AN APPRECIATIVE JOURNEY:DISCOVERING

APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY

FNS Forum, Nov 2008Denise Wright, Fiona O’Shaughnessy, Noel E K Tan

TRADITIONALLY...

The journey for a better future has often led people and organisations to look for Problems...

TODAY...

We are here to learn a Better Way...An Affirmative Way

APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY

Appreciate: To value what is of WORTH

Inquiry: To discover through the use of questions

WHY APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY?

Strengths-based approach to change

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

To showcase AI to the community

To allow the participants to embark on an Appreciative Inquiry of their own facilitation aspirations as the subject matter

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BEFORE WE BEGIN...

Facilitators’ role and responsibilities

Housekeeping

Working agreements

Think back to the time when you first became introduced to facilitation/training/teaching.

What makes you proud to be a facilitator/trainer/teacher?

What do you value about the work you do?

What are your core strengths?

DISCOVERING THE BEST OF WHAT IS

If you are not a facilitator/trainer/teacher, what made you give up your Sat morning to come here?

What makes you excited to be here today?

What do you value about the work you do?

What are your core strengths?

DREAMING...WHATMIGHT BE

What is different? 

What is the situation? What are you doing?  With? For? How do you feel?

 Who else notices that something is different?  (ie. your peers / co-workers, boss, friends, family, community, direct reports etc)What are they noticing about you?  About your work? How are they responding?What else are they noticing?

 Who else is noticing?   What are they noticing? What else?

 REPEAT at least 3 times until you have a rich picture of what is different, how and for whom.

DESIGN

Provocative Proposition/s

Why Provocative? - To inspire you to challenge assumptions, routines and to stretch the status quo

Why Proposition? - It is a description of your dream, not yet realised

Some Common Elements in a Provocative Proposition:

Strategy

Shared Values

Skills

Societal Purposes

People Qualities

DESIGN

Some criteria for Good Propositions:

Is it Provocative?

Is it grounded? Are there existing examples or evidence of the ideal being a real possibility?

Is it desired?

Is it stated in Affirmative Terms?

EXEMPLAR: PROVOCATIVE PROPOSITION

Noel E K Tan is an outstanding hands-on parent to his 3 children. By being their best friend, playmate, fellow-learner and teacher, he makes a great impact on how they grow and develop as human beings, contributing to the societies they will live in and in time, raise their own children to do the same.

EXEMPLAR: FNS – Organisational Consciousness Network

“Singapore is the Appreciative Inquiry hub of SE Asia by 2020. Appreciate Inquiry is the preferred approach to organisational consciousness. We offer products, services and best practices to individuals, teams and organisations, government and NGOs. As AI catalysts, our purpose is to engage organisations and society so that they purposefully contribute to the growth of individuals, communities and government.” Methods of Strategic Collaboration, Feb 2008.

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