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Appreciative Inquiry Newsletter Issue 8,
February 2000
PURPOSE
OF THE NEWSLETTER
This
Newsletter is a forum for people interested in making the
world a better place using Appreciative Inquiry and developing
themselves and others to do even more wonderful things.
The
Newsletter is designed to complement other Ai resources such
as web sites, hard copy journals and the Ai listserv, and to
support the whole tapestry of Ai.
WELCOME
TO ISSUE 8 OF THE NEWSLETTER
This
issue is about peace at three levels and what we can do about
it. The first section looks at the UN International Year for a
Culture of Peace. If you want to support it, you could add
your signatures to the list of signatures from around the
world that will go to the UN.
Perhaps,
running a two-hour workshop on peace for your community or
work team is more your style. Or maybe you would like to
encourage someone else to bring a group together. Find out
about the workshop design and where you can get the materials
in Section 1.2.
Some
say that being at peace with ourselves is the greatest
challenge of all. Arnold Desser talks about his work with
patients-being at his best by helping them be at peace.
(Section 1.3)
If
you know anyone who needs to re-install their heart, some PC
instructions in Section 2!
And
a very big welcome to Sara Ines Gomez from Colombia, S.
America who has volunteered to be our country contact there.
She talks about her background, her work and her interest in
AI in Section 6.
I
hope you find something in this newsletter that interests you.
With
very best wishes,
Anne
Radford
Editor/co-ordinator
of the newsletter
editor@aipractitioner.com
==========================
CONTENTS
OF THE NEWSLETTER
1
PEACE
1.1
PEACE: world wide level UN International Year for a Culture of
Peace
-
Manifesto 2000 + six pledges
-
Place to sign the Manifesto on-line
1.2
PEACE: organisational or community level
-
BKWSU Messenger for Manifesto 2000
-
More about BKWSU
-
BK/IYCP activities in 4,000 centres/70 countries
-
Two hour workshop for peace
-
Availability of workshop materials
1.3
PEACE: at a personal level-Interview with Arnold Desser,
systematic therapist, practitioner of traditional Chinese
medicine and university lecturer.
-
Peace is a personal choice and a dynamic process
-
The power of the patient's story
-
Peace floats in/time floats out
-
My best self-bearing witness
2.
Reinstalling love-some PC instructions!
3.
AI TRAINING EVENTS
3.1
USA
3.1.1
Great Smoky Mountains, TN
3.1.2
Weatherhead School of Management
3.2
Italy and the USA
3.3
England: Introduction to AI
4.
AI RESOURCES
4.1
BOOKS
4.1.1
Ken Gergen's book on AI and Social Construction
4.1.2
Roger Lewin's Soul at Work
4.2
Website correction
4.3
Video on APA in Nepali villages
5.
OTHER
Update
on AI in Sweden's schools
6.
NEW COUNTRY CONTACT-COLOMBIA, SOUTH AMERICA
How
to get back copies of the newsletter
How
to subscribe
====================================================
1.
PEACE
1.1
PEACE: world wide level
The
General Assembly of the United Nations has proclaimed the year
2000 as
the
'International Year for the Culture of Peace.'
The
Manifesto 2000, drafted by a group of Nobel Peace Prize
Laureates, asks people to pledge in their daily life, family,
workplace, community, country and region to:
1.
Respect all life - Respect the life and dignity of each human
being without discrimination or prejudice.
2.
Reject violence - Practise active non-violence, rejecting
violence in all its forms: physical, sexual, psychological,
economical and social, in particular towards the most deprived
and vulnerable such as children and adolescents.
3.
Share with others - Share my time and material resources in a
spirit of
generosity
to put an end to exclusion, injustice and political and
economic oppression.
4.
Listen to understand - Defend freedom of expression and
cultural diversity, giving preference always to dialogue and
listening without engaging in fanaticism, defamation and the
rejection of others.
5.
Preserve the planet - Promote consumer behaviour that is
responsible and development practices that respect all forms
of life and preserve the balance of nature on the planet.
6.
Rediscover solidarity - Contribute to the development of my
community, with the full participation of women and respect
for democratic principles, in order to create together new
forms of solidarity.
The
signatures, supporting the Manifesto, will be presented to the
UN Millennium General Assembly in September 2000. The names
will also appear on the UNESCO Internet site.
