelation that I could be myself at work, that I could work on my real strengths, not just keep relying on my learned behaviours. Without a doubt, learning more about her strengths, and being given permission to be true to those strengths, allowed Ellen to re-story. Her personal courage to step into that story appears to have brought her in-line with her best-self and her true potential. Root causes of success The workshop has been considered by NAB and by the participants as an important component in leadership development and career management. It has led me to ask, What did they experience in this workshop that allowed them to re-story, in line with their potential? Feedback from participants and my own reflections on the likely root causes of success for this on-going workshop are:
I thrive on having lots of things to juggle and balance all at the same time. It can look extreme and chaotic to some people, but I love it. It excites and energises me. Participant 2
The workshop is designed to gradually build trust within the group
through the progressive personal nature of the stories we ask them to tell. and an open mind towards each other, and even more importantly, to themselves. We work hard at modelling that as facilitators. We encourage participants to notice themselves in the moment, and to simply think isnt that interesting. I wonder what thats about? have innovated with the traditional design and approach, we have stayed true to it and the AI principles.
We introduce the notion of coming to the workshop with an open heart
The 4-D model for accelerating change is tried and tested. Whilst we
The distinction between Strengths and Learned Behaviours resonates

strongly for individuals and opens up a new way of thinking about oneself (Linley, 2010).
Once participants have created their personal Provocative Propositions,

it is very useful for them to think about what limiting stories they are holding onto and need to let go of, in order to move toward the new (Bridges, 1991). that facilitates the letting go of beliefs around risk taking, making mistakes, looking foolish, controlling outcomes and more.
The use of improvisation actors taps into a playfulness and physicality
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The notion of their stories being a work in progress that is constantly

emerging and evolving creates a level of freedom to explore and experiment.
A long time ago, when I was at school and working part-time, my supervisor told me off for not working smart. He told me to think like a mule and pull, not push. I thought he was an idiot at the time My greatest strength is finding ways to work smarter, not harder. I drew on this a lot when I was diagnosed with cancer in my early 20s. Participant 3
Conclusion The process and principles of Appreciative Inquiry support us (individuals, through to organisations and whole-systems) in finding and articulating an identity that comes from our true strengths and how we want to show them to the world. Through a powerful inquiry we can: explore, challenge and reframe the stories of our history and current reality; find our positive core; and choose the true stories that enable positive action and flourishing. But the stories must be our own and we must find them for ourselves, and continually shape them in the social context of our system for them to have real power. The story is not told to lift you up, to make you feel better, or to entertain you, although all those things can be true. The story is meant to take the spirit into a descent to find something that is lost or missing and to bring it back to consciousness again. Jungian storyteller Clarissa Pinkola Estes References Linley, A., J. Willars, R. Biswas-Diener. (2010) The Strengths Book. Coventry, UK: CAPP PRESS. Bridges, W. (2003) Managing Transitions. London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing.
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Wendy Campbell
An author, thought leader [leadership] and successful business-woman, Wendy is committed to developing thriving, long-lasting organisations. She focuses on leaders, ensuring that their values, grounded in Good Corporate Citizenship, allow all stakeholders to reach their own unique potentials for the benefit of all. Contact: wendy@glastonbury.com.au www.resilientleadershipprogram.com
Resilient Leadership
Grounded in a Strengths-based and Appreciative Life
ABSTRACT
This is a very personal story of my own challenging path toward becoming a more resilient leader of my own life, and my dream of creating a resilience leadership program for others to experience what I have learnt.
It has taken over ten years to fully articulate this story. It is a story of strength, of persistence, and more than anything, of love. Have you ever felt that you have hit rock bottom? That place where it seems that there can no longer be any further to fall? I have. In the winter of 1998, a dark and cold winter, my health failed, my business failed and my marriage was very fragile. Yet out of this wreckage came a dream of a new style of leadership. I saw visions of people leading others in a world where there were no borders, no segmentation of life, no intolerance. They led with strength, courage and love, giving those whom they led the opportunity to live and lead the same way. Best of all, they possessed and displayed the most incredible resilience. They were so connected with the underlying values and strengths in their world that they were able to adapt to change very quickly. This meant that they led their people through successful adaptation to change by their own example. The dream persisted, though its exact form was unclear. I took the first steps regardless. Step one: regain my health What was it about my life-style that kept me in such poor health? When I stepped back and looked at my daily life, I was shocked to realise how much time I spent feeling tired and weak. Somehow, to be well again, I had to create a way of life that was grounded in strengths-based and appreciative principles. This involved a complete about-face in what I focussed on each day: the urge to attend to the urgent so that I looked better than others; the need to
AIP May 11 Campbell: Resilient Leadership
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May 2011
I carried my dream of resilient leadership at all times.
please others instead of myself; and the desire to make money no matter what. In short, I had to let go of the style of leadership that I saw being embraced in Australia at that time. In one of those serendipitous moments, someone at a networking function mentioned Appreciative Inquiry as a great way to handle change. I looked it up on the internet, and immediately connected with its principles. The following month I booked myself onto an Appreciative Inquiry training course. AI taught me to step back and look at my daily life from a distance: none of it supported my ultimate dream of resilient leadership for myself, and then for others as a leadership program developed out of my own experience. As I clawed back my health, I used this strengths-based approach to work my days to the best advantage to allow my dream to take shape: 1. I carried my dream of resilient leadership in my mind at all times. This enabled me to respond quickly to unexpected opportunities. For example, there was the time I attended a seminar on creativity. The speakers approach to creativity resonated with me and I had an opportunity to explore it further with him. His insights on the world of creativity based on strength and appreciation removed a major block in the development of the resilient leadership program at that time. 2. I became relaxed about my schedule. Even though I continued to manage a fairly full schedule, I learned to be strong about what was important to me. I gave myself permission to change appointments if something for the program came up unexpectedly, and more importantly I was gracious to others who did the same. Surprisingly this earned me more respect than slavishly following my schedule and expecting others to follow suit. 3. I felt grateful. The most surprising gift to come out of a strengths-based life is gratitude. I have learned to be grateful for waking up each day, for being available to move my dream along in whatever way the day brings, and for the love that I am strong enough to give to the world around me. As I look back on this journey to good health, I realise that I have used a positive, strengths-based approach to my life to become the change that I seek in the world, to paraphrase those immortal words from Mahatma Gandhi. In embracing this way of life, my health has improved out of sight. I faced up to heart surgery and recovery. I have more stamina now than I ever had. And I have the strength to rebuild my business, now focused on resilient leadership. Step two: rebuild my business Why did my business fail in those dark days of 1998? It took me some years to answer this question with complete honesty. Firstly, it failed because I had been pursuing a false dream. My husband and I had agreed that my business (of customised computer training) would bring in the money needed for us to travel and live a life away from work. To achieve this we had agreed to a business plan where I would work myself out of my job.
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I realised that I had to look for and appreciate my own strengths
However, when I began to put this business plan in place, I realised that I really enjoyed my job, and did not want to work myself out of it. Instead I wanted to work, and travel with my husband, and have a full and satisfying family life. I was not sure how, but I knew that if I focused on what I most enjoyed doing, it would come. Secondly, it failed because it was not based on resilience, mine or anyone elses. The business plan took away all the creativity and magic that I found and used in my work with people. It was replaced with a turn-key approach that made my work an endlessly repeatable process that anyone could do. I had to work though the depths of the appreciative approach to business-life to find out why this hadnt worked. I wasnt focusing on the best that I could do and I wasnt making space for the magic to happen. I wasnt nurturing my own resilience in my leadership. There was no space to grow into my full potential, which would allow me to find strengths-based and appreciative ways around adversity and thrive once more. Looking back on this period now, I can see that this is where the resilient leadership program began. I realised that I had to look for and appreciate my own strengths, and rebuild my leadership to encompass these strengths. Only then could I confidently lead the organisation that this program would need for its delivery to the world. The steps that I took to achieve this, beginning with Appreciative Inquiry, are the basis of the resilient leadership program. Now I lead a small but extremely resilient business, which I have built to develop and deliver the Resilient Leadership Program around the world. Step three: rebuild my marriage Why did my marriage falter as everything else crashed down around me? This question took the longest to answer because it questioned the core of my life. The question was founded in the unwritten rules of my family of origin. My father had died suddenly in 1981. With him went the positive role model as a life partner that came most naturally to me. He led our family with great love and respect, despite the pain that had pulled his own family apart when his elder brother was killed in World War II. Looking at my own marriage, how could I rebuild a role as a positive life partner that worked for my husband and myself? After all, this was what we had envisaged when we married in 1971; there must be a way! First of all, I looked at my husbands work as an anaesthetist with new eyes. Never an over-confident man, he hid his achievements behind his role as an income earner. However, when I looked at his work as his colleagues and patients must see him, I saw a superbly competent and caring doctor. Then I could encourage him to celebrate when he took a particularly ill patient through a safe anaesthetic, or when he calmed a distraught relative, or when he helped out a colleague in difficulty. In this way we found a new and very positive space in which to engage in conversation at the end of each day. And it had nothing to do with the money.
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We found a new and very positive space in which to engage in conversation at the end of each day.
Secondly, I began to bring my own achievements into our conversations. Achievements like finding the partners around the world with whom I would create the Resilient Leadership Program, or helping a friend who was having a hard time, or achieving another milestone in the massive project that the Program had become. Thirdly, I overcame my natural shyness to express my love for him. This was the hardest thing, strangely enough. In a world that equates sex with love, or gifts with love, or money with love, how could I express my deep and undivided love for this man in a way that called forth his love? The answer arrived slowly. In appreciating his strengths, I discovered a profound gratitude for having them as part of my own daily life. And I said so. I looked for opportunities for us to share the planning of the things that needed to be done to love and protect our growing family. And I spoke my gratitude here too. Most of all I celebrated with him those small achievements that make up our lives. Things like getting through a busy week and getting all the important things done. Or fitting in shared time over a coffee or in the outdoors despite a frantic schedule. Or, making time with each other more important than those urgent things, like watching the news. It has taken over ten years, but finally we walk alongside each other, lovingly appreciating each others gifts and supporting each others life journeys. This was what we both wanted to build when we married in January 1971. Although my husband initially thought that this would happen differently, he is now very happy that we are celebrating our 60th birthdays and 40th wedding anniversary as true life-partners. The resilient leader Threaded through this journey are seven different roles and characteristics of the resilient leader, which I have incorporated into my life and leadership during the past eleven years: Resilient coach (with Appreciative Inquiry) Where leaders experience the benefit of profound listening to bring out stories of their peoples strengths. They co-create a way forward by sharing the decisionmaking with their people. Resilient core values (with The Invitation) Where leaders experience the resilient core values which underpin their own good decision-making, at home and at work. Resilient strategist (with the Stellar process of strategic identity) Where leaders experience that the best, most resilient strategies and consequent decisions are derived from a holistic process, where all stakeholders are listened to.
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Resilient engager (with the art of Deep Facilitation) Where leaders experience the multiple effect of encouraging their people to openly engage with them and each other in the best, most resilient way, by first demonstrating this themselves. Resilient value innovator (with the Blue Ocean Strategy) Where leaders experience that building a resilient future, in which customers, employees and all stakeholders win, is crucial to good decision-making. Resilience in the ups and downs (with the Balanced Scorecard) Where leaders experience that the only constant in life is change, and that they must embrace the balance that is in the best interests of all concerned, for the most resilient outcomes for their decision-making in good times and bad. Resilience in practice (with Time Leadership) Where leaders experience the benefit to themselves, to all their stakeholders, and thus to the long-term success of all related organisations, that fully engaged resilience in leadership delivers. This is the basis of the Resilient Leadership Program, (see Appendix A) which is already changing the lives of community change leaders around the world by bringing forth their courage to stand up for what they believe in, in the same way that it has called forth mine. And this has all come about through believing in, then building, a life grounded in strengths-based and appreciative principles. References There have been many, many books, articles and websites that have helped to create the content of the Resilient Leadership Program, either by helping me directly or by providing background for the program structure. You will find below those books and papers that are references for the first part of the program, to be released shortly. Campbell, W. M. (2011) Corporate Social Responsibility: A Leadership Advantage? Perth, Australia: The Glastonbury Company Pty Ltd. Campbell, W. M. (2011) Time Leadership: Leading Like a River OR 7 Steps to True Effectiveness. Perth, Australia: The Glastonbury Company Pty Ltd. Drenth, K. and R. Leachman. (2009) Value-Stream Governance: Navigating Right Strategy. UK:Stellar Ltd. Dowrick, S. (2005) Choosing Happiness. Crows Nest, Australia: Allen & Unwin. Kaplan, R. S. and Norton, D. P. (1996) The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action. Boston, USA: Harvard Business School Press.
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Kaplan, R. S. and D. P. Norton. (2004) Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes. Boston, USA: Harvard Business School Press. Kim, W. C. and R. Mauborgne. (2005) Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant. Boston, USA: Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. Kim. W. C. and R. Mauborgne. (2009) How Strategy Shapes Structure, Harvard Business Review. Boston, USA: Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. Mountain Dreamer, O. (1999) The Invitation. San Francisco: Harper. Sloan, B. and T. Canine (eds). Appreciative Inquiry in Coaching: Exploration and Learnings, AI Practitioner. May 2007. Appendix A: The Resilient Leadership Program for Community Change Leaders Having Fun with Walking the Talk This self-directed, on-line coaching program represents all the learning I have had to undertake, to be strong and grateful as a leader in a chaotic world. Leaders participate in the program if they:
Are looking for the courage to speak up about social or environmental

