Positive Psychology Coaching/Consulting

Adams, Marilee, Ph.D, (2004) Change your Questions, Change Your Life, Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco

This paperback is a must have for creating great coaching questions and helping clients change the questions they ask themselves. It is a combination of an allegory and a workbook which contains many question related exercises. The author instructs the reader on the concepts of learner and judger questions, how to switch between them and provides what she calls “the top 12 questions for change”.

Dean, Ben and Biswas-Diener, Robert (2007) Positive Psychology Coaching John Wiley and Sons, New Jersey

The authors combine the theory and practice of positive psychology coaching in this book, which is peppered with both key points to share with clients about positive psychology and specific interventions and tools that can be used in a session or as prework (assessments) and homework. The book is written with the expressed intent of encouraging coaches to further develop the profession of coaching, their own practices of coaching and also to assist coaches in using positive psychology interventions. Therefore they suggest several ways coaches can do these things in an ongoing manner.

Kline, N. (1999)Time to Think Octopus Publishing Group, Ltd, London

This book explains the concept of a Thinking Environment, why it is important for organizations and the world at large, and how to create one, step by step. It is an excellent guide and works well with appreciative inquiry. The main theme is that people think more clearly when they have the benefit ofthe full attention of others.

Maurer, Robert, (2004). One small step can change your life: The Kaizen Way. Workmen Publishing.

Great appreciative coaching questions are used throughout this book. Maurer’s thesis is that Kaizen, making small incremental changes, is a “stealth solution” to successfully making big life changes.

Watkins, J., & Mohr, B. (2001) Change at the Speed of Imagination. Jossey Bass.

This book is written by two of the leading trainers in the AI field and is intended to provide theory and practice for using AI in all organizational consultations such as strategic planning, team building, diversity awareness etc.

Whitney, D., Cooperrider, D. L., Trosten-Bloom, A., Kaplin, B. S. (2005) The Encyclopedia of Positive Questions: Using Appreciative Inquiry to bring out the best in your organization. Lakeshore Communications.

This little book provides a great overview of how positive questions can be used and also includes sample interview guides for nearly any topic related to using AI in an organization.

Whitney, D., Trosten-Bloom, A., Cherney, J., Fry, J. (2004). Appreciative Team Building. iUniverse, Inc.

This little handbook helps you discover past successes and future possibilities of a team. It includes 48 positive questions, sample interview guides and a step-by-step process for managing inquiry.

 

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