Internet Resources/Links

Information you can use

The Appreciative Inquiry Commons — a worldwide portal and vast database devoted to the fullest sharing of academic resources and practical tools on Appreciative Inquiry and the rapidly growing discipline of positive change. Numerous articles and resources are available from the site. Sponsored by Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management. http://appreciativeinquiry.cwru.edu

The Jim Lord site includes more than philanthropy articles using ai, although it does still have that. Students of CEC may find some of the appreciative quotes that he has collected useful for presentations and other collateral materials.

www.aiconsulting.org This site trains consultants in AI. Students of CEC may find some of the interesting success stories with organizations, including strategic planning, visioning, teaming and culture change as useful resource materials in working with potential clients.

www.gervasebushe.ca/appinq.htm Some good articles from Gervase R. Bushe, lecturer at Simon Fraser University about using AI in consulting and training.

http://aipractitioner.com Free downloadable archive of newsletters that have a lot of excellent AI information from the field. You can also subscribe to the journal.

http://www.lifescapes.net “Preserving the future by saving the past.” This website walks through the process of creating a personal history of a life, organization or business.

http://www.ntl.org/  National Training Lab site.  Much of the appreciative inquiry training has been done by NTL associates.

The Appreciative Inquiry Discussion List is hosted by the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah. Jack Brittain is the list administrator. For subscription information, go to: http://lists.business.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/ailist

http://www.thinbook.com/ Sue Hammonds’ site which contains numerous updates on training opportunities and published resources, which can be purchased directly from the site. She has an easy to access book on AI called “The Thin Book on Appreciative Inquiry”, which sticks to the basics and is very inexpensive and THIN.

http://www.davidrock.net/  David Rock’s site on neuroscience, leadership and coaching. (He spoke at the ICF conference in 2008 to a more than packed house). He has 3 books out and has launched a graduate certificate program in The Neuroscience of Leadership.

http://www.ippanetwork.org/join/ International Positive Psychology Association. They host the World Congress on Positive Psychology. One of the benefits of membership is quarterly calls with top leaders in the field such as Barbara Frederickson, Martin Seligman, Ed Diener, etc.

http://www.appreciativeliving.com/ Jackie Kelm’s site which allows you to subscribe to her Appreciative Living Ezine. The Ezine has lots of interesting stories in it. Her site is filled with daily life type resources and she has published a book “The Joy of Appreciative Living”.

http://www.taosinstitute.net/about The Taos Institute site, which includes publications, workshops, newsletters, post graduate programs. The Taos Institute is founded on and promotes the principle of social constructionism, upon which appreciative inquiry is based.

http://www.solution-consulting.com/ Lynn Johnson’s site, devoted to solution focussed psychotherapy and organizational consulting from an appreciative perspective.

http://www.positivechangecore.org/ The Positive Change Core, led by Marge Schiller, is dedicated to the transformation of our school system through the utilization of appreciative inquiry with students, parents and teachers.

http://www.aradford.co.uk/ An English site that has extensive resources including a monthly AI newsletter. See next link!

http://aipractitioner.com/ Monthly AI newsletter with some topics of interest for coaches. The May 08 issue was dedicated to AI Coaching.

http://www.appreciativeinquiry.com/ Pancultural Associates site. They have some good resources for introducing appreciative inquiry to others.

http://www.mellish.com.au/ An Australian site that has numerous pages of helpful information.

http://www.billohanlon.com/ Bill O’Hanlon’s Solution Focussed therapy site. Many useable handouts.

http://clarityworks.biz/Resources/Links.html Bob New and Kathleen Rich-New’s site, where you can obtain their book “Looking for the Good Stuff.”

http://www.reteaming.com  While not exactly appreciative inquiry it has several articles and information that is in keeping with the appreciative spirit.

http://www.cditrainers.org/ Congregational Development Institute (CDI) This is church based organization primarily from the Episcopal tradition that makes considerable use of AI and also has other Church related OD resources.

 
If you would like to further explore how to magnify the value of your strengths by becoming a Strengths Based Leader, please call 805-965-8595 or click here for a no cost one-on-one conversation with me. I would love to hear from you and support you in your practice as a Strengths Based Leader.

What does Albert Einstein have in common with a Strengths Based approach to leadership?

Einstein said: “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

I find this quote both inspiring and challenging.

It is inspiring if we simply stop for a moment and notice that without our conscious control we breathe, and our hearts beat. We might notice that our bodies are made up of a multitude of finely tuned systems that keep us functioning. And we aren’t even trying.

It’s helpful to start with our own self-awareness of miracles and then move our attention to the environment around us to look for others.

The quote contains guidance for today’s leaders in work environments; especially those of you who would like to bring out the strengths and “miracle potential” in your organization or team to create extraordinary results! It’s challenging because the miracle viewpoint is different than how we are used to viewing the world around us. It requires a conscious shift in our thinking.

Einstein points out that we can choose our viewpoint or mindset. He chose the positive mindset that everything is a miracle. Perhaps his mindset encouraged him to look for the miracle qualities he believed existed in everything.