fairness and justice.
Are the key to their groups or organisations sustainable success as a

community change agent.
Enjoy making a positive difference to their world.

They have completed the program when they have:
Clearly articulated the positive change that they seek in the world. Discovered the strength and resilience to speak up about this change. Learned to enjoy the journey upon which this takes them.
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Max Hardy
is a director with Twyfords, specialising in models of collaborative governance and designing, facilitating and evaluating community engagement processes. He was invited to become a consulting partner to the Corporation for Positive Change (CPC), and will be delivering CPC-branded courses throughout Australasia from 2011. Contact: max@twyfords.com.au
Innovation in Practice: Facilitation
Being AI to Do AI
ABSTRACT
Since discovering Appreciative Inquiry and using it in my work as a community engagement and collaborative governance specialist, I have noticed important connections between what the group achieves together and how I am when I work with them. In this article I share some of the insights I have had, and the techniques I have developed as I experiment with becoming AI .
Just about every time I deliver training on community engagement (aka public participation) my attendees ask about the latest techniques, or how to respond to a specific, challenging situation. Once upon a time I would have responded by talking about the importance of planning, and scoping, and having clear objectives for engagement prior to considering how you might go about it. Increasingly, however, having enquired into what makes some projects outstanding, I have been talking about something else. It has been my observation that those organisations which take a positive approach to community engagement get much better results. They create a positive atmosphere that leads to the development of creative and enduring solutions. They are curious, expect to learn something new, and remain open to new ideas. It seems that some groups rise to the occasion, while others struggle to make much progress at all. There are always multiple factors it is a complex web of internal and systemic factors. But there is no doubt in my mind now that one important factor is what I expect of the group, and how I am in the moments I work with any organisation. I became aware that I often fell into the same trap as many who come to my courses of trying to think through the steps to go through, the techniques, the 4-Ds1 and or the 4-Is2, or how I might apply SOAR. It probably comes with doing anything new (going from unconscious incompetence to conscious incompetence to conscious competence to unconscious competence). You can overly think about what you are doing and what your options are rather than being present to what is emerging. The critical factor I have discovered is that the more positive my mindset about the capabilities of the organisation with whom Im working, the more I
1 The 4 Ds: Discovery, Dream, Design and Destiny 2 The 4Is: Initiate, Inquire, Imagine and Innovate
AIP May 11 Hardy: Being AI to Do AI
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The critical factor I have discovered is that the more positive my mindset about the capabilities of the organisation with whom Im working, the more I expect from them, the more likely they then are to step into being capable and resourceful.
expect from them, the more likely they then are to step into being capable and resourceful. And importantly, it is not about me being clever enough to draw this out of people (which would be more about me) its about deeply respecting the people I am working with and allowing space for their strengths, skills, and insights to emerge. I have found this to be a hard thing to fake. Either I believe it or I dont. What is our theory of practice? A colleague once asked our team of consultants at Twyfords what is your theory of practice? It made us think and we challenged ourselves about this. We finally got to the point of focusing on one core belief: we believe in the ability of people to find wise and enduring solutions, or to develop inspiring strategies, to rise to the occasion, when they are fully engaged. It may be simple, but its profound when we draw upon that belief. I recall a time when I held other beliefs, fears even, such as perhaps this task is beyond this group so I will really have to work hard to get them over the line, or if this group comes up with something ridiculous I will have to be ready to steer them in another direction. It took time for me to start believing in the wisdom of groups when provided with the opportunity to be at their best, and given the responsibility to co-create a way forward. My own enquiry into what makes the most difference in working with groups started with a discovery of those experiences where I believed groups had been at their most productive. There were quite a few significant examples, and lots of different factors that combined to culminate in those productive sessions. The main element in common was my own state of optimism. So whilst this realisation was helpful, my challenge was to consistently put myself in that state. Even though my belief feels very solid, it is not always conveyed in my body language, or present in my consciousness. Before being AI I recall a time when working with a group of primary health care providers where I had been briefed about some of the dynamics, and the lack of commitment being expressed by a couple of people in key leadership positions. Despite saying to myself that I would not let that get in the way of my belief that the group could make solid progress, I could not help looking for signs of the kind of behaviours I had been warned about. It definitely got in the way, and as Anticipatory Principle tells us , what we focus on grows. I was more cautious, more on the lookout for undermining comments, and of course it was easy to find such evidence. I have no doubts that my head space contributed to the session being fairly nonproductive, if not damaging. Creating the shift So, getting into a more resourceful, positive head space is worth the effort and I have come up with a routine that works for me. Here it is: I think back to a time when a group has risen to the occasion, and performed beyond all expectations.
Max speaking at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas
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I recall the fascinating research into the so-called Pygmalion effect.3 I remind myself that the most valuable outcomes from any session with participants will be the work they believe they have substantially contributed toward (as opposed to me believing that it is up to me to come up with a brilliant idea to rescue or stimulate a group). Sometimes I visualise different objects that represent different sets of knowledge, skills, perspectives and insights that each person brings, and how, when combined, they add up to something more substantial and wonderful than any single object (e.g. imagining different kinds of fruit as representing different insights and skill sets, and then imagining them combining to make a delicious fruit salad). I plan to allocate substantial time for conversations, deep listening and for creating something new to provide space for people to be at their best, and to be recognised for what they bring (just making time for this helps me to expect that good things will happen). I do some future pacing visualising how people will be at the conclusion of the session: conjuring positive images for what they might say about their achievements. Occasionally I also meditate as part of my preparation just going to a special place in my mind where I am feeling relaxed, content and appreciative. Usually after going through this routine I have my head in the right place. I believe that one of the main benefits of my routine is that it simply helps me become aware of the importance of my own expectations and state. Your formula might be the same or different. So, I am still asked about techniques, methods and processes from participants in my courses and from clients engaging me as a consultant. I am learning to talk more about our expectations, our assumptions and the opportunity to make space for productive interactions within organisations and with their communities of interest. Im noticing that sometimes we start a little more slowly. We move slowly to move faster in the long run, as trust is established, and contributions are valued. I am also noticing that my clients notice the difference themselves, and are more open and willing the next time around. The work is more enjoyable, the relationships richer and the outcomes more enduring. In conclusion, this is about my own discovery, so far, of what it means to be AI, so that I can do AI.
The most valuable outcomes: the work the participants substantially contribute toward.
3 The Pygmalion effect is the concept that a person will achieve or perform as they are expected to perform. This can have either a positive or negative effect on an individual or group. A person expected to perform well will achieve or exceed this expectation, according to the Pygmalion effect, but a person expected to underachieve or perform poorly will also fulfil this expectation.
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Liz Mellish
Liz was awarded a doctorate of education for her thesis Appreciative Inquiry at Work in 2001. She is a certified management consultant working in strategic change management in Australia and overseas. Liz has developed a series of on-line learning modules for change leaders, consultants and facilitators. Contact: info@mellish.com.au www.mellish.com.au
Facilitating Strategic AI interventions

ABSTRACT
With skillful facilitation, Appreciative Inquiry interventions can be very successful. When selecting Appreciative Inquiry as an approach for strategic intervention, strategic management knowledge and professional facilitation skills are also required. Appreciative Inquiry provides a fertile framework for creativity. Facilitation fosters the birth and development of ideas into action.
When Appreciative Inquiry works, the process is applied with an understanding of the strategic context and is accompanied by excellent facilitation skills and knowledge. Too many consultants and practitioners apply the process superficially without regard to the particulars of the organisation within which they are working and with scant capacity to manage multiple and complex group dynamics. Designing and facilitating participation in strategic planning requires facilitative competence to work with diverse interests and groups to get agreement on future directions. Appreciative Inquiry offers an approach a way of thinking to move participants from the past, through the present and towards the future. Knowledge of the organisation and the organisational participants enables the facilitator or the Appreciative Inquiry practitioner to contextualise and focus the intervention in ways most relevant to participants. The consulting challenge is to maximise the interplay between knowledge of the strategic context, professional facilitation competence and Appreciative Inquiry application to benefit the organisation. Context Appreciative Inquiry methods are most useful when client organisations:
Are in transition attempting to reposition the organisation Have diverse stakeholders all of whom have distinct interests in the
future of the organisation new directions
Require ownership of strategic changes to motivate implementation of
AIP May 11 Mellish: Facilitating Strategic AI Interventions
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The context of every client organisation is different. For example:
A university may commission a review and strategic plan development

process to produce a new strategic plan for approval by Council
An Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service may request a
review of services and development of a strategic plan for approval by members process to relocate 1500 people
A multi-national mining company may request a change management A remote indigenous community may want to develop a community
renewal plan to be shaped and owned by the whole community strategic plan with input from the school community Consultation process A strategic plan consultation process may involve four phases of inquiry and a series of tasks to which the client can readily agree. For example: Phase 1: strategic inquiry
A school may require a triennial school review and development of a
Review all strategic planning documents Work closely with the client to access information, to identify key
contacts and to arrange meetings and workshops
Facilitate 3 half day workshops with key internal leadership groups Engage all groups in strategic inquiry utilizing SOAR (strengths, Develop preliminary draft statement of strategic directions
Phase 2: Board consultation opportunities, aspirations, results) analysis to envision the future
Prepare for and facilitate half day Board workshop to challenge draft
directions and shape the next five years
Develop draft Strategic Plan