Sign
on-line:
You
can sign Manifesto 2000 on-line at www.bkwsu.com/manifesto2000
Other
sites:
UNESCO
website: www.unesco.org/manifesto2000 or www.unesco.org/iycp
United
Nations Association website: http://www.oneworld.org/UNA
1.2
PEACE: organisational or community level
The
Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University (BKWSU) has been
designated 'Messenger for Manifesto 2000' by UNESCO, the
organisation co-ordinating the IYCoP activities. The BKWSU
holds general consultative status with the Economic and Social
Council of the United Nations and consultative status with
UNICEF, as an international non-governmental organisation.
More
about the BKWSU ......
The
Brahma Kumaris offers a variety of values-based programmes on
personal growth and self-development with the aim to improve
the quality of life within the community. The programmes are
based on the premise that empowering individuals to develop
positive, core spiritual values can help sustain far-reaching
changes in society and ultimately in the world.
BK/IYCP
Activities in 4,000 centres/70 countries
During
the year 2000, through its network of 4,000 centres in over 70
countries, BKWSU will be holding special activities, seminars
and workshops to promote understanding of Manifesto 2000 and
encourage people to put its principles into practice. BKWSU
will also hold special events and activities to mark the
International Year for a Culture of Peace celebrating the
richness of the world's cultural diversity.
Two
hour workshop for peace
A
group of us worked with the BKWSU to develop a workshop on
peace that would be distributed through their world-wide
network of centres. The BKs wanted the workshop to be simple
to do and enjoyable for people to take part in. They also
wanted people to go away from the workshop with a renewed
energy for doing something for peace and also feeling a
greater sense of inner peace.
We
focused on the six pledges in the Manifesto and the phrase
that appears prominently in the Manifesto literature
"Peace in our Hands." So, the workshop follows a
flow that you will know well!
DISCOVERING
a significant or meaningful time when participants felt they
had peace in their hands-in their daily life, family, work,
community, country or region.
VISIONING
PEACE by creating an image in one of the six pledge areas
DESIGNING
a way forward in their chosen pledge area
LIVING
PEACE: how to live peace spiritually and in their actions
The
two hour workshop can be run by people who have a little or a
lot of facilitation skills. There are notes for people who
want to follow the basic design and suggestions for those who
want to be creative. There is some guidance on how to adapt
the design for large or small groups. The materials will be
available towards the end of February.
Availability
of materials
In
addition to running the workshop in their own centres
world-wide, the BKWSU is happy for any one to use the
materials for peace workshops. Maureen Goodman, at the BKWSU
Centre in London, said "We would not make any charge for
the materials. We would want to make them freely available.
However we would like people to acknowledge that the workshop
was developed by the Brahma Kumaris as part of their
activities for the International Year for a Culture of
Peace."
To
contact the BKWSU in the UK, go to the London website:
www.bkwsu.org.uk
If
outside UK, go into the international website: www.bkwsu.com
1.3
PEACE: at a personal level
Arnold
Desser, formerly a photojournalist doing the film festival
circuits and for the last 20 years a systemic therapist,
practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine and senior
lecturer at the Centre for Community Care and Primary Health
at the University of Westminster, London. He chaired the
seminar "Dying- a healing art" organised by the
Janki Foundation for Global Healthcare in London in November
1999.
Anne:
Arnold, I would like us to look at peace on a personal level.
What interests you about this idea of being at peace with
oneself?
Arnold
Desser: EVERYTHING! But every time I say the word peace I have
to remind myself what it means for me.
Peace
is a personal choice AND a dynamic process
I
choose peace as opposed to the opposite of peace such as
anger, restlessness or disturbance. That choice is a moral
one--about the virtuousness of peace itself (among other
things) and about the virtue of choosing it. Peace is not an
absolute or a fixed state. It is a dynamic process.
A:
What do you mean by that?
AD:
I have to choose something instead of its opposite. One
theoretical framework that informs my work and my choices
comes from Chinese philosophy and Chinese medical tradition.
Yin/Yang theory is based on the notion of complementary
opposites.
Yin
is associated with quiescence, contemplativeness, passivity
and inwardness. Yang, on the other hand (you see, even that
expression about one hand and the other is very Yin/Yang!) is
associated with the qualities of vitality, action, movement.
Of the two, Yin might more easily be equated with peace. But
if Yin is excessive it becomes heavy, unresponsive and
stagnant. Yin and Yang aspects can be found in everything.
They create one another and they transform one another.
The
Power of the patient's story
A:
Given your experiences working with patients, when have you
been your most successful or effective in helping someone be
at peace with themselves?
