APPRECIATIVE LEADING: Seeing a way to a healthy world
Author: Sherene Zolno
Bay Area OD Network’s VisionAction Journal
Date: 06/01/1998
Edition: Summer
Annotation: APPRECIATIVE LEADING: Seeing a way to a healthy world
Global disarray marked our arrival into the 21st century. But while anxiety, terrorism, fundamentalist thinking, and even war seem to most characterize the themes of our organizational/community conversations in this early part of the new century, instances of positive conversation between individuals and within groups happen every day.
What is it that compels people to come together into this positive conversation and purposeful bond?
When viewed through the lens of Appreciative Inquiry, the in-depth research conducted by The Leading Clinic (working with David Cooperrider, Frank Barrett, Marge Schiller and with AI and OD consultants and other professionals from across the US), points to the impact the leader’s stance can have in setting the stage for system health to occur. In the resulting Model for a Healthy World, the requirements for leading appreciatively are identified, and the ripple effects of a leader’s positive self-inquiry are demonstrated.
This ‘core’ of positive identity, the individual and organizational competencies that make possible a felt sense of self-worth, hope and capability, forms the foundation for personal well-being and for generating the ability to accomplish extraordinary things at all levels of system.
For organizations embracing a ‘triple bottom-line” strategy, new kinds of leaders are required those with an integrated identity of self-worth, hope and capability, and the desire to foster this in others. This session clarifies the required core identity of new century leaders, and provides information on how to develop potential leaders that can then lead organizations that impact communities and the world in positive ways.
In this presentation with interactive discussion/application, participants from the original research team discuss and illustrate how individual leaders contribute to a world of economic, political and social health. In addition, early reports from the field citing the positive impact of shaping leaders’ identity to embrace leading appreciatively are presented. Business, government, non-profit, NGO and other organizational applications will be referenced, and participants will leave with an understanding of this comprehensive approach to leadership development, as well as with ideas for how to initiate this work within human systems.
Sherene Zolno, RODC, executive director of The Leading Clinic, is a researcher, educator and consultant whose expertise includes working with leadership teams to ready them for the future, and assisting organizations in identifying strategic intentions, improving operations and transforming culture. Her research-based New Century Leadership™ program and Timeline for Tomorrow process are the foundation for whole system change in several major organizations.
Ms. Zolno served on ASTD’s OD Professional Practice Area board; her writing has been published in ASTD’s Research Monograph and OD Network’s OD Practioner and VisionAction Journal, in Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer’s 2000 and 2002 Annuals, as well as in numerous other professional publications.
Resource Files:
APPRECIATIVE LEADING: Seeing a way to a healthy world (pdf )
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