Phase 3: strategic choice
Consult with key external stakeholders regarding proposed futures

(partnerships, infrastructure, finance)
Facilitate 3 half day workshops with mixed leadership and staff groups Challenge the draft Strategic Plan Make choices to strategically position the organisation for the future:
Statement of direction; Shared vision; Values; Strategic themes; Key performance measures
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Draft a new planning framework and corporate performance report

Phase 4: strategic plan confirmation
Consult key stakeholders regarding final input to the strategic plan

document
Submit final draft Strategic Plan to the Chief Executive Officer Amend the new Strategic Plan as required Submit Strategic Plan to the Board for confirmation
Knowledge and skills required to implement AI for participatory strategic planning Strategic thinking skills Appreciative Inquiry consulting and professional facilitation competencies are used to conceptualise and facilitate strategic review and planning processes. Context is critical and the best practitioners develop, over time, knowledge of the strategic, structural, systemic and cultural environments in which their clients operate. Contextual knowledge assists the practitioner to scope an appreciative, applied, provocative and collaborative intervention. The focus of this article is to highlight the importance of facilitative competence when applying Appreciative Inquiry. Appreciative Inquiry may provide a meta frame for intervention; however, without excellent facilitation skills, participants may not be engaged and the process may backfire. The challenges of Appreciative Inquiry consulting and the related facilitator competence (International Association Facilitators 2003) are outlined in Table 1 below:
Table 1: Appreciative consulting challenges and facilitator competencies Appreciative consulting challenges Facilitator competencies
Adopt an appreciative mindset Value diversity (people and process) Locate and maintain energy for change Integrate macro and micro issues and contributions Transfer ownership of the process Reflect on and learn from every AI application
Create collaborative client relationships Plan appropriate group processes Create and sustain a participatory environment Guide group to appropriate and useful outcomes Build and maintain professional knowledge Model positive professional attitude
Throughout the process consultation there are appreciative consulting challenges and every participation strategy requires skilful facilitation. Each
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application occurs in a purposive context enabled by the triage of strategic thinking, AI and planned spontaneity. Delivering the assignment: Windows of possibility As they say, the glory and the devil lie in the detail! In a typical strategic AI intervention the key stages involve a myriad of micro skills. Six windows are used to illustrate the interconnectedness of AI methods, facilitator competence and strategy to deliver the strategic plan consultation.
Window 1: Engaging the client Appreciative consulting challenge Facilitator competence A. Create Collaborative Client Relationships 1. Develop working partnerships 2. Design and customize applications to meet client needs 3. Manage multi-session events effectively
Adopt an appreciative mindset Research what exists, the background and context Reframe problems into possibilities Identify participant groups in change Use appreciative language and client specific language Customise meta process frame 4-D
The client engagement process may lead to an agreement to undertake the proposed strategic plan review, underpinned by AI, in four phases. First a strategic inquiry process to engage staff and stakeholders; second a consultation with the Board of directors; third a further consultation with key groups to facilitate strategic choices; and finally, consultation with executive groups to confirm the new strategic plan. The consultants approach to designing the AI intervention processes is informed by knowledge of the client environment and the purpose of the assignment.
Window 2: Designing collaborative processes Appreciative consulting challenge Facilitator competence B. Plan Appropriate Group Processes 1. Select clear methods and processes that foster open participation with respect for client culture, norms and participant diversity 2. Prepare time and space to support group process
Value diversity (people and process) Design customised and context specific participatory process, consultation stages and alternatives Establish AI concept team, steering committee Identify topics for inquiry Craft AI interview protocols Design questions about best experiences, values, sustainability and hopes
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AI interviewing skills may be used to clarify the scope of the assignment and the focus of the clients requirements. The SOAR analysis process may be appropriate to engage diverse groups of staff and stakeholders to identify and share views about organisational Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations and Results.
Window 3: Creating and sustaining conditions for inquiry Appreciative consulting challenge Facilitator competence C. Create and Sustain a Participatory Environment 1. Demonstrate effective participatory and interpersonal communication skills 2. Honour and recognise diversity, ensuring inclusiveness 3. Manage group conflict 4. Evoke group creativity
Locate and maintain energy for change Facilitate multiple cycles of inquiry 4-D meta process frame: Discover paired interviews, grouping affirmative themes Dream crafting provocative propositions Design translating provocative propositions into practice innovation teams, working groups Deliver documenting directions, priorities, learning and sustainability measures
Multiple workshops may be facilitated using the SOAR analysis with mixed influence groups. Consolidating group data, identifying thematic data, and extracting key planning themes from SOAR data is useful to inform the emergent strategic plan:
Strengths may be used to inform organisational values Opportunities may be used to inform strategic priorities Aspirations may be used to inform the organisation vision Results may be used to inform strategic performance measures
The key activities at this stage include drafting the following components of the Strategic Plan: Vision, Values, Strategic Priorities, Key strategies and Performance measures. Facilitating workshops with the community to challenge and finetune the draft Strategic Plan provides an opportunity for large scale buyin and ownership of the plan. It is important to engage key stakeholders in endorsing strategic priorities and work with key expertise groups to agree organisation performance measures prior to submission of the final draft Strategic Plan to the Board for endorsement.
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Window 4: Strategy development
Appreciative consulting challenge
Facilitator competence D. Guide Group to Appropriate and Useful Outcomes 1. Guide the group with clear methods and processes 2. Facilitate group self-awareness about the task
Integrate macro and micro issues and contributions Illuminate connections between strategy, structure, systems and culture Acknowledge multiple ways of understanding and articulating shared visions Create social architecture for organising Provoke and synthesize possibility statements Facilitate multiple draft ways of expressing organisational strategic intent Include opportunities to challenge, extend and modify drafts Capture personal, team, strategic and whole system Maintain data integrity with clear lines of sight from original to final versions
Window 5: Transfer ownership of the process
Facilitator competence Maintain positive relationships E. Build and Maintain Professional Knowledge 1. Maintain a base of knowledge in management, organizational systems and development, group development, psychology, and conflict resolution, dynamics of change, learning and thinking theory 2. Know a range of facilitation methods, problem solving and decision-making models, group methods and techniques, new processes, methods and models in support of clients changing/emerging needs 3. Maintain professional standing, industry knowledge and networks
Engage purposefully and positively with individuals, small groups and large groups Stimulate lots of little fires Share responsibility for organisational direction and quality with everyone Deliver on contractual agreement
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Window 6: Continuously improve professional practice
Facilitator competence F. Model Positive Professional Attitude 1. Practice self-assessment and self-awareness 2. Act with integrity 3. Trust group potential and model neutrality
Reflect on and learn from every application Show genuine interest in organisational and individual wellbeing Build personal and professional understanding of challenges and opportunities across diverse government, corporate, educational and community sectors Recognise personal (energy) and professional (expertise) limits Pursue lifelong learning and participant centred potential for change
Conclusion Appreciative Inquiry can be risky for organisations. Without sufficient appreciation of the strategic context and skilful facilitation, participant centred approaches to planning can be disastrous. Every application occurs in a different setting, with different people with very different agendas. For organisations to achieve the results they seek from AI interventions, the consultant is challenged to guide participants through unknown territory. Trusting the process is one thing; however continual improvisation and inventing just-in-time, fit for purpose, cyclical adjustments in-process is more likely to deliver creative results and a commitment to implementation. AI methods are invaluable for conceptualising strategic change interventions and for designing participatory processes to include people in planning. Appreciative Inquiry is a fertile framework for creativity. Facilitation fosters the birth and development of ideas into action. Both are vital to provide clients with valuable processes to engage in strategic thinking, include people in change, build commitment in the process and generate goodwill and energy for delivering organisational success. References Cooperrider, D.L and D. Whitney. (1996) Appreciative Consultation Workbook. Taos: Taos Institute. Facilitator Competencies in Group Facilitation: A Research and Applications Journal. Winter 2000, vol. 2 no. 2. International Association of Facilitators (2003) Foundation competencies for certification www.iaf.org Management Consultancy Competence Framework (2003) Institute of Management Consultants, London, www.inc.org
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Mellish, E. E. (2000) Appreciative Inquiry at Work. Doctoral thesis, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. Mellish, E.E. (2008) Appreciative Consultation. Platypus Publishing. Brisbane. www.mellish.com.au Moore, M. H. (1997) Creating Public Value: Strategic Management in Government. Harvard University Press. Stavros, J., D.L. Cooperrider and D.L. Kelley. (2003) Strategic Inquiry Appreciative Intent: Inspiration to SOAR. AI Practitioner.
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Sandy Gordon
Professor of Sport and Exercise Psychology at The University of Western Australia, An appreciative strengths-based coaching philosophy informs his work in enhancing performance and enabling talent with teams and individuals in both business and sport settings. Contact: sandy.gordon@uwa.edu.au
Building the Optimal Cricket Operation

ABSTRACT
This article describes an appreciative facilitation experience with Cricket Operation staff of an Australian cricket association. Following background comments relating to the associations strategic plan, the two-day process that involved seven staff members including the CEO is explained. Reactions among participants to discussions on Day 1 resulted in exciting role shaping changes overnight and subsequently, on Day 2, to the creation of new ways of working together.
When asked by the CEO of the Western Australian Cricket Association (WACA) to facilitate a two-day session with his Cricket Operations staff, the full WACA organisation had just completed a major strategic planning exercise for the next four-year period. I was asked to keep in mind all of the new goal directives during our work:
Increase the profile of cricket in Western Australia (WA) Continue to grow sustainable participation in cricket in WA Deliver sustained high performance by WA state teams and produce
Australian representatives
Maximise the resources available for ongoing investment in cricket Restore the WACA ground as a world-class cricket venue and Lead cricket in WA wisely and progressively
Three general criteria emerged for our planned two-day session:
Provide clear direction to WACA Staff and all WA Cricket stakeholders; Articulate and address the key strategic issues facing WA Cricket over
the next four years and Cricket.
Align appropriately with Cricket Australias strategy for Australian

