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Appreciative Inquiry Newsletter Issue 4,
February 1999
From Anne Radford (editor@aipractitioner.com)
This issue focuses on AI and coaching. Recently the Janki Foundation in London held a
symposium for people from the medical world called "The Reflective
Practitioner-Wisdom in Action."
Wisdom in action seems like a wonderful description of coaching at its best: for the coach
and the person being coached. The coachee is affirming his/her wisdom and finding ways of
putting it into action in a new situation. The coach is working from his/her wisdom to
support that.
In this issue, we have extracts from two articles: Herb Shepard's "A Path with a
Heart: The Cultural Context of Learning About Careers", and Sandy Mobley's paper
"When Phil Jackson Should Overrule Judge Wapner: Why Coaches are Better than Judges
for Healthy Organizations."
The articles are quite different and complementary. For me, Herb Shepard's article looks
at the central issue of how we live our lives. Sandy Mobley's paper highlights the key
skills and approaches for being an effective coach.
Coaching examples look at people making career changes, consultants studying AI, managers
improving their effectiveness, and people making presentations.
I hope these articles and examples will support you and your wisdom in action.
Anne
CONTENTS OF THE NEWSLETTER
1. ARTICLES
1.1 Herb Shepard's "A Path with a Heart: The Cultural Context of Learning About
Careers"
No distinction between work and play
Identifying your uniqueness and the qualities you possess with others.
Excellence in human performance
1.2 Sandy Mobley's paper "When Phil Jackson Should Overrule Judge Wapner: Why
Coaches are Better than Judges for Healthy Organizations."
Skills that make coaching work
Four styles of coaching
2. COACHING
EXAMPLES:
2.1 Career Changes BJ Peters
2.2 Coaching consultants Gervase Bushe
2.3 Managers in healthcare Margaret Wright
2.4 Being coached on making presentations Jim Lord
2.5 Presentation coaching Marge Schiller
2.6 New members to the AI listserv Jack Brittain
3. EVENTS
3.1 ENGLAND
3.1.1 AMED/Ai for practitioners
3.1.2 Institute of Management Topic: Manager as an Effective Coach
Topic: New Approaches in Strategic Planning
3.1.3 ENGLAND UK COACHING GROUP Spirit in actionÑwhen we are most aware of spirit in our
work as coaches 3.2 EUROPEAN AI PRACTITIONERS' GROUP MEETING with Frank Barrett
3.3 SCOTLAND Imagine Scotland event
3.4 USA The Taos Institute conference The Spirit Of Social Construction: Spirituality and
Social Construction in Organizations, Therapy and Societal Practice
4. PUBLICATIONS
4.1 ARTICLE: "Five Theories of Change Embedded in Appreciative Inquiry" by
Gervase Bushe
4.2 ARTICLE: Margaret Wright's article "Scotland Incorporated"
4.3 TAOS NEWSLETTER:
5. WEB
SITES:
5.1 Sue Hammond's site
5.2 Solution Focused Therapy
6. OTHER
INFORMATION:
6.1 AI IN GERMAN
6.2 COUNTRY CONTACT FOR CANADA: Gervase Bushe
1. ARTICLES
1.1 Herb Shepard's "A Path with a Heart: The Cultural Context of Learning About
Careers"
I want to thank Steve Cato for suggesting Herb Shepard's article. I asked Steve what drew
him to it at this time. He responded:
"In re-reading some of Herb's work I am struck again at what a positively valuing
stance he took toward life. I see the same perspective in the Appreciative Inquiry ideas.
It also seems fitting that the doctoral program he started at Case [Western Reserve
University] has produced so many fine people including [David] Cooperrider."
Extracts from: A Path With A Heart: The Cultural Context Of Learning About Careers by Herb
Shepard
"Your central issue is a life fully worth living. The test is how you feel each day
as you anticipate that day's experience. The same test is the best predictor of health and
longevity. It is simple.
