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Opening | Discovery
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Session on Discovery: Monday, September 20, 2004
Featuring Diana Whitney and Jim Ludema
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a video clip from the Session on Discovery (Real)
What exactly is an extraordinary organization? What sets these ventures above the crowd and enables them to excel? What keeps them constantly evolving? How do the people who work in them feel? What impact do they have on the world around them?
In this session, Jane Magruder Watkins talks about the Appreciative Inquiry "4-D Model" and then introduces Diana Whitney and Jim Ludema to focus on Discovery.
Diana and Jim invite conference participants to engage in the start of the 4-D cycle, a journey of Discovery into the "positive core" of organizational excellence. They compares the "positive core" of an organization to a seed, or a memetic code, calling it an organization's latent potential. Diana and Jim define the "positive core" as the story of an organization's strengths, resources and assets--tangible and intangible--that are central and essential to the social and strategic vitality of the organization.
Tangible assets include: financial assets, product pipe line, technical assets, best practices, strategic alliances, brand identity, market leadership, core competencies, and strategic opportunities. Intangible assets include: elevated thoughts, positive emotions, organization wisdom, authentic happiness, social capital, relational resources, hopes, dreams, visions of possibilities, vital traditions, and values and beliefs.
Jim and Diana proposed that Discovery:
Engages - it gives people a voice in the co-creation of their shared future;
Educates - it creates learning and builds new knowledge about strengths, capacities, and positive potentials;
Energizes - it creates upward spirals of positive emotions, connections and performance.
Diana and Jim share stories of how four organizations used innovative ways of facilitating Discovery of their "positive core".
- British Airways used a Core Group Inquiry for a new facility study. Core Group Inquiry is when a small group of interviewers interview a selected group of people;
- American Baptist Churches used a Whole System 4-D Dialogue to conduct a denomination-wide inquiry. Whole System 4-D Dialogue is when everyone in the organization and stakeholders engage in interviews with one another over time;
- Ameriquest Data Services used a series of AI Summits. An AI Summit is a 3-5 day process during which a large group of stakeholders interview each other;
- World Vision/Business as an Agent of World Benefit, used Mass Mobilized Internet Inquiry. A Mass Mobilized Internet Inquiry is when hundreds or thousands of interviews are done on line;
Jim previews Barbara Fredrickson's research on the power of emotions which demonstrates that negative emotions tend to narrow our thought-action repertoire, while positive emotions tend to broaden our thought-action repertoire. They also undo lingering negative emotions and build resilient coping.
Diana shows visual metaphors that four organizations used to map their positive core: Santa Ana Star, British Airways, Ameriquest Data Services, and First Caribbean International Bank.
Conference participants were then invited to form groups of 8, with the partners they had interviewed the previous evening, and share best stories and innovations about extraordinary organizations: a search for innovation and insight. Small groups then created a visual metaphor--picture, drawing, a work of art--that illustrated the positive core. Give groups presented their metaphors to the large group. Everyone then posted their visual metaphors on the wall, so everyone could see the positive core of extraordinary organizations.
Diana Whitney is president of the Corporation for Positive Change and a founder of Appreciative Inquiry Consulting and the Taos Institute. She is a speaker, AI educator, and international consultant. Diana is the author or editor of nine books on Appreciative Inquiry including The Power of Appreciative Inquiry, The Appreciative Inquiry Summit, and Appreciative Inquiry Handbook.
Jim Ludema is professor of organization development at Benedictine University, a principle in the Corporation for Positive Change, and a founding global council member of AI Consulting. He is a leading AI educator, researcher, and international consultant. Jim designs and facilitates AI Summits for large-scale transformation. He is the author of The Appreciative Inquiry Summit as well as numerous chapters and articles on AI.
To view or order the DVD of this session click here.
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