Courtesy of 22 years service as WACA sport psychologist, and an ongoing relationship of mutual respect and trust with the CEO, I was allowed to use an Appreciative Inquiry approach for our work. The participants who represented cricket operations included: the chief executive officer; high performance
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manager; game development manager; human resources officer; team manager and head coach; cricket officer manager; and an executive board member. Appreciative facilitation Facilitation is simply about bringing the best out of people and groups when planning and implementing organisational change efforts (Lewis, Passmore and Cantore, 2008). Appreciative facilitation is about a particular approach which uses Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as the process model of choice for group interactions. According to Mellish (2001), key principles include:
Photographer Paul Kane/ Getty Images Sport
Appreciate yourself and other people in the change process Apply your experience and knowledge Be provocative and creatively envision a desired future Collaborate in the process since were better off together than alone
Frontloading the experience In the following sections, the actual wording I used to explain the five-stage process is provided. I also explain what participants did during the workshop and what my role as facilitator involved. Finally, I present the interview guide that participants were provided for data collection purposes. The AI 5-D cycle Define Our intention in this 2-day workshop will be to discuss how to build the optimal cricket operation. Discover As participants we will explore what gives life to the WACA Cricket Operation, when it is at its best. Dream Based on what we discover, we will envision what our Cricket Operation might look like in the future. Design We will co-construct WACA organisational arrangements to support our shared vision. Deliver We will determine ways and means of sustaining commitment to the future. What you will do as participants 1. Appreciative interviews: Just imagine In the Discover phase, and two weeks prior to Day 1, you will select and interview 3-5 people whose opinion on your area of responsibility in Cricket Operations you respect. Your interviewees may or may not be current WACA staff or stakeholders. You will ask each interviewee to share their stories about when they experienced or observed the WACA (or other) Cricket Operations at its most alive and most effective best. On Day 1 you will share interview data with all other participants as well as share your own stories, insights and personal experiences. 2. Visualising the future: Making sense In the Dream phase you reflect on the data you have collected from others plus your own experiences and take this history, plus memories of peak performances and past experiences, into the future. You reach fundamental agreement on the
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Avoid discussions becoming talkfests or contrived processes to achieve pre-determined outcomes.
WACAs calling and create provocative propositions to reflect the strategic plan and the unique contributions that are possible in each area of responsibility within Cricket Operations going forwards. 3. Creative Planning: Devise plans On Day 2 in the Design phase, you will create a WACA social architecture how people will work together that reflects the provocative propositions created in the Dream phase and represents compelling new ways of doing Cricket Operations. 4. Mapping Progress: Implement and follow through The Delivery phase focuses on the delivery and effectiveness of new systems of action and outcomes.
Photographer Paul Kane/ Getty Images Sport
My role as facilitator During the workshop I will endeavour to:
Keep you from being impatient, ceasing to listen and instead keep you
positively engaged with an appreciative mindset towards organisational change efforts arrangements) and culture (relationships) simultaneously achieve pre-determined outcomes.
Try to deal with strategy (direction), structure (organisational Try to avoid discussions becoming talkfests or contrived processes to
Interview guide Two weeks prior to the two-day workshop participants were sent the following interview guide and asked to identify their interviewees in order to avoid interviewing anyone twice. They were also encouraged to select individuals from both country and metropolitan cricket centres within Western Australia.
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Focus on future possibilities not current processes.
Overview Rather than focus on the problems of the past and present at the WACA, Id like you and your 3-5 interviewees to focus on the positive present and possible future. Specifically, Id like the focus to be on the WACAs future Cricket Operations. Please use the following questions in the order they are presented as an interview guide: Discover/Explore: What is or has been going on positively at the WACA? Think of a peak experience or high point in your own work or experience at the WACA (or elsewhere). Note down all accomplishments and prideful recollections before proceeding to the next question. Dream: What do we need to do at the WACA to create more of these positive experiences? How could we use these positive experiences to create a vision of a desired future state? Focus on future possibilities not current processes. Encourage provocative ideas. Design: What action plans will create and sustain the future we want, in terms of leadership, infrastructure, policies, and systems? What new or different arrangements would support the proposed changes? Get some ideas but do not push for specifics were after improvement not perfection here. Deliver/Destiny: How do we deliver these plans of action? What innovative teams do we need to create and who will champion each team? What would be the specific goals each team should endeavour to achieve? Link this to the previous question and still search for new ideas as well as more of what already works.
The journey was more significant than the destination.
The event itself: how participants reacted On Day 1, prior to asking participants to share their interview data, I thought it appropriate to begin by discussing what sort of managerial group cricket operations is. Participants agreed they were a tribe, which according to Bushe (2004), is a collection of individuals who share a sense of identity, some sense of shared mission and purpose, perform independent tasks within an interdependent goal structure, and have a tendency to think of each other as we. I also introduced a strengths-based focus on things the WACA Cricket Operations can build on, what stakeholders are asking for, what cricket operations staff in particular care deeply about, and how staff would know they were being effective. The latter represent what are now known as key strategic planning questions in SOAR, respectively, strengths, opportunities, aspirations and results (Stavros and Hinrichs, 2009). Wow! At morning tea, even before interview findings were shared, three participants somewhat nervously asked me in private if I thought the CEO would consider re-shaping their respective roles in cricket operations. They wanted to work more on their strengths and less on areas that could be taken up by others in the tribe, which is how they described cricket operations as a group. It was apparent that collecting data about what works in specific domains within cricket operations, coupled with enabling language and an appreciative focus,
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[The AI approach allowed] the key players to open up and be encouraged to volunteer their views on how the group could work more effectively together to achieve the agreed vision.
ignited significant passions for change in the way they wanted to work both alone and together. To his credit (and my relief) the CEO reacted immediately and positively to the enquiries. He conveyed gratitude to his staff who had come to recognise new ways of being more personally engaged at work and working together, which is what the CEO desired from the outset. Waiting for their opportunity to shine This realisation by staff was significant for two reasons. First, staff informed me that this was the first opportunity they had ever been afforded by any WACA CEO to discuss cricket operations in this way. Second, as a traditional institution and major summer sport, both in Australia and world-wide, cricket is renowned for conservative operations which can suffocate ideation about change and innovation. Clearly these participants were simply waiting for their opportunity to shine. Summing up Day 1, which addressed the Discovery (interview data) and Dream phases, the CEO asked all his staff to return for Day 2 with their job specifications re-written for the Design and Delivery phases. Subsequently, Day 2 discussions realised several new ways of staff working differently together, including firm action statements for each participant with correspondingly firm time lines for their completion. In the latter two phases cricket operation staff also reported that interviewees were very comfortable offering opinions and ideas. For all participants it seemed that the journey was more significant than the destination, and I am confident that those who participated fully in this Appreciative Facilitation event effectively built the optimal cricket operation. As a process, the CEO also seemed impressed both with its immediate and sustained impact. The Appreciative Inquiry approach we used to evaluate how cricket operations should operate in the future was extremely successful in allowing the key players to open up and be encouraged to volunteer their views on how the group could work more effectively together to achieve the agreed vision. The session was instrumental in effecting change and managing the change process in an effective manner over the following three year period. (Graeme Wood Chief Executive Officer Western Australian Cricket Association Inc.) References Bushe, G. R. (2004) Managers Want Tribes, Not Teams: An Invitation to Re-think Teambuilding, Organizational Development Practitioner, 36(1), 9-12. Lewis, S., J. Passmore, and S. Cantore. (2008) Appreciative Inquiry Change Management: Using AI to Facilitate Organizational Development. London: Kogan Page. Mellish, E. E. (2001) Appreciative Facilitation. Brisbane: Platypus Press. Stavros, J. M. and Hinrichs, G. (2009) SOAR: Building Strengths-based Strategy. Bend, OR: Thin Book.
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Dee Brooks
is a passionate and highly energetic community worker, facilitator and trainer who currently works with the Family Action Centre based at the University of Newcastle. Dee is the Facilitator of the ABCD Asia Pacific Network, an accredited ABCD trainer and an Art of Hosting facilitator. Contact: Dee.Brooks@newcastle.edu.au
Graeme Stuart
is a community facilitator and researcher at the Family Action Centre, University of Newcastle. His current research and teaching focuses on community engagement, asset-based community development and strengths-based practice. Contact: Graeme.Stuart@newcastle.edu.au
Innovation in Practice: Community Building
AI and Asset-Based Community Development