"Don Juan was explicit in teaching Carlos Castaneda about careers. To have a path of
knowledge, a path with a heart, made for a joyful journey, and was the only conceivable
way to live."
No distinction between work and play "A master in the art of living draws no sharp
distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his
body, his education and his recreation. He scarcely knows which is which. He simply
pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing and leaves others to
determine whether he is working or playing. To himself he always seems to be doing both.
Identify your uniqueness and the qualities you possess with others":
"Each person is unique, yet each person has much in common with every other person.
For a life that is fully worth living, it is important to identify your uniquenesses and
decide how to use them, and to identify the qualities you possess that others also
possess, and decide how to use them."
Qualities you share with others
"Turning now to those qualities which you share in common with other people, three
seem especially important to a life fully worth living. They can be called tone,
resonance, and perspective."
"The first of these, tone, refers to your aliveness as an organism. When you think of
good muscle tone, you think of a relaxed alertness, a readiness to respond. As used here,
the term tone refers to your entire being, your mental and emotional life as well as your
muscle and organ life."
"The second quality is the capacity for resonance. This is the experience of
enhanced, stimulated and yet relaxed vitality that you can experience in interaction with
particular others and particular environments. Discovering those others and those
environments can be one of the most fulfilling aspects of the journey through a life fully
worth living."
"The third important quality is the capacity to develop perspectives that can guide
your choices and inform your experience. If you have multiple perspectives you enlarge
your range of choices. Thus, if you can see "the multiple potential of the
moment", you will usually be able to make a choice that will make the next moment
better for you and for the others in the situation."
Excellence in human performance
"... excellence in human performance can only be attained by persons who are fully
alive and operating in the area of their genius. Only if the path has a heart will it
sustain excellence."
Copies of the complete article can be obtained from Steve Cato at scato@worldnet.att.net
1.2 Sandy Mobley's paper "When Phil Jackson Should Overrule Judge Wapner: Why Coaches
are Better than Judges for Healthy Organizations."(lrngadvg@aol.com)
Sandra Mobley's paper sets out the skills and the types of coaching that help people do
they best work. Here are extracts from that paper.
"A great coach helps you do your best work. Michael Jordan realized that when he said
he wouldn't play for any coach except Phil Jackson because Phil brought out the best in
him."
"Skills that make coaching work"
1. Create a context in which you are prepared to coach and the employee is open to
coaching. The things you say and do to set the stage are important here. Let the person
know that the purpose of the coaching relationship is to support his or her overall
development and effectiveness.
2. Use reflective listening by hearing the words and reading the emotional content. It is
a wonderful gift to have someone listen to you completely, giving you his or her full
attention. By fully listening to employees without interrupting or problem solving, you
set the stage that allows them to find their own answers.
3. Ask questions that help to open new possibilities, explore perceptions and assumptions,
and provide new ways of evaluating the same data. The key to this skill is that you must
be genuinely curious and not make the employee feel as though he or she is being judged,
interrogated, or manipulated. The goal is to help the employee find the answer that works
for him or her.
Here's an example: A beginning coach was discussing how to hold people accountable with
the manager of a consulting department. The coach made several suggestions. None of them
worked because the manager was uncomfortable holding people accountable; the issue was not
learning the skill of how to do it, but having the will to do it.
4. Give useful feedback. Managers may feel compelled to give "constructive"
feedback rather than positive feedback. The best approach is to ask the employee what he
or she thinks should be worked on. This keeps you in the realm of coaching, not judging.
Many styles of coaching can work
I have seen four styles of coaching used effectively:
¥ Mentor
¥ Expert
¥ Team facilitator
¥ Transformational
2. COACHING
EXAMPLES
2.1 Career Changes BJ Peters (bjpeters@amug.org)
I have used AI in coaching individuals who were yearning to do work that is more
meaningful to them, more aligned with their higher purpose and skills, to be in or create
an environment which is more nurturing.
The AI process is such a natural one to apply to career coaching:
Discovery
* Tell me about those times in your career when you felt most alive, engaged, energized;
when everything worked to produce the desired results.
