Opening | Discovery
| Dream | Design
| Destiny
The 2nd International Conference on Appreciative Inquiry was a superb gathering bringing together the foremost practitioners and scholars of Appreciative Inquiry and the bold innovators who harness the power of positive change in their organizations.
Participants:
- Gained an in-depth understanding of what Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is and how it works
- Learned how to apply AI to boost bottom-line results, systems change, team building, strategic planning and visioning, personal development, diversity and gender initiatives, community development and other areas
- Built personal expertise through real-time practice of AI
- Got the inside perspective on how organizations across industry sectors have used AI to unleash a positive revolution of change
- Discovered exciting new developments at the forefront of AI theory and practice
- Developed a powerful set of practical tools to put to work right away
- Connected to the broad network of executives, scholars, and practitioners who are advancing AI and other positive approaches to organization change
- Took home a complete package of resources that can help them share and implement AI when they return to their organizations.
Description of Plenaries:
Opening Session: Sunday, September 19, 2004
Creating Extraordinary Organizations by Inquiring Into the Extraordinary, Featuring David Cooperrider
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video clip from the Opening Session (Real)
David Cooperrider brings together the most recent research and thinking to explain how inquiry into what makes organizations extraordinary can help us create and build on those characteristics in our own settings.
Jane Magruder Watkins introduces David Cooperrider, calling David both "brilliant and humble." David gets a standing ovation before he begins.
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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.
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Session on Dream: Tuesday, September 21, 2004
Featuring Charlotte Dalsgaard, Judy Rodgers, and Tony Silbert
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a video clip from the Session on Dream (Real)
When we take all that we have discovered about extraordinary organizations and jointly construct clear images of our organizations expanded to their full potential, what do they look like? What value are they producing for their stakeholders and communities? What impact are they having on the world?
This session moves us from Discovery to Dream. Charlotte Dalsgaard, Judy Rodgers and Tony Silbert engage participants in looking at the critical role of the dream phase in linking the Discovery of an organization's positive core with its Designs for future action.
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Session on Design: Wednesday, September 22, 2004
Featuring Bernard J. Mohr and Adrian McLean
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a video clip from the Session on Design (Real)
During the Design phase, we outline the actions and shifts in the social fabric of our workplaces that will make the realization of our dreams a certainty! This is the time for creating new forms, containers, practices, and strategies that bring for the vitality of our common dream.
During this session, participants engage in sector-/industry-based design activities to maximize the take-home relevance of the conference.
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Session on Destiny: Wednesday, September 22, 2004
Living on the Appreciative Edge, Featuring Frank Barrett
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a video clip from the Session on Destiny (Real)
What does a system look like when Appreciative Inquiry is part of its daily fabric? How do we get beyond a notion of change as a one-time intervention and see it instead as an ongoing process?
Frank Barrett helps us see Destiny as ongoing organizational improvisation. In traditional models of organizations, leaders plan, implement, and evaluate strategic change. Appreciative Inquiry proposes a different model--one in which organizations practice continual discovery, dream of possible alternative actions, redesign approaches on the spot and create innovative products.
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