in the Defence Community Organisation
ABSTRACT
In 2010, a training program was delivered by the Family Action Centre to 14 Defence Community Organisation offices throughout Australia. This article discusses the capacity-building model used for creating a shared language and understanding for family workers in the Australian Defence Force, and how Appreciative Inquiry influenced the training agenda.
The Defence Community Organisation1 (DCO) is responsible for supporting Australian Defence Force (ADF) families. Their mission is to establish the conditions upon which Defence Families and the Defence Community can achieve self-reliance. They do this by providing information, referring and linking families to existing services, and hosting numerous functions and events throughout Australia. Selfreliance is a new approach being used increasingly in the Defence Forces, where families are regularly relocated and re-settled into new communities. It is important that families are able to become part of these communities as quickly as possible, increasing their health and happiness. In 2010 DCO conducted a review of its operating systems and identified AssetBased Community Development (ABCD) as being best placed to provide the shared language and understanding that was required for the future needs of the DCO. ABCD is a model that focuses peoples energy on the capacities of a community instead of the deficits2 and is consistent with Appreciative Inquiry (AI) and strengths-based approaches. It was agreed that the implementation of ABCD would begin with a series of workshops around the country. The project The Family Action Centre3, which aims to strengthen families and communities by undertaking research, training and learning and developing and implementing strengths-based programs, were asked to facilitate 14 interactive workshops
1 http://www.defence.gov.au/dco 2 Center for Development Services, 2005; Kretzmann and McKnight, 1993; Mathie and Cunningham, 2002 3 http://www.newcastle.edu.au/research-centre/fac
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Self-reliance is a new approach being used increasingly in the Defence Forces, where families are regularly relocated and re-settled into new communities.
with all staff of the DCO. Each workshop involved a wide range of staff including family liaison officers, social workers, military liaison officers and administration staff who had varying levels of experience with strengths-based approaches and ABCD. Workshop design The workshops began with a variation of World Caf4 to explore three questions:
What time is it for DCO? What does your area team do really well? What would I like to gain from the workshop?
These questions provided a guide for us as facilitators to gauge knowledge and experience, and to hear concerns. We then ran an Introduction to the Strengths Perspective session, and participants were asked two further questions as a large group:
What are some of the strengths of ADF families? How can we build on the strengths of ADF families?
These conversations clearly demonstrated that ADF families have many strengths and encouraged participants to think about ways they could draw on these strengths in their work. Some of the groups commented that it was helpful to see the wide range of strengths and that, compared to a traditional problem solving approach, it was uplifting and inspiring. It reinforced a positive focus for the workshop and demonstrated that if the families they worked with were viewed as a resource, new possibilities might emerge. Below are some examples of how participants felt they could build on the strengths of ADF families: 1. Identifying informal community leaders 2. Encouraging interaction with the broader community and building relationships 3. Supporting families to build on existing skills (e.g. training spouses to mentor other groups and families) 4. Educate families, the wider community and Command about relevant ADF family related issues (e.g. resilience building) 5. Offering more ownership and responsibility of existing groups to the spouse volunteers 6. Running groups in conjunction with other organisations (ADF and nonADF) 7. Sharing and intentionally mapping stories of success and experience (e.g. hardships, recovery, mobility) 8. Acknowledging and creating ways for children to be heard 9. Engaging in social media
4 www.theworldcafe.com/
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Challenges The workshops were offered within the context of a process of change where the DCO was moving towards a greater focus on community capacity building and self-reliance. While some staff embraced the innovation this would create, others were concerned about the new direction, fearing this would lose an individual, case-by-case focus, and were suspicious that the workshop was about reducing the roles of workers in the lives of Defence Force families. Staff were required to attend the workshops, which, at times, led to resistance. Some staff, with many years of training and experience who felt they were already working from a strengths perspective and using ABCD, found that the workshops could not meet their more advanced learning needs, while also catering for less experienced staff. Addressing the challenges When there was resistance in some of the early workshops, we realised that we needed to make more use of AI. We wanted to encourage participants to see things in a different light, and needed questions that would help us gauge the feeling of the group towards the DCO (without inviting negativity), encourage participants to explore what they were already doing well, and to discover the expectations of staff in terms of the workshop. In addition to the questions in the opening World Caf, questions such as What possibilities exist that we have not yet considered? and What would a strengthbased team look like? helped to shift negativity. People could see that their contributions were valuable and that we genuinely wanted to hear what they had to say. Throughout the process we consciously used AI in a whole-system context to encourage staff to explore what was currently working, to encourage innovation and to overcome some of the workshop challenges. We acknowledged the wisdom in the room and recognised the ways in which many of the teams were already incorporating the strengths perspective and ABCD into their work. We encouraged innovation by allowing participants to share their knowledge and ideas, to be engaged, have a sense of humour and stay open to new ideas. In one workshop, participants were dealing with a recent military death and were, understandably, preoccupied with meeting their responsibilities in relation to bereavement. While there were minor disruptions to the workshop (e.g. phone calls requiring urgent responses), participants were encouraged to use the workshop to discuss ways of responding to bereavement. For example, by encouraging AI-based questions for the Open Space5 sessions, it was possible to incorporate their priorities into the workshop in ways that were consistent with a strength-based approach. Emerging possibilities Throughout the workshops, participants thought about innovative ways of working with families and their communities. For example, identifying and offering further support to ADF spouses who were actively engaged in their communities was seen as a way to acknowledge and build on individual strengths. In turn, this could assist in recognising further strengths and building
5 http://www.openspaceworld.org
Facilitated strengths-based discussions highlighted how language reflects thinking and helped to provide a shared understanding in the ADF context.
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stronger relationships within the broader community. Workshop participants discussed how they could support spouse-led groups to utilise ABCD for mentoring programs, both within and without the ADF, to acknowledge past and present experiences; recognise stories of success, hardship or recovery; and to increase community awareness of other ADF family issues. Another idea was to assist families in identifying community assets through the ABCD asset mapping process which would support DCOs increased focus in self-reliance; and to use more targeted, appreciative questions when working with families, including allowing time for reflection.
Encouraging everyones contribution is an important part of hosting a World Caf session which not only surfaces assumptions but can inspire and create new visions and unique collaborations.
In another workshop, a planned DCO family event was discussed and the questions developed demonstrated a shift from the needs-based questions that had frequently been used in the past:
What qualities make a good (or resilient) Defence family? What would be your number one tip to pass on to another Defence
family in the following circumstances: When relocating; Coping with Deployment; On joining the ADF; Changing schools; Moving with children Would you be willing to share these with other ADF families? A powerful example of how AI could help other possibilities emerge was provided by a long-serving staff member during an Open Space session. Like the workshop discussed above, his question arose during a workshop following a recent military death. He posed the question, How can we use AI for grieving families? This question rippled through other workshops and encouraged thoughtful and practical responses that allowed participants to identify what they were doing well and what they could do differently next time. Applications of AI beyond the workshop At times, the difference in discussions and levels of contribution toward the end of the workshops was striking when compared with the resistance encountered at the beginning. Participants enthusiastically identified a range of ways in which they could use AI in their work:
What skills/knowledge/interests/talents or abilities do you have?
In questionnaires, newsletters, feedback and evaluation For induction and training In self reflection, team meetings and programming During facilitated discussions For developing questions for family forums and functions For bereavement wash-ups In counselling individuals, couples and groups At inter-agency meetings to discover whats working in a community In use with Command
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Impact of workshops While it is too early to determine the extent to which the workshops impacted on the work of the DCO and the level of self-reliance within Defence Force families, anecdotal evidence suggests at least some offices have been trying new ways of working with families. According to DCO Headquarters, DCO staff are increasingly sharing ideas through an on-line forum; seeking guidance and support for community capacity building activities; and thinking outside their normal frame of reference. There have also been comments suggesting that in some offices administration and office staff are interacting more positively with each other. Some offices have experimented with using appreciative questions (e.g., What is important to a Defence Force family?) rather than focusing on needs and problems. Other offices are planning gatherings that will use World Caf or Open Space to explore an appreciative question. Conclusion ABCD and AI work extremely well together because they both appreciate what communities have, explore what can be and create what will be. When an ABCD tool, such as asset mapping, was being explored, AI provided the impetus required to re-frame questions. AI played an important role in the development and implementation of the ABCD workshops, particularly in encouraging DCO staff to think about their work in new ways. It provided the facilitators with strategies to overcome challenges in the workshop and to create a positive energy over the two days. It provided participants with a practical tool that they could take back to their communities and start conversations that help create new possibilities. AI was one of the main tools to be enthusiastically embraced by many DCO staff. Acknowledgement We would like to acknowledge Maureen Greet (Director, Community Capacity Building) and Michele Chaseling (Manager, Community Capacity Building) from the Defence Community Organisation for their contributions to this article and their commitment to the work being done to support Defence Force families. References Center for Development Services. (2005) Asset-Based Development: Success Stories from Egyptian Communities: A Manual for Practitioners. Cairo: Center for Development Services. Available from http://www.coady.stfx.ca/tinroom/ assets/file/resources/abcd/CDS_manual.pdf. Kretzmann, J. P. and J. L. McKnight. (1993). Building communities from the Inside Out: a Path toward Finding and Mobilizing a Communitys Assets. Evanston, Ill.: Center for Urban Affairs and Policy Research, Northwestern University. Mathie, A. and G. Cunningham. (2002). From Clients to Citizens: Asset-Based Community Development as a Strategy For Community-Driven Development. Antigonish, Nova Scotia: Coady International Institute. Available from http:// coady.stfx.ca/tinroom/assets/file/resources/publications/4_From_Clients_ to_Citizens.pdf
ABCD says if you can discover what people truly care about, you can mobilise communities. Participants utilised Open Space as an energising way to discover and discuss future tasks and directions.
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Chris Jansen
is a senior lecturer at the University of Canterbury, where he teaches and supervises school leaders studying towards a Masters degree in Educational Leadership. Chris has written a range of publications and regularly facilitates workshops and presentations for diverse organisations around New Zealand, Australia, the Pacific and Asia. Contact: chris.jansen@canterbury.ac.nz
Creating a Professional Learning Community

Embedding AI in a Complexity-Thinking Framework
ABSTRACT
This article explores an approach to developing organisational and leadership capacity through the development of a professional learning community. This particular community was formed using an approach that integrates the framework of AI with complexity thinking to inform professional learning processes. The experience provides a new perspective on how AI applications can occasion emergence in professional learning, inform leadership of organisations and create a nexus of innovation.
Self-organising behaviour is common in the natural world. It is characterised by a collective of independent agents who self-organise in a dynamic manner in order to create emergence, a patterned higher order response to a threat or opportunity. Biologists exploring the group behaviour of many species (fish, ants, bees, birds) have noted that while the collective behaviour of these species is not predictable, neither is it chaotic. For example, starlings that flock in groups of thousands do not behave chaotically; there is a pattern to their flocking such that individuals operate in unison and do not collide with one another (see Figure 1, p. 70). Studies of ecosystems as a whole show that they, too, change dynamically in response to external influences, and that while these changes are not necessarily predictable, they are not without pattern (Wheatley, 2006). This type of interaction is described as a complex adaptive system and the process of collective selforganisation is known as emergence. Organisations as Complex Adaptive Systems Since the 1990s, literature pertaining to leadership within organisations has begun to embrace the idea that organisations are not be viewed simply as rational and linear-based structures. Instead, they suggest that organisations are more akin to complex living entities: they mimic biological systems with the ability to adapt in response to uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (Wheatley, 2006). This idea of viewing organisations through a living systems lens grew out of the concept of complex adaptive systems described above (Davis and Sumara, 2006). These models emphasise organisational systems made up of groups of independent agents that collectively respond to external pressures by selforganising and innovating, effectively emerging in new adaptive patterns (Davis and Sumara, 2006; Uhl-Bien and Marion, 2008). They also emphasise the need for participants to constantly learn and adapt in response to ongoing change
AIP May 11 Jansen: Creating a Professional Learning Community
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(Senge, 2002; Pascale, Millemann and Gioja, 2000). Hence, natural systems can perhaps provide some guidance as to processes that could enhance selforganisation and emergence in organisations.
Figure 1: Starlings flocking in response to the presence of a predator (http:/ / www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHgroCeKbE)
We chose to simply frame the project with a focus of two broad themes: focus on the positive and inclusivity.
The Christchurch NGO Leadership Project This doctoral research project was initiated in 2008 to explore ways to enhance leadership capacity in adolescent-focused non-governmental organisations (NGOs) operating in Christchurch, through the creation of a Professional Learning Community (PLC). Specific criteria were applied: this PLC was initiated with the directors and managers of organisations that ranged in size from 20 to 80 people and covered a range of settings, including education, recreation and residential and community therapeutic support all working with adolescents. All the managers led NGOs with at least ten staff, had at least five years leadership experience in a leadership role and their organisations had to have existed for at least five years. We deliberately accessed known networks and relationships to facilitate connections with others as part of a process known as snowball sampling (Babbie, 2004), allowing managers to recommend people they knew who fitted the criteria above. Such an initiative has not been previously undertaken in New Zealand, particularly with its focus on gathering the majority of adolescentfocussed NGO leaders in one city, and also in the use of an Appreciative Inquiry approach for the project. Adopting a broad AI framework positive focus and inclusivity In this project, we used AI as both a capacity-building change process and as a research tool. In Appreciative Inquiry: Research for Change, Reed (2004) describes how AI can address the criteria expected of research and how an AI approach can transform and add to traditional research expectations. Reed applauds, as a research tool, two key broad themes of AI methodology focus
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It has been a great initiative, getting people with our collective focus together. It has been great to interact with other leaders I didnt know. NGO manager
on the positive and inclusivity characteristics that distinguish it from other processes (p. 70). Appreciative inquiry focuses on supporting people getting together to tell stories of positive development in their work that they can build on (p. 42). AI research as such is commonly described as being research with instead of research on. Information collected during the investigation is utilised in the learning space (rather than taken away to be analysed) and contributes to the developing knowledge of the participants and to the growth of the PLC as a whole. In this sense, the process relative to investigation findings is more about data creation and data synthesising than about data collection (Reed, 2004). All learning experiences that were implemented in this project were informed by AI processes. (Jansen, Cammock and Conner, 2010). However, although we attempted to frame the project with the steps of Initiate, Inquire, Imagine and Innovate (Watkins and Mohr, 2001), we soon realised that we needed to be much more flexible in the processes and experiences in order to honour the theme of inclusivity and support collaboration. Hence, we chose to simply frame the project with a focus on two broad themes: focus on the positive and inclusivity. Within this broad philosophical stance, we were then able to customise the process with a high degree of flexibility and generate immense buy in from the participants as they co-constructed their own learning process. Inclusivity was emphasised by allowing participants to have ongoing input into all aspects of the project: the design of interview questions; selection of additional participants; direction of discussions; choice of input from books and speakers; analysis of data and ongoing modification of methodology. For example, an initial one-day focus group involved scene setting followed by appreciative interviews in which pairs of managers interviewed each other for an hour about their peak leadership experiences and the values and beliefs that underpinned these experiences. These ideas were collated by pairs and shared with the full group. The managers then decided how best to conduct an inquiry about their leadership in action over the duration of the project. A range of strategies resulted:
Leadership learning sets (groups of three to four leaders meeting