* What factors in the environment, the community, the organization, the team contributed
to this wonderful experience? What did you do to contribute?
* What do you value about yourself as a professional and what you have to offer?
* What is the core factor which gives life to your work, without which work would not be
the same?
* What three wishes would you make to enhance the life and vitality of your work?
Dream
* Guided imagery or meditation followed by creation of story, picture, song, etc. which
depicts the ideal future work situation. Creation of the ideal job description
Design
* Creation of a purpose statement. Creation of a resume geared to the desired situation.
Creation of a profile of the ideal company. Creation of a strategy
2.2 Coaching consultants Gervase Bushe (gervase@cheerful.com)
BACKGROUND: In the past four months I've had the opportunity to "coach" OD
consultants in how to do AI through two day workshops. They have all been business
oriented consultants and have come from countries as diverse as Norway, Sweden, Belgium,
France,Germany, Switzerland and Italy.
The consultants had the same deep yearning, as with North American consultants, to make a
positive contribution in their work, the same unspoken fears that maybe they weren't, and
the same fear of "being taken over by the light side".
They were also concerned about being too appreciative: that important issues will be
ignored, their clients will not take them seriously, being appreciative will be
artificial, and what to do about organizations that studiously avoid confronting
unpleasant realities?
So what do I do about it?
I certainly don't try to talk them out of it or explain their fears away. I reinforce
thinking critically about when, where and why to do AI and then do some more AI together.
I've found if I can identify a common issue that is important to people in the workshop
and use that as an affirmative topic the energy in the room goes through the roof and
people don't need any convincing from me.
"What do you want more of?"
The thing I have found sticks the best, as a first step toward the lifelong task of
becoming an appreciative being, is to flip "what's the problem" into "what
do you want more of".
Many people do seem to leave the workshop with that subtle alteration in their consulting
behavior - a belief that getting their clients to be clear about what they want more of
may be more important than getting clear about what the problems "really are".
2.3 Managers in healthcare Margaret Wright (100067.2577@compuserv.com)
CLIENT: NHS Hospital in Scotland
ISSUE: Personal Effectiveness for Managers
PEOPLE INVOLVED: Small number of managers in different departments.
PROCESS: Series of meetings as a group and individually which looked at ways to improve
effectiveness including considering Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. One of
the meetings involved the managers interviewing each other in an 'Appreciative' way.
OUTCOME: Gave the managers an opportunity to get in touch with the things they did well
and could build on. Also gave them an effective way of talking to their staff in the
future as a lot of their success would depend on their ability to delegate and motivate
their staff.
WHAT MADE IT SUCCESSFUL: Gave all a great insight into the strengths of each manager and
helped us get to know and work with each other in a more effective way.
2.4 Jim Lord talks about being coached on making presentations (lord@lord.org)
One of my greatest developmental points was when I hired John Jones (University
Associates) about a dozen years ago to coach me as a speaker. The way he worked was to sit
in the audience for a day's seminar and offer comments during the breaks, which I could
elect to practice in the next session.
He also had a formula: "For every item that I want to suggest as an opportunity for
improvement, I need to identify four items that are assets."
And - as you can guess - the way he presented his "opptys for improvement" were
so graceful. He simply appreciated the instance, rather than suggesting I change. He would
say things like "Did you see how attentive they were when you....."
2.5 Presentation training-the AI way Marge Schiller (MRSENTP@aol.com)
THE CLIENT: Five senior people in a federal agency wanted to be "fixed" so they
would make a really swell impression on audiences in Argentina.
THE FORMAT: Day one- the four standard questions directed to presentation. High points,
strengths and core of presentations... last question was wishes for presentations (one
person's wish was "not to make a fool of myself") We then used MBTI which I
believe to be an appreciative inquiry into preferences. On the first day everyone made a
presentation that included four aspects of who each person is using the Myers Briggs type
indicator as a starting point.