AD:
I hope I practice effectively by, first and foremost, being a
hearing listener, even though I might not fully understand
what I am being told. A successful consultation is one where a
patient's story is allowed to unfold itself; it may not happen
at the first meeting, or even the third, but at some point it
happens. I'm there to hear and connect with the story, to ask
questions of it, to test certain bits of it, to sit in silence
with it, much like any other experienced caring health-care
worker.
A:
What are you doing or not doing, at those times?
AD:
What I do not do is attempt to make sense of it or measure and
fit what
I'm
hearing against the templates of my knowledge too quickly.
I
breathe.
I
clear my mind.
I
try not to listen 'too' hard to everything.
Peace
floats in/time floats out
From
time to time something extraordinary happens. Time stands
still. Literally. I look at the clock on my desk and see that
it's 3:05. A patient is telling me something or I'm taking her
pulses and what seems like ten minutes later I'll look up and
see that it's 3:07. Peace floats in, time floats out. Some
connection between me and the patient has occurred that exists
outside of time. This has happened on four occasions; it's
such a reward when it does happen! As an antidote to the
potential crypto-mystic craziness of this story, let me tell
you that on one of those occasions the batteries expired and
the clock actually did stop.
My
best self--bearing witness
A:
At the time of those connections, how you were feeling?
AD:
I was there, completely, in the room with a fellow being. I
felt like I often feel when I'm practising... my best self.
Actually there are four elements in the room: the patient, me,
the patient's story, and the story I might have about the
patient's story. I saw Martin Scorsese's latest film the other
week, "Bringing Out the Dead", about a New York
ambulance paramedic. At one point, he explains to someone he
meets that he only uses about 5% of what he's learned about
saving peoples' lives. What he's really there for most often
is, in his words, "to bear witness" to someone's
pain, or death. It clicked with me.
A:
Do people have a vision of being at peace with themselves?
AD:
Many people who are ill can barely remember when it was or
what it was like to be at peace with themselves--fear and pain
exclude those memories. For the deeply chronically ill such a
memory might never have existed at all, ever. There is no
vision to support. What the patient and I do together is try
and identify what is least intolerable and to displace some of
the completely intolerable aspects of their illness with this.
A:
How do you do this?
AD:
Working with the breath and breathing helps. Hyperventilation
encases pain like a strait jacket; breathing properly can
loosen the straps. Breathing, helped by visualisation, opens
the lungs, heart and mind to other possibilities, other
options. This is often the first port of call; acupuncture or
herbs might follow.
A:
How can we continue to grow and be better at 'bearing
witness'?
AD:
By learning from and reflecting on one's own experience, as in
"that's
how I've done it before; this is how I'm doing it now."
"this
is how I'll do it next time when I've reflected on what's
happened this time and times before."
A:
Are there any overall lessons you want to leave us with?
AD:
One: Don't come to expect rewards.
Two:
If there's a last gentle laugh to be had--the Universe/God
will always have it.
Three:
Don't take yourself too seriously.
Four:
Change your clock batteries every year.
Five:
Maybe it's none of the previous four lessons but a fifth one
that as yet cannot be understood, let alone be described!
A:
Arnold, thank you for sharing your wisdom and experience.
2
REINSTALLING LOVE
From
Peter Challen, a retired industrial chaplain and the first
person from outside business to attend the year long Sloan
programme at the London Business School. (101665.1247@compuserve.com)
To
we who need advice for re-programming in the complexity of the
personal computer and of the human condition, this seems
delightfully pertinent.
Customer:
I'm not very technical, but I think I am ready to install now.
What do I do first?
CS
Rep: The first step is to open your HEART. Have you located
your HEART?
Customer:
Yes I have, but there are several programs running right now.
Is it okay to install while they are running?
CS
Rep: What programs are running?
Customer:
Let me see - I have PASTHURT.EXE, LOWSELFESTEEM.EXE,
GRUDGE.EXE,
and RESENTMENT.COM running right now.
CS
Rep: No problem. LOVE will automatically erase PASTHURT.EXE
from your current operating system. It may remain in your
permanent memory, but it will no longer disrupt other
programs. LOVE will eventually overwrite LOWSELFESTEEM.EXE
with a module of its own called HIGHSELFESTEEM.EXE. However,
you have to completely turn off GRUDGE.EXE and RESENTMENT.EXE.
Those programs prevent LOVE from being properly installed. Can
you turn those off?
Customer:
I don't know how to turn them off. Can you tell me how?