regularly); meetings;
Communicating through email/conference calls and face-to-face An online web-based forum site; Input from leadership consultants; and Access to, and distribution of, relevant literature.
Appreciative Inquiry as an enabling constraint We were particularly interested in having this PLC develop a life of its own in order to foster reflection, innovation and ongoing engagement. For this reason, a complexity thinking approach was used to guide its creation (or emergence). Emergence in a complex adaptive system can either be spontaneous or enabled by the provision of certain conditions.
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The wonderful thing about our group is that we created it and we own it; it hasnt been set up by someone else on our behalf, which is normally what we experience in this sector. NGO manager
In contrast to complicated systems, which also have multiple parts that interact with each other in predictable and structured ways (i.e. an aircraft or an engine), the multiple parts or agents in a complex system interact in an ongoing generative, unpredictable and self-determined fashion. Hence, emergence cannot be scripted or forced into existence, and outcomes cannot be fully anticipated. Davis and Sumara (2006, p. 136) describe the conditions for enabling emergence as enabling constraints which provide a fine balance between 1) diversity and redundancy; and 2) coherence and randomness. Simply stated, these conditions are; not too loose, not too tight, allowing sufficient space for innovation without degenerating into chaos. The analogy of two open hands held apart as if gently holding an object suggests an open space where creativity can occur yet the hands themselves might represent the frame within which this is fostered. These hands are neither clasped (too tight) nor behind ones back (too loose); an optimum space is required for emergence to occur. While these conditions can be planned and focused, outcomes cannot be fully determined, as they are result of the collective emergent behaviour of the individual within-system. Balancing diversity and redundancy Internal redundancy is the manner in which agents in a system are similar or share commonalities; this is vital for shared interactions to occur. (Davis and Sumara, p. 139). On the other hand, internal diversity is the way in which agents differ in all regards. It is in the tension between these two polarities that the creative opportunity lies. To see how the theory played out in this project, one source of enabling constraints was provided by the selection criteria for participants. Internal redundancy was provided by focusing exclusively on adolescent-focused NGO organisations, rather than funders or government organisations. It also focused only on the managers of each organisation, not other leaders amongst their staff teams. Managers said that this focus led to a sense of collegiality, connection and support. Internal diversity was provided by including a range of NGO organisations from a range of settings education, recreation and residential and community therapeutic support. The diversity was also visible in the different genders and ethnicities represented. The initial lack of familiarity amongst participants gave rise to a creative edge in the process and the sense that the participants did have a lot to learn from each other. Balancing coherence and randomness The second enabling constraint occurred as a result of providing sufficient coherence and randomness in the structure of the project, defined here as: the structural conditions that help to determine the balance between sources of coherence that allow a collective to maintain a focus of purpose/identity and sources of disruption and randomness that compel the collective to constantly adjust and adapt (Davis and Sumara, 147).
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Figure 2: Exploring our leadership using AI principles
Its the creation of a place from which to reflect. We have developed an inspiring, creative, exciting space to share. NGO manager
Coherence was provided by the AI key themes that had initially been agreed upon. This constrained the project to focus on (1) the positive (what was working) and (2) inclusivity (all decisions were to be made in consultation with all participants). These two principles acted as touch stones, non-negotiable parameters within which both coherence and randomness could come into play. The second of these themes, inclusivity, facilitated a degree of randomness where, as the study progressed, the original initiatives of the project were evaluated with the participants and were progressively adapted to fit their needs. For example, the initial plan of including online forums and learning sets of three to four people was abandoned in favour of half-day focus groups on a regular basis. It also allowed a wide range of new materials, literature and topics to enter the process, which fostered a sense of research with, not research on, leading to a sense of freedom and creativity for participants, and ultimately, to a sense of collective ownership. During the half-day focus groups, held every two months, the leaders experienced a range of activities: peer interviews; group reflection on relevant research-based literature; and interactive sessions delivered by leadership consultants; as well as the processes of collective sense-making and collaborative coding of emerging themes related to leadership. Figure 2 maps the cyclical process of learning that was developed throughout the project. The arrows in the centre of the diagram denote the leaders exploring and pondering their leadership roles, considering how they could experiment with and nurture their leadership. This generative process was not only cumulatively cyclical but also complex, organic and emergent. While the reflection tended to be triggered during the focus groups, much of it, along with experimentation, occurred in the interval between the scheduled meetings.
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This group has been like an oasis in the desert for me. I have benefited so much from having this opportunity to meet, spending this time focussed not on my organisation, but on me and what makes me an effective leader. NGO manager
The process also involved a number of stimuli and inputs that were fed into the process as described in Figure 2. By actively balancing these enabling constraints in this project, the project facilitators and the leaders themselves were able to occasion the emergence of a vibrant, dynamic professional learning community. A nexus for innovation At the end of the research project in March, 2010, the leaders in this project decided that they wanted to continue their collective processes as a selfmanaging and sustaining professional network. The co-emergence of this professional network is still in progress and has the potential to not only continue to nurture the leadership of those involved but to be influential in the wider youth development and education sector, in terms of advocacy and collaboration. The emergence of this NGO leadership network, beyond the duration of the project, suggests the potential of integrating the framework of AI with a complexity lens into professional learning processes. In particular, the creation and use of customised AI-based enabling constraints, which can occasion emergence in professional learning and also inform leadership of organisations, promises a rich area of innovation and creativity. References Babbie, E. (2004) The Practice of Social Research (10th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Davis, B. and Sumara, D. (2006) Complexity and Education: Inquiries into Learning, Teaching and Research. London: Lawrence Erlbaum. Hammond, S. (1998) The Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry. Plano, TX: Thin Books. Jansen, C., L. Conner, and P. Cammock. (2010) Leaders building professional learning communities: Appreciative inquiry in action. Journal of Educational Leadership, Policy and Practice, 25 (2). 41-54. Pascale, R., Millemann, M. and Gioja, L. (2000) Surfing the Edge of Chaos. New York: Three Rivers Press. Reed, J. (2004) Appreciative Inquiry: Research for Change. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Senge, P. (2002) The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation. Sydney, Australia: Random House. Uhl-Bien, M. and Marion, R. (2008) Complexity Leadership, Part 1: Conceptual Foundations. Charlotte, North Carolina: Information Age Publishing. Watkins, J. M. and Mohr, .B. (2001) Appreciative Inquiry: Change at the Speed of Imagination. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer. Wheatley, M. (2006) Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc.
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Lena Holmberg
has a Ph.D. in Educational Research, worked as a consultant and manager in an IT company and started the AI consulting company Apprino. With Jan Reed, she was guest editor of the November issue of the AI Practitioner in 2007 that focused on AI and research. Contact: lmholmberg@gmail.com lenamholmberg.blogspot.com
Jan Reed
Ph.D. B.A, RN has been involved in research for many years. She has a nursing qualification, and teaches and supervises healthcare students at Northumbria University. She is well known for her groundbreaking book, Appreciative Inquiry: Research for Change. Contact: jreedhexham@gmail.com
AI Research Notes
AI Research Notes carries news of AI research developments. Wed like to make it as collaborative and appreciative as we can we know that many of you are working and thinking about the relationship between academic research and AI, and that you have news, comments and questions which wed like you to contribute.
edited by Lena Holmberg and Jan Reed