Day two- I took a standard "how to give good presentations" document and divided
it up so that teams of two (including me) each presented the material with comments and
modifications for their work and their situations. Sooo three more presentation and more
practice. I introduced them to Chris Argyris' model of communication as a "double
loop of shared understanding" with a sender AND a receiver.
Day three- Each person gave a presentation that was video taped using the idea that we are
each our own best teacher. People were invited to comment on the strengths of their own
presentation and also to test those areas where they felt change was indicated. Then they
got as much or as little feedback as they wanted. Some of their concerns were validated
-many did not concern the listeners.
LEARNINGS: The biggest learnings were:
1. The receiver of information is every bit as important as the sender if we are to
achieve communication
2. There is no "perfect presentation" We can all be wonderful presenters if we
do so by building of our own strengths.
2.6 New members to the AI listserv Written by Anne Radford about Jack Brittain, the AI
list manager.
I would like to thank Jack for the wonderful way he has been coaching new members to the
AI listserv to put their questions or introduce themselves. Several have done so. Many
thanks to them and to Jack.
3. EVENTS 1999
3.1 ENGLAND
3.1.1 AMED in London is running a 2+1 day workshop for practitioners.
Workshop Leaders: Tricia Lustig, LASA Development UK Ltd and Anne Radford
Dates: 2 and 3 February + 22 March 1999
Location: AMED in central London
Contact: Julian or Helen tel. 0171-235-3505, fax 0171-235-3565 or amed.office@management.org.uk
3.1.2 Institute of Management
Topic: Manager as an Effective Coach The Appreciative Inquiry approach to highlighting
effective coaching skills, and developing ways to sustain them.
Course Leader: Anne Radford
Dates: One day workshop on 15 March, and 21 June 1999
Location: IM Training Centre, Savoy Court, central London
Topic: "New Approaches in Strategic Planning" will focus on the development of
inclusivity as a strategic direction, and introduce the large group processes of Future
Search, Open Space and Ai to the development of strategy in organisations.
Course leader: Geof Cox
Dates: 19/20 April, 23/24 August and 22/23 November 1999
Location: IM Training Centre, Savoy Court, central London
To register for these courses, contact IM special booking line 01536-207373 or fax 01536
207384 or call Christine Parton, Customer Services on 01536 207370.
3.1.3 March meeting of business, management and personal coaches
Topic: Spirit in actionÑwhen we are most aware of spirit in our work as coaches
Leader: Anne Radford
Location: IPD, 2 Savoy Court, The Strand, London
Time: 6pm to 8pm
For more information about the monthly meetings, contact Mark Foster
(MarkF1000@aol.com)
3.2 EUROPEAN AI PRACTITIONERS' GROUP MEETING
Speaker: Frank Barrett, author of "Creating Appreciative Learning Cultures"
looking at the competencies of appreciative learning systems, and "Creativity and
Improvisation in Jazz and Organizations: Implications for Organizational Learning."
Frank Barrett will lead a discussion on Organizational Learning and Lessons from Jazz.
Date: evening 23 April/day 24 April or evening 28 May/day 29 May 1999.
Location: To be confirmed (hopefully, it will include a piano!)
Contact Anne Radford (editor@aipractitioner.com) to indicate which date you can manage.
3.3 SCOTLAND Imagine Scotland event for AMED using AI approach
Event leaders: Geof Cox and Margaret Wright
Date: 12 or 13 April 1999 in Scotland at a venue to be agreed.
Details from Geof Cox (GeofCox@compuserve.com) or Margaret Wright
(100067.2577@compuserve.com) or AMED 0141 204 1663
3.4 USA
The Taos Institute in collaboration with the Houston Galveston Institute will hold a
conference in Taos New Mexico
Title: THE SPIRIT OF SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION: Spirituality and Social Construction in
Organizations, Therapy and Societal Practice Date: April 8-10, 1999
Outline: This conference will explore such issues as where and how a constructionist
consciousness of spirit can inform and inspire our practices, how we may understand
relations as manifestations of spirit. Explorations in theory, practice and experience
will be facilitated by David Cooperrider, Diana Whitney, Ken and Mary Gergen, Harlene
Anderson, Sheila McNamee, and Suresh Srivastva of the Taos Institute. Several guest
presenters have been invited to join us.
