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:<\/p>\n
\n
\n\n
- Genuine, \tappreciative questioning brings us together and fosters connection<\/span><\/li>\n
- Being \tinterviewed appreciatively open our awareness of possibility<\/span><\/li>\n
- Appreciative \tquestions stop us dead in our tracks \u2013 many of us have never been \tasked questions that invite us to tell a story of a high point in \tour life, or a reflection on our core strengths \u2013 and these open \tus to our higher selves.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Discovery \tuncovers assets we never knew we had.<\/span><\/li>\n
- When \tthere is a clear need and a call that comes from a deep source of \tresponding to life, people show up (given in the context of why one \tparticipant chose to give blood rather than interview someone).<\/span><\/li>\n
- When \tone is emotionally closed, appreciative questions introduce \tpossibility and in dark moments, possibility can be a shocking \tsurprise.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Authentic \tpossibility is grounded in reality rather than wishful thinking.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Curiosity \tchanges minds better than trying to convince someone that everything \twill be alright. In judgment we back into relationship. Curiosity \tfosters sustainable relationships.<\/span><\/li>\n
- In \tQuaker Clearness Committees, people are only allowed to ask \tquestions which are genuinely curious about and to which they do not \tknow the answer.<\/span><\/li>\n
- The \tessence of discovery is that we learn something new about people or \tplaces that we thought we knew or that we take for granted.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Appreciative \tlearning creates a hunger for more.<\/span><\/li>\n
- When \tthere is conflict open more space \u2013 practices that invite mystery \tbring us to new paths through old patterns.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Appreciative \tlife is supported by a climate of openness. This is a key \tleadership move to getting more out of people, groups and \tcommunities.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n
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.<\/span><\/p>\n
\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciative-inquiry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piBp1-sb","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1747"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1749,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1747\/revisions\/1749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}