From the feedreaders this week
- Ashley Cooper and Thomas Arthur make a film about standing up for love.
- Inkmaster Cuttle slams the US election
- Andy Borrows finds a beautiful line
- Myriam Laberge on the importance of purpose in engagement
- My Metafilter favourite of the week is on vegetable woodwinds.
- A new blog in my reader: VizThink
- John Abbe is enthusiastic about a new document collaboration tool called EtherPad
Have a good weekend.
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Peggy Holman and I have just spent two days working with some amazing provincial public servants in Victoria, hosting a learning workshop on Appreciative Inquiry. There were many gems over the two days, but I think what stands out for me is the list of learnings that came after this morning. Our participants were given some homework overnight which simply consisted of interviewing someone using appreciative questions. Here are some of the rich insights that came up in the check in this morning:
- Genuine, appreciative questioning brings us together and fosters connection
- Being interviewed appreciatively open our awareness of possibility
- Appreciative questions stop us dead in our tracks – many of us have never been asked questions that invite us to tell a story of a high point in our life, or a reflection on our core strengths – and these open us to our higher selves.
- Discovery uncovers assets we never knew we had.
- When there is a clear need and a call that comes from a deep source of responding to life, people show up (given in the context of why one participant chose to give blood rather than interview someone).
- When one is emotionally closed, appreciative questions introduce possibility and in dark moments, possibility can be a shocking surprise.
- Authentic possibility is grounded in reality rather than wishful thinking.
- Curiosity changes minds better than trying to convince someone that everything will be alright. In judgment we back into relationship. Curiosity fosters sustainable relationships.
- In Quaker Clearness Committees, people are only allowed to ask questions which are genuinely curious about and to which they do not know the answer.
- The essence of discovery is that we learn something new about people or places that we thought we knew or that we take for granted.
- Appreciative learning creates a hunger for more.
- When there is conflict open more space – practices that invite mystery bring us to new paths through old patterns.
- Appreciative life is supported by a climate of openness. This is a key leadership move to getting more out of people, groups and communities.
These are terrific insights, and although some of them are not new to me, I was struck by how powerful these were coming altogether after one appreciative interview. If you want you can conduct the exercise yourself and report your insights and results here.
Simply and curiously invite a conversation with someone that invites them to tell a story of the best experiences of themselves. It is especially rich to inquire about how someone survived a dark time, inquiring about the resources they drew upon to make it through. Don’t judge what is being said, simply stay open to what you learn. You may well find out something spectacularly surprising about people you thought you knew well.
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From Alex Kjerulf:
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I’m in Victoria, BC. Tonight we had dinner at my favourite Thai restaurant in the world, Baan Thai. There are two reason why I love it. First the food is fantastic…homestyle Thai food that is slightly to the high end of medium priced, but is worth every penny. And second, if you stay there until closing you will witness a lovely ritual. At closing, the staff pull all of the tables in the middle of the restaurant together and they lock the door and they all sit down together to eat their supper. The chefs lay out a meal of fresh food, not leftovers, all prepared just for the staff. To witness it is to see a business that runs like a family and you quickly realize why the staff are so cheerful and full of recommendations about the food.
On that merit alone, I would support a business like that. So kudos to the owners of Bann Thai…we see what you are doing there, and it adds something beautiful to the world.
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Douglas Rushkoff on President Obama:
When there’s a big blackout in New York, especially during the summer, some people take it as a “cue” to start looting. It’s not that the blackout itself makes it significantly to break down store fronts; it’s not that the police are so very busy with the blackout. The lights going out is a cue to behave differently – to release the hidden potential for vandalism and long-repressed rage.
Likewise, the election of a black man to the presidency is a cue that something has changed. As my friend, Ari Wallach explained to me on my new radio show last night, it’s a kind of “shock and awe.” There’s a thoughtful, progressive and black president-elect on the cover of the New York Post. The cognitive dissonance this generates is an opportunity to reprogram. It’s what advertisers and social programmers try to do in pretty much every communication they make. It’s as big a disconnect and reconnect as 9-11 was, only constructive instead of destructive. A narrative is broken; another is born.
I had that same thought…on the morning of September 11, 2001 I realized that one event could change things for the worse and I felt concerned for the fragility of the narrative of who we are. Likewise with Obama’s election I still feel the fragility in the narrative, but I’m encouraged that single events can have positive impacts too.
One last point about Obama for now…I was talking with my friend Dyane, a social entreprenuer and rapper from South Central LA about George Bush’s legacy. He asked the question, what will Bush be known for> In no time at all we had the answer: he was the last white President of the United States.