For information and registration, write to Dawn Dole at coopdole@modex.com,
telephone or fax 1-888-999-TAOS, or see the Taos Institute Website:
www.serve.com/taos/
4. PUBLICATIONS
4.1 ARTICLE: "Five Theories of Change Embedded in Appreciative Inquiry" by
Gervase Bushe for the World Congress of OD held in Dublin in 1998.
It is available at http:www.bus.sfu.ca/homes/gervase/gervase.html
4.2 ARTICLE: Margaret Wright's article "Scotland Incorporated" is in Personnel
Management 10 December 1998. She refers to AI as one way of encouraging all the
stakeholders in Scotland's future to participate in that future. Contact Margaret at
100067.2577@compuserve.com
4.3 TAOS NEWSLETTER: The Taos Institute winter newsletter is available. To request a copy,
write to Dawn Dole at coopdole@modex.com .
5. WEB SITES:
5.1 Sue Hammond's site is now operating. The url is http://www.thinbook.com/
Note from Jack Brittain: Lessons from the Field: Applying Appreciative Inquiry has now
sold over 1,000 copies. The Thin book has sold more than 20,000 copies which is quite
remarkable given Sue built a publishing house and distribution company as well as write
the book.
5.2 SFT: To get onto the Solution-focused therapy list write to:
LISTSERV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU.
No subject line is needed.
In the body, write the following:
SUB SFT-L YourFirstname YourSecondName
6. OTHER
INFORMATION:
6.1 AI IN GERMAN: Walter Bruck has translated into German several of the key AI concepts
and principles. He developed a dual language German/English manual for work he and I did
recently with a Foundation in Germany. We worked in the two languages in the
workshopsÑwell, Walter did!
6.2 COUNTRY CONTACT FOR CANADA: Gervase Bushe
Gervase Bushe has said he would like to be a contact person for the newsletter in Canada.
I asked him to say something about himself. Here it is:
"You might say that I've been experimenting with appreciative approaches to changing
teams and organizations for 10 years.
I went to school with Dave [Cooperrider] at Case [Western Reserve University]
(we entered as students a year apart).
I was deeply involved in the "mythopoetic men's movement" in the 80s and
I have brought some of that "soul work" to consulting with executive teams. And
what most excites me these days is that I am starting a family with a wonderful
woman."
Please send any examples or information to one of the following:
COUNTRY CONTACTS/CO-ORDINATORS
Walter Bruck/Germany Walter.Bruck@usa.net
Steve Cato/USA West Coast scato@worldnet.att.net
Bart Cox /South Africa stazia@wfc.org.za
Joep de Jong/The Netherlands jlsjc@WORLDONLINE.NL
Muriel Finegold/USA East Coast Marafine@aol.com
Mette Jacobsgaard/Denmark 101572.622@compuserve.com
Bill Kinsey/Zimbabwe bkinsey@econ.vu.nl
Liz Mellish/Australia info@mellish.com.au
Ravi Pradhan/Nepal ravip@mos.com.np
Hamdi Qenawi/Egypt hamdiq@iiedt2.gega.net
Anne Radford/England + Newsletter Co-ordinator editor@aipractitioner.com
Marge Schiller/USA East Coast MRSENTP@aol.com
Magdalena Steinmeyer/Mexico hgstein@ibm.net
Laverne Dees Webb/USA Iowa LaverneW@aol.com
Margaret Wright/Scotland 100067.2577@compuserve.com
If you want to SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE, write to me
(editor@aipractitioner.com).
There is no charge for the newsletter.
I hope you have enjoyed this issue. Do let me have your feedback and comments. Issue 5
will be out in May 1999. The focus will be on interfaith activities using Appreciative
Inquiry.
Anne Radford
Management consultant, coach and mediator
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