Editors Note The following reflections are taken from an essay on reflections involved in doing a course on systemic leadership for managers. These reflections have partly arisen from the possible differences between the academic goals of individual study, and the collaborative goal of AI. As one way of exploring this, the authors here discuss the role of theory, and its relationship to practice. Lena Holmberg and Jan Reed J. Kevin Barge Carsten Hornstrup
MacMann Berg, Denmark ch@macmannberg.dk
Texas A&M University Department of Communication kbarge@tamu.edu
Jan Henriksen
Alleskolen, Denmark janh@viborg.dk
Elaborations of individual and collective practice emerge from a sustained inquiry into the linguistic experience of managers and other organizational members. This inquiry process involves managers developing tools for sense making, acting and reflecting that embody co-creation, reflection and coherence. Evidence of how managers elaborate their practice is generated from within the flow of inquiry and reflects an assessment of how changes in practice generate shifts in patterns of meaning-making and action. A practice-based approach suggests at least three areas for future research for management scholars and educators. First, we need to pay closer attention to the rhetorical construction of evidence. This is consistent with evidence-based practice approaches that recognize the importance of how managers make the case for new practices. For example, Rousseau and McCarthy (2007) suggest management education needs to pay close attention to the rhetorical and persuasive power of communication: A powerful exercise is the task of making a persuasive case to superiors for adopting a new management practice, the effectiveness of which the evidence supports. Practitioners need to learn how to use evidence in circumstances requiring negotiation and compromise (p. 97).
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Through co-creative and reflexive practices, managers typically create a set of living standards for what counts as evidence of good practice and for evaluating their practice in relation to themselves and their research participants. However, managers within the MSc program have paid relatively little attention to the kinds of rhetorical processes and evidence that would be required to make the case for individuals not associated with the initial research to take up and use the learning generated by the research project. Future research needs to look at the way evidence is rhetorically constructed and how reasoning, argumentation and framing are used to legitimize the knowledge claims generated by the research as useful to persons who participated in the research as well as people who have little or no connection to the original research. Second, management scholars and educators need to rethink the theory practice relationship. Evidence-based practice approaches emphasize the importance of doing science to build theory and, when the evidence is sufficiently strong, to derive practice from it. This constructs practice as being secondary to theory. We would reverse this relationship, suggesting that practice manages the complexity of life that theory cannot. Practice is always ahead of theory and research, as managers must develop ways of working that allow them to address the situation at hand. Even if the science is strong and the normative prescriptions generated by theory clear, the learning from population-based science must be adapted to the individual case and this requires practical versus scientific reasoning (Staller, 2006). We would suggest that the theorypractice relationship may be more profitably conceptualized from the perspective of practical theory (Shotter, 1993). Practical theory operates on the metaphor of a toolbox, whereby a theorys propositions, models, concepts and ideas become tools for conducting inquiry into lived experience (Cronen, 2001). This position does not undermine the view that theory can be conceptualized as a set of interrelated concepts that generate explanations and predictions regarding social phenomena. However, it shifts the view that theoretical concepts and models provide a picture of reality to the view that theoretical concepts and models provide tools that may inspire the practices we use to inquire into lived experience. For example, an antenarrative approach to management emphasizes the fragmented, nonlinear experience of organization life and how stories migrate and travel through organizational life (Boje, 2001; 2008). It makes an important theoretical distinction between story, where multiple meanings can exist for the connections among plot, characters, setting and action, and narrative, where the meaning is fixed and singular. From our perspective, these theoretical concepts are useful not because of their definitional power, but because of their implications for practice. Antenarrative inspires a number of practices or tools that managers may pick up and use to explore and work with the fragmented linguistic aspects of human life. Our point is that management education needs to shift from the notion of applying theories wholesale to organizational phenomenon, to teaching managers how
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to use theory as a resource and to work with managers to develop their wisdom of how to draw on particular theoretical resources within the moment to further inquiry. Third, the moralaesthetic domain of practice needs to become more closely tied to the generation and use of evidence. Evidence does not stand on its own two legs; it used by people in conversation to further particular aims and purposes and it can be used in elegant, graceful and inspiring ways. It is interesting that the words values, moral, or ethics do not appear in the index of the seminal book on evidence-based management, Pfeffer and Suttons, Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense, but performance, motivation, and incentives do. The tendency within evidence-based practice is to conflate ethical and moral considerations with technical ones. If we start with the premise that management is a design problem (Kelly et al., 2006, Kelly, 2008), whereby managers design their communicative activity to manage emergent problems, then it is important to recognize that practical-moral problems occupy a central place in our everyday lived experience. We are influenced by Whitehead and McNiffs (2006) claim that values serve as living standards for evaluating ones practice and believe that future work needs to explore the connections among practice, evidence, and values. References Boje, D.M. (2001) Narrative Methods for Organizational and Communication Research. London: Sage. Boje, D. M. (2008) Storytelling Organizations. London: Sage. Cronen, V. E. (2001) Practical Theory, Practical Art, and the Pragmatic-systemic Account of Inquiry, Communication Theory, 11, 14-35. Kelly, S. (2008) Leadership: A Categorical Mistake? Human Relations, 61, 763782. Kelly, S., M. I. White, D. Martin and M. Rouncefield. (2006) Leadership Refrains: Patterns of Leadership, Leadership, 2, 181-201. Pfeffer, J. and R. Sutton. (2006) Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense. Boston: Harvard Business Press. Rousseau, D.M. and S. McCarthy. Evidence-based Management: Educating managers from an evidence-based perspective. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 2007, 6, 94-101 Shotter, J. (1993) Conversational Realities: Constructing Life through Language. London: Sage. Staller, K.M. (2006) Railroads, Runaways, and Researchers: Returning Evidence Rhetoric to its Practice Base. Qualitative Inquiry, 12, 503-522. McNiff, Jean and Jack Whitehead. (2006) Action Research, Living Theory. London: Sage.
AI Practitioner
May 2011
Jackie Stavros
DM, is Associate Professor and DBA Program Chair, College of Management at Lawrence Technological University, has co-authored books, book chapters and articles including Thin Book of SOAR: BuildingStrengths-Based Change. She consults and provides training using strength-based whole system approaches. Contact: jstavros@comcast.net
Dawn Dole
is Executive Director of the Taos Institute and the Knowledge Manager of the Appreciative Inquiry Commons (http://ai.case.edu). She also consults with schools, businesses, churches and non-profits to bring about positive and collaborative change. Contact: info@taosinstitute.net www.taosinstitute.net
AI Resources
AI Resources features a rediscovery of classic and new resources for your use. Resources will include list-serves, books, journal articles, book chapters, DVDs, websites, blogs, podcasts, etc. all in one place useful for learning more about AI to help with your consulting practice, internal work, teaching, training and extending your knowledge base and resources.
edited by Jackie Stavros and Dawn Dole

Editors Note The May 2011 issue takes us back to the time when Appreciative Inquiry (AI) first emerged as a scholarly contribution to the social sciences. Many stories have emerged about the development of AI by David Cooperrider, who was then a PhD student, working in a healthcare system applying his idea about appreciative ways of knowing as a qualitative research technique. In 1986, this research led to his doctoral dissertation Appreciative Inquiry: Toward a Methodology for Understanding and Enhancing Organizational Innovation at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. (http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/research/ bibCompletedDissertationsDetail.cfm?coid=229) Cooperriders dissertation laid out the theory and principles of AI and provided a social constructionist meta-theory arguing the need to go beyond the deficit or problem focus to possibility focus and building on what might be. In 1987, the first scholarly article was published by David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva (his dissertation chair) Appreciative Inquiry in Organizational Life in R. Woodman and W. Pasmore (eds.), Research in Organizational Change and Development (vol. 1.) by JAI Press. (http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/ intro/classicsDetail.cfm?coid=741) Building on the findings from Cooperriders dissertation, they presented in their article that organizations are centers of human capacity and life-centric places to create positive change. In 1990, the first collection of appreciative work, 14 articles by 16 scholars, was published by Jossey-Bass titled Appreciative Management and Leadership (this book was featured in February 2011 AI Practitioner). The seminal article, Positive Image, Positive Action: The Affirmative Basis of Organizing, by David Cooperrider, was in this book. In 1995, there were approximately 25 AI-related scholarly articles. Today, there are over 700 scholarly articles and 125 dissertations on AI. Many
AIP May 11 AI Resources
AI Practitioner
May 2011
of these dissertations are made available at several places. A first place to look is AI Commons (http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/research/ bibCompletedDissertations.cfm). A second place to check is UMI Dissertation Publishing (www.proquest.com). The Taos Institute also provides several AIrelated dissertations with a social construction focus (www.taosinstitute.net/ noteworthy-dissertations). The rest of this column focuses on the AI scholarly books written from 1999 2011. Organizational Dimensions of Global Change: No Limits to Cooperation (Human Dimensions of Global Change series) Cooperrider, David and Jane Dutton. (1999) Sage Publications. ISBN: 978-0761915287. This book facilitates, cross disciplines and national boundaries, an emergent dialogue around the issue of global change and cooperative potential. Written by an interdisciplinary group of leading scholars, the book explores how organizational scholarship and thinking can inform understanding issues of global value and change and examines the potential of cooperation as a practice, an organizing accomplishment, and as a value for understanding issues of global change. Appreciative Inquiry: Rethinking Human Organization Toward a Positive Theory of Change Cooperrider, David, Peter Sorensen, Diana Whitney, and Therese Yaeger. (1999) Stipes Publishing. ISBN: 978-0875639314. This edited book is intended as a scholarly book for students, as a way of introducing them to research done in AI. This 18 chapter book is filled with AI illustrations from manufacturing, finance, academia, and not-for-profit organizations. The contributors emphasize the strengths and weaknesses of the AI in Organization Development (OD) work. This provides readers with AI insight on theory, application, and results from fieldwork. Appreciative Inquiry: An Emerging Direction for Organization Development Cooperrider, David, Peter Sorensen, Diana Whitney, and Therese Yaeger. (2001) Stipes Publishing. ISBN: 978-1588741219. This second edited book is intended as a scholarly book that builds on the previous editions as to how AI has been applied to create better, more fulfilling and more productive work places. This edition includes 30 chapters from over 28 contributors. As the first book in the series, this book continues to build the research foundation for AI. Construction Discourse and Human Organization: Advances in Appreciative Inquiry Cooperrider, David and Michel Avital. JAI Press. ISBN: 978-0762308927. In Volume 1 (2004) of Advances in Appreciative Inquiry, over 32 global scholars from diverse fields of management, sociology, psychology, education, and philosophy share their research in the 16 chapter book. This edited volume explores the social construction and AI via the lens of discourse. There are three major parts to this book: extensions of relatedness, activation and elevation of inquiry, and new metaphors of positive change, Volume 2 (not pictured), published in 2008, was called Designing Information and Organizations with a Positive Lens. JAI Press. ISBN: 978-0762312870.
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May 2011
This edited volume aims to facilitate the emergent dialogues within the social sciences and to support innovative and challenging work in the discipline of positive organizational scholarship with 26 scholars and 16 chapters. Volume 3 (not pictured) added a new editor, Tojo Thatchenkery, and published in 2010, was called Positive Design and Appreciative Construction: From Sustainable Development to Sustainable Value . JAI Press. ISBN: 9780857243690. This volume is focused on sustainable value which has become a widespread aspiration in all walks of life. By building on positive design principles inherent in the AI, the contributors propose moving from sustainable development to sustainable value. Chapters focus on three areas: positive design for sustainable value, Appreciative Intelligence and Social Innovation for Sustainable Value, and social entrepreneurship for sustainable value with 28 scholars and 17 chapters. Appreciative Inquiry: Foundations in Positive Organization Development Cooperrider, David, Peter Sorensen, Diana Whitney, and Therese Yaeger. (2005) Stipes Publishing. ISBN: 978-1588744722. This edited book is an extension and further development of ideas and applications presented in the initial books listed above from these editors and contributors. This book retains the articles included in the previous editions, but more than doubles the number of articles included in the first edition. Much of the increased material is a reflection of the growth of Appreciative Inquiry (AI), especially the expansion of international applications. This edition also includes information on additional awards given to individuals and organizations on the use of AI. These awards include those given by institutions such as the Academy of Management, Outstanding Project of the Year Worldwide from the OD Institute, and the Best of the OD Journal in 20th Century. This book retains much of the original three-part structure. Leading Change in Healthcare: Transforming Organizations Using Complexity, Positive Psychology, and Relationship-Centered Care Anthony Suchman, David Sluyter and P. Williamson. (2011) Radcliffe Publishing. ISBN: 978-1846194481. This newly edited book presents the research and practice of positively transforming healthcare organizations with strategies that are evidenced based, humane, and healthcare specific. Case studies are presented from primary care, hospitals, long-term care, professional education, international NGOs and other healthcare related organizations. Through their work, the contributors show how their methods have been applied to produce improvements in service quality, patient satisfaction and engagement, healthcare utilization, staff satisfaction and retention, and financial performance. There are 14 chapters by 27 contributors. Social Construction and Appreciative Inquiry: A Journey in Organizational Theory David Cooperrider, Frank Barrett and Suresh Srivastva. (1995) Avebury: Ashgate Publishing. In Management and Organization: Relational Alternatives to Individualism. ISBN-13: 978-1859721674. This is a chapter in this book which examines the organizing processes underlying socially constructed realities. It develops relational approaches to organizing, management and change, and provides practical ways of tackling the problems experienced and created by organizations.
AI Practitioner
May 2011
In the next issue The August 2011 issue will address the social construct of the development of aid and how AI is being used around the world to change and impact international development. We plan to present the resources available on AI and international development. Please send us names and information on any books or other resources dealing with AI and international development by June 1st, 2011 to jstavros@comcast.net and info@taosinstitute.net.
Call for Papers
Advances in the Appreciative Inquiry Summit: Explorations into the Magic of Macromanagement and Crowdsourcing
Editors: David Cooperrider, Lindsey Godwin, Brodie Boland and Michel Avital Background Over two decades ago David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastvas Appreciative Inquiry into Organizational Life3 forever changed the way we look at organization development and change it shifted our attention from the world of organizational life as a problem-to-be-solved to the world brimming with innovation and a universe-of-strengths. A decade later, Gallups landmark research study confirmed this basic principle: a person or organization will flourish only by amplifying strengths, never by fixing weaknesses. Since then, millions of managers and leaders around the world have shifted their attention to strengths. Many are now asking, Whats next? The Appreciative Inquiry Summit The AI Summit method1 is answering the call. Its application and theory of whole system, strengths-based inquiry is transforming every domain of management: organization strategy formulation; mergers (of strengths) between large companies and multi-sector partnerships; OD and organization culture development work; product design and branding; information systems design; and igniting networks. It is transforming world summits at the UN and other global change bodies; launching the design of green innovation possibilities; making operational improvements and taking costs out of a business; transforming customer relationships; and turning global issues into business and society opportunities for doing good and doing well.2 This call for papers aims to push frontiers and solicit new tools and insights to expand state-of-the-art applications for AI Summits. Submissions may relate to any aspect of the AI Summit , for example, questions may explore:
How has the AI Summit enabled macro-management and