Perhaps this positive viewpoint he chose is connected to his discoveries and theories: since he discovered what we could easily consider miracles of nature, such as his theory of relativity.

We are each free to choose our mindset or approach. As a leader, taking a strengths based approach means you are looking for what’s working well (the miracle you already have) and where your own strengths, the strengths of your team or organization are evident or could be applied more (the miracle potential for future stunning results).

Recently a number of my clients have experienced “miracles” of all sorts including financial, strategic and support for them or their businesses. Because they decided that miracles are the result of a mindset and they chose the mindset.

If you knew you couldn’t fail, would you be willing to try on Einstein’s viewpoint for a day? I’d love to hear your stories of what happens when you try out this mindset.

If you would like to further explore how to magnify the value of your strengths by becoming a Strengths Based Leader, please call 805-965-8595 or click here for a no cost one-on-one conversation with me. I would love to hear from you and support you in your practice as a Strengths Based Leader.

“Intrapreneurship” helps companies WIN BIG!

What is intrapreneurship?

Intrapreneurship is being an entrepreneur INSIDE a company. It’s when an employee starts with an idea and turns it into a product or service within the company. Of course, the company culture must support this in order for it to happen.

Often companies with a large employee population made up of millennials, (employees in their 20s) like DreamWorks, Facebook, LinkedIN and others, have intrapreneurship programs in place to support employees to develop ideas and pitch them to senior executives.

Intrapreneurship opportunities at work can keep the millennial generation engaged and help companies WIN BIG when a new product or service is launched.

For example, the “like” button we use on Facebook was apparently developed as a result of “intrapreneurship” opportunities at Facebook according to a Forbes article linked below.

According to the article, 40% of millenials are very interested in opportunities to be intrapreneurs and millenials will comprise 36% of the workforce in 2014 and 46% by 2020.

So, when you think “how can I keep my employees engaged?” this is one answer to that question. Provide an intrapreneurship program where employees have creative support to develop ideas and pitch them to senior executives.

Some of the companies and nonprofits I work with have formal or informal intrapreneurship programs and opportunities that have led to significant innovations in the form of programs and services offered. Several of these are nonprofit organizations.

It is exciting to me that when I have used the Appreciative Inquiry  approach for coaching a leader, a leadership team or for facilitating an organizational development process, that has led to specific intrapreneurial initiatives from within the organization. Individual team members have suggested ideas, developed them with leaders and colleagues and been given the go ahead by top leaders to implement the ideas.

This likely occurred because Appreciative Inquiry creates an open environment across traditional “silos” for sharing and developing ideas. This powerful approach motivates individuals and teams to achieve extraordinary results.

This blog is a conversation. You are part of it. I invite you to join me as we explore how to generate increased productivity and fulfillment for your entire circle of influence. Your input will be invaluable as we deepen our understanding and generate new practices.

We are collecting intrapreneurship stories and best practices. Please post yours below.

If you’d like to create or expand an intrapreneurship program in your company, call 805-965-8595 or email me for a free consultation.

Read the Forbes article here.

How to Propel Your Team Forward

Welcome to our series on The Strengths Based Leader. As a business, corporate, nonprofit, public service or educational leader, this information is for you.

In today’s blog we will explore how to leverage mindset to propel your organization or team towards the results you want.

What is the Pareto Principle and what does it have to do with Mindset?

The Pareto Principle, commonly referred to as the “80/20 rule” is inspired by the notion that in a given situation, 80% of results are from 20% of causes.

We’ve heard it said: “80% of the work gets done by 20% of the people” or “spend 80% of your time on the top 20% of your priorities” or “80% of business comes from 20% of prospects or clients”.

For the Strengths Based Leader I propose a simple and also challenging 80/20 practice: consider what might be possible if you made the decision to spend 80% of your time and attention noticing, tracking and building upon what’s already working well at your company or in your life as a whole.

What if you spent just 20% of your time and attention on the areas that aren’t working well? To take this a step further, what if you used the strengths you noticed in your 80% time to apply to the 20% that needed improvement?

This seems counterintuitive because we tend to spend 80% of our time (at least!) on what’s not working well and 20% of our time (or less) building upon what is working.  It requires an act of will to turn this thinking around.

What’s the payoff in doing this? When we pay attention to what’s working well, more things work well. It’s that simple.

Why do we tend to spend so much time on what’s NOT working? It’s a question of survival! Eons ago we needed a mental orientation that would help us focus on what wasn’t working so we could outsmart wild animals–for whom we were identified as the dinner entrée.

Our brains still contain that ancient program, but we can start to intercept our own programming by deciding to become more aware of our own thinking patterns in order to know when to shift our thinking off of automatic pilot. We can choose to focus on what’s working and what’s going well.

Reflective leadership questions:

What might happen if you invested 80% of your time in what you and your team are doing well? How many additional positive impacts might be realized?

How much shorter is the distance from very good to excellent than from substandard to very good? And what precious resources might be saved with this kind of efficiency?

If you would like to further explore how to magnify the value of your strengths by becoming a Strengths Based Leader, please call 805-965-8595 or click here for a no cost one-on-one conversation with me. I would love to hear from you and support you in your practice as a Strengths Based Leader.