CS
Rep: My pleasure. Go to your Start menu and invoke
FORGIVENESS.EXE. Do this as many times as necessary until
GRUDGE.EXE and RESENTMENT.EXE have been completely erased.
Customer:
Okay, I'm done. LOVE has started installing itself
automatically. Is that normal?
CS
Rep: Yes it is. You should receive a message that says it will
reinstall for the life of your HEART. Do you see that message?
Customer:
Yes I do. Is it completely installed?
CS
Rep: Yes, but remember that you have only the base program.
You need to begin connecting to other HEART's in order to get
the upgrades.
Customer:
Oops...I have an error message already. What should I do?
CS
Rep: What does the message say?
Customer:
It says "ERROR 412 - PROGRAM NOT RUN ON INTERNAL
COMPONENTS".
What does that mean?
CS
Rep: Don't worry, that's a common problem. It means that the
LOVE program is set up to run on external HEARTS but has not
yet been run on your HEART. It is one of those complicated
programming things, but in non-technical terms it means you
have to "LOVE" your own machine before it can
"LOVE" others.
Customer:
So what should I do?
CS
Rep: Can you find the directory called
"SELF-ACCEPTANCE"?
Customer:
Yes, I have it.
CS
Rep: Excellent, you are getting good at this.
Customer:
Thank you.
CS
Rep: You're welcome. Click on the following files and then
copy them to the "MYHEART" directory:
FORGIVESELF.DOC, SELFESTEEM.TXT, REALIZEWORTH.TXT, and
GOODNESS.DOC. The system will overwrite my conflicting files
and begin patching any faulty programming. Also, you need to
delete SELFCRITIC.EXE from all directories, and then empty
your recycle bin afterwards to make sure it is completely gone
and never comes back.
Customer:
Got it. Hey! My HEART is filling up with really neat files.
SMILE.MPG is playing on my monitor right now and it shows that
WARMTH.COM, PEACE.EXE, and CONTENTMENT.COM are copying
themselves all over my HEART!
CS
Rep: Then LOVE is installed and running. You should be able to
handle it from here. One more thing before I go...
Customer:
Yes?
CS
Rep: LOVE is freeware. Be sure to give it and its various
modules to everybody you meet. They will in turn share it with
other people and they will return some really neat modules
back to you.
Customer:
I will. Thank you for all your help.
3.
AI TRAINING EVENTS
3.1
USA
3.1.1
AI training/Great Smoky Mountains
Workshop
leaders: David Cooperrider and Diana Whitney
Date:
February 7 - 10, 2000 Cost: $1500 Location: Highland Inn and
Conference Center, Townsend, TN Local Airport: Knoxville (15
miles)
Register:
Mobile Team Challenge email (info@mobileteamchallenge.com)
3.1.2
USA AI Annual Program The Weatherhead School of Management
Annual
program: The Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western
Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio "Appreciative
Inquiry: A Positive Approach to Accelerating Organizational
Change." Facilitator: Dr. David Cooperrider . Dates:
April 5-7, 2000 Cleveland area. Cost: $1,250 per person. To
receive a program brochure, contact Monica Cannon at corpu@guinness.som.cwru.edu.
Registration
is requested by March 24, 2000
3.2
Italy & USA: AI Training/Taos Institute
For
a full listing of all the training programs, contact Dawn Dole
<coopdole@modex.com> or go to the website www.serve.com/taos/
3.3
England: Introduction to AI
Course
leaders: Tricia Lustig, LASA Development UK and Anne Radford
Date:
28 to 30 June 2000 Location: London Three day course fee: £350
+VAT
Numbers
limited to 20 people. Contact Tricia Lustig on Tricia@LASA.demon.co.uk
or Anne Radford at editor@aipractitioner.com
4.
AI RESOURCES
4.1
BOOKS
4.1.1
New book from Ken Gergen. AN INVITATION TO SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION
published by Sage and available in paperback.
"The
relationship between appreciative inquiry and social
construction has
come
up many times over the past two years, and this is simply to
let you
know
that this linkage - along with a great deal more on
constructionist
theory
and practice - is now spelled out in my just-published
book"
4.1.2
Information on a new book "Soul at Work" For more
information contact Roger Lewin (rogerlewin@mediaone.net) or
at www.TheSoulatWork.com
4.2
WEBSITE Correction: The website of Walter Bruck is http://www.appreciative-inquiry.de
4.3
VIDEO on Tricia Lustig, LASA Development and Mac Odell using
APA in a Nepali villages. Neil Morland did the filming. Tricia
and Mac would like to develop this concept further as a
learning video. If anyone knows possible sources of funding to
do this, please contact Tricia Lustig <Tricia@LASA.demon.co.uk>
5.