crowdsourcing?
How has the AI Summit catapulted beyond an innovative OD tool to

become a new form of management? Summit?
What accounts for the remarkable transformational power of the AI What does the AI Summit teach us about the role of the positive in
human system flourishing?
1 Ludema, J., D. Whitney, B. Mohr and T. Griffin (2003) The Appreciative Inquiry Summit: A Practitioners Guide for Leading Large-Group Change. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. 2 Cooperrider, D. and M. Avital, (series editors), 2001-present. Advances in Appreciative Inquiry. Emerald Publishing. 3 Cooperrider, D. and S. Srivastva. (1987) Appreciative Inquiry in Organizational Life, in W. Pasmore and R. Woodman (eds.) Research in Organization Change and Development (Vol. 1). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
AIP May 11 Call for Articles
AI Practitioner
May 2011
Venues: Two simultaneous volumes This call for papers is two-fold: a call for academic-oriented and practitioner-oriented papers. For each emphasis, we have a different publishing outlet, as follows: Academic-oriented papers that emphasize new concepts and models (about 4500-7000 words) will be published in the fifth volume of Advances in Appreciative Inquiry, Emerald Publishing. For further information, go to: http://bit.ly/advances-in-ai Practice-oriented papers that emphasize hands-on advice (about 800-3500 words) will be published by in the May 2012 issue of the AI Practitioner. For further information and updates, go to: http://www.aipractitioner.com/ media/may2012_call-for-papers_ aisummits_full.pdf Important dates -Proposal submission: August 1, 2011 -Full paper submission for AI Practitioner: November 15, 2011 -Full paper submission for Advances in AI: January 15, 2012 -Final paper revisions for AI Practitioner: February 15, 2012 -Final paper revisions submission for Advances in AI: April 30, 2012
What does the AI Summit teach us about the stages of large group
development?
Where and how is the AI Summit leading our field away from deficitbased intervention to a focus on innovation and design thinking? media?
How can the AI Summit be extended using social networks and online How can the AI Summit be used as a research methodology? What is the potential role of the AI Summit in corporate success and
trans-organizational action? post-summit planning?
What are the new tools and designs for the pre-summit, summit and What do people experience in an AI Summit?
Submission While full papers will be accepted on a rolling basis, we highly recommend that prospective authors submit a brief paper proposal proposal to allow the editorial team to provide feedback and guidance in the early stages of writing. The proposal should include: (1) An abstract (up to 400 words) that describes the core premise of the paper and emphasizes its contribution to our understanding of the AI Summit, either conceptually or practically; (2) Specification of intended publication venue. If applicable, submission of two substantially different versions to both venues is encouraged; and (3) A brief list/description of any additional resources that you would foresee sharing online as supportive materials to compliment your paper (i.e. videos, web links, workbooks, educational materials, etc. We are especially looking for photographs of AI Summits in action and other visual media to support your contribution.) Please submit your proposal using the on-line form at: http://bit.ly/ai-summit-submission Early submissions ahead of the deadline are encouraged. All writing or research genres are equally welcome. Acceptance will be based on an evaluation of the potential for the proposed paper to advance the theory and practice of the AI Summit methodology. Prospective authors are encouraged to contact the editors concerning the appropriateness of their submission. Submission of a manuscript implies that the author certifies that the material is not copyrighted and is not currently under review for any refereed journal or conference proceedings. If the paper (or any version or part thereof) has appeared, or will appear, in another publication of any kind, the details of such publication must be disclosed to the editors at the time of submission. Contact information If you have any questions about the call or the proposal submission process, please contact our project manager, Emily Drew at emdrew@gmail.com. If you want to have a quick chat about how to best conceptually or practically situate your paper, please call David Cooperrider at (011) 440-364-5077.
AIP May 11 Call for Articles
AI Practitioner
May 2011
Mette Jacobsgaard
is a lawyer and social scientist who has worked with development aid for 28 years especially in Africa and Asia. She has used AI in her practice as a consultant and trainer since 1994. Contact: 101572.622@compuserve.com
Irene Norlund
has worked in social change in developing countries for three decades, specializing in NGOs and community development; livelihoods, nutrition and health and organizations and participatory methods. She has trained NGOs in Mongolia in AI analysis. She is presently working in Research & Development at Metropolitan University College, Copenhagen. Contact: inorlund@mail.dk
About the August 2011 Issue

The Impact of AI on International Development
The conflicting paradigms of international development are addressed in this issue of AI Practitioner: on the one hand, the underlying paradigm that the Third World is a problem to be solved; on the other, the paradigm of public participation which believes that the peoples of the Third World need to take ownership of their development and more actively participate in the projects and programmes that are supposed to aid them.
Mette: I first came to AI in 1994 when returning to Cambridge University for research. Tired of years of trying to solve the problems of the Third World, I was looking to find ways to change my approach. I met fellow student Jane Magruder Watkins who introduced me to AI. The concept was not only a revelation, but also finding something that I had long been looking for. At the time the Global Excellence in Management (GEM) programme was being tested by USAID in the developing world, with great success. Jane, together with colleagues in the US, was instrumental in taking the philosophy of AI into practice, especially in the Third World. Together with Dr. Charles Elliott from Cambridge University, Jane and I tested AI in some pretty extreme environments and situations and it worked wonders. Our experience since then has time and again proved how AI can accommodate empowerment and participation in beneficiary communities. Irene and Mette were curious about other practitioners experience with applying AI in their projects and programmes in the Developing World. They asked a number of practitioners to tell their stories, especially with the following focus:
How the use of AI has influenced target group participation and

ownership in the project or programme or specific intervention
What the effects and impact were; What surprises they and the groups had; and finally What lessons were learned and their reflections on how AI could be
carried forward in international development practice.
AIP May 11 About the August 2011 Issue
AI Practitioner
May 2011
IAPG Contacts and AI Practitioner Subscription Information

International Advisory Practitioners Group IAPG
Members of the International Advisory Practitioners Group working with AIP to bring AI stories to a wider audience Druba Acharya, Nepal Gervase Bushe, Canada Sue Derby, Canada Sara Ins Gmez, Colombia Lena Holmberg, Sweden Joep de Jong, Netherlands Dorothe Liebig, Germany John Loty, Australia Sue James, Australia Maureen McKenna, Canada Liz Mellish, Australia Dayle Obrien, Australia Jan Reed, United Kingdom Catriona Rogers, Hong Kong Daniel K. Saint, United States Marge Schiller, United States Jackie Stavros, United States Bridget Woods, South Africa Jacqueline Wong, Singapore Margaret Wright, United Kingdom
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Publication Advertising/Sponsorship
For the advertising rates, contact Anne Radford. Disclaimer: Views and opinions of the writers do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher. Every effort is made to ensure accuracy but all details are subject to alteration. No responsibility can be accepted for any inaccuracies.
Purpose of AI Practitioner
This publication is for people interested in making the world a better place using positive relational approaches to change such as Appreciative Inquiry. The publication is distributed quarterly: February, May, August and November.
AI Practitioner Editor/Publisher
The editor/publisher is Anne Radford. She is based in London and can be reached at editor@aipractitioner.com The postal address for the publication is: 303 Bankside Lofts, 65 Hopton Street, London SE1 9JL, England. Telephone: +44 (0)20 7633 9630 Fax: +44 (0)845 051 8639 ISSN 1741 8224 AI Practitioner 2003-2011 Anne Radford
ISSN 1741-8224

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International Journal of Appreciative Inquiry May 2011 Volume 13 Number 2

AI++: Innovations in AI through the Lens of Australia and New Zealand

International Journal of Appreciative Inquiry

Whole System Innovation

Innovation in Practice: Leadership

Re-Storying for Individual Potential by Dayle OBrien

Resilient Leadership: Grounded in a Strengths-based and Appreciative Life by Wendy Campbell

Innovation in Practice: Facilitation

Being AI to Do AI by Max Hardy

AIP May 11 AI++: Australia and New Zealand

Back Issues at www.aipractitioner.com

International Journal of Appreciative Inquiry

Building the Optimal Cricket Operation by Sandy Gordon

Innovation in Practice: Community Building

AI Research Notes by Jan Reed and Lena Holmberg

AI Resources by Jackie Stavros and Dawn Dole

Call for Papers

About the August 2011 Issue

IAPG Contacts and AI Practitioner Subscription Information

AIP May 11 AI++: Australia and New Zealand

Back Issues at www.aipractitioner.com

Volume 13 Number 2 ISBN 978-1-907549-05-2

AI++: Innovations in AI through the Lens of Australia and New Zealand

AIP May 11 AI++: Australia and New Zealand

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Results from an Oz workshop

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Bondi Beach, Sydney

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Whole System Innovation

Pathways to Positive Education at Geelong Grammar School

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Parents want schools to teach more than academic achievement.

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The school leadership groups collective experience of flourishing at work

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What Would You Like to Change and Grow?