OTHER
5.1
AN UPDATE ON AI IN SCHOOLS IN SWEDEN-This innovative project
in schools and communities continues to grow and grow.
Information from Robert Klåvus (helena.klavus@telia.com)
"The
AIDA-work is steadily growing and becoming more and more
interesting. We have different discussions with companies and
the community. One of Sweden's biggest companies, ABB, wants
to get involved in the project. We will be spreading AIDA in
the city of Västerås - in all schools and youth work. We are
trying to get a great exchange with Greece this coming spring
- 18 students going to Greece for two weeks and then students
coming to us."
6.
A NEW COUNTRY CONTACT-COLOMBIA
The
first country contact in South America! Sara Ines Gomez <sarinago@inter.net.co>
has kindly offered to be a country contact for Colombia. She
says "One of the wonders AI brings to people is the
willing to serve others, to give the best they have to make
the world a better place.
"I
am Colombian, mother of two wonderful girls. I studied
Linguistics at a Colombian university. After my graduation I
lived in Russia during the communist era, because my father
was the Colombian ambassador to the Soviet Union. I got a
graduate degree in T.Q.M. I took part in the KCC summer course
at Oxford in 1995. I have taken several courses in systemic
thinking and systemic management. After reading some of David
Cooperrider and Diane Whitney's work I became interested in
AI. In November 1998 I attended a conference on AI in
Scotsdale, Arizona.
"Together
with a wonderful friend from Denmark, Kaj Voetmann, we
designed some workshops on AI that I have conducted at my
company, INCOLBESTOS. First with top managers, then middle
managers and this year with supervisors, auditors and some
other people.
"Our
company manufactures brake parts and brake systems for
automotive vehicles. We are number one in Colombia and have a
very good reputation as a very good company. With Kaj's help I
also co-ordinated a strategic planning process following AI.
It was a challenge to invite people to change from a deficit
language to a surplus language. I am very happy because I have
observed many positive changes at my company.
"Colombia
is a country with a very complex situation: guerrilla,
kidnapping, violence, economic crisis and so on. One of my
dreams is a project that I called "Imagine
Colombia", inspired by Imagine Chicago's project. I am
inviting people from my company and from some other companies
to join me in this dream. I believe that AI will be very
helpful in our peace process. I have seen wonderful things
happening around me since I started the process of changing my
language. It is magic."
6.
COUNTRY CONTACTS/CO-ORDINATORS
If
you would like to contribute to the newsletter, please contact
one of the following:
Walter
Bruck/Germany wbruck@wb-consult.de
Gervase
Bushe/Canada bushe@sfu.ca
Steve
Cato/USA West Coast scato@worldnet.att.net
(TBC)
/South Africa letsema@wn.apc.org
Joep
de Jong/The Netherlands joep.dejong@syntegra.nl
Muriel
Finegold/USA East Coast Marafine@aol.com
Sara
Inés Gómez/Colombia sarinago@inter.net.co
Mette
Jacobsgaard/Denmark 101572.622@compuserve.com
Bill
Kinsey/Zimbabwe bkinsey@econ.vu.nl and root@bruin.uz.zw
Liz
Mellish/Australia info@mellish.com.au
Ravi
Pradhan/Nepal ravip@mos.com.np
Hamdi
Qenawi/Egypt qenawi@usa.net
Anne
Radford/England + Newsletter Co-ordinator editor@aipractitioner.com
Marge
Schiller/USA East Coast MRSENTP@worldnet.att.net
Magdalena
Steinmeyer/Mexico hgstein@ibm.net
Laverne
Dees Webb/USA East Coast lavernew@aol.com
Margaret
Wright/Scotland 100067.2577@compuserve.com
To
SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE to the newsletter, email editor@aipractitioner.com.
To
get back copies of the newsletter, go to www.aradford.co.uk/AInewsletter.htm
To
SUBSCRIBE to the newsletter, go to the website http://www.aradford.co.uk.
At the "Welcome" letter, go to subscribe, double
click on this which will take you into the secure shopping
area where you can select one of three contribution levels.
I
hope you have enjoyed this. Do let me have your feedback and
comments. Issue 9 on AI in local, state and national
governments will be distributed in May 2000.
Do
forward the newsletter to as many people as you like.
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