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Why me,
why you, and why now?
When employees are asked about the most memorable times
with a company, they talk about difficult times when
they pulled together and accomplished what needed to be
done. The stage is set. These are those times for many
individuals and companies.
The reason appreciative inquiry works is simple and
because I can choose what services to provide my clients
for developing their businesses, I choose to engage in
appreciative inquiry.
Over the years and even today there is a direct
correlation between the assignments I am awarded and the
results that are achieved when I am focused on the
client’s successes. Approaching companies, or even
occasionally stumbling into a deficit based consulting
role where a company is viewed as a problem to be fixed,
is almost certain to produce unwanted effects.
Why you?
As you can see, appreciative inquiry is not a fixed
model or something that's done to people but rather
something that depends upon the inclusion of people.
After a good deal of work with appreciative inquiry with
clients, I am convinced it offers a strong foundation on
which to build personal friendships, associations, and
business.
Why now?
AI is not another fad of
the month and can be universally applied. Deficit based
terms within the mental health community are becoming
household conversations that are now prevalent in
describing our corporate environments. Just a few of
these terms include dysfunctional, codependent,
stressed, addictive, depressed and burned out.
We are all born with natural gifts, talents and
exceptional competencies. My objective is to combine
validated assessments with appreciative inquiry will
help us to help individuals discover their unique
potential. For many of us these natural talents and
abilities were covered up either early in life or during
some period and they have been unnoticed or forgotten.
They remain just below the surface waiting be discovered
and unleashed.
Many times, what appears to
be incompetence is actually unexpressed competencies.
We may see this in
business when errors are more frequent during slow
periods. People are not working near their level of
competence so mistakes occur.
At this time you may feel uncertain and not ready to
take a leap of faith, that is understandable, and I'm
not asking you to. But if you are intrigued and curious
than perhaps a step of faith is all that is needed.
The purpose these pages was simply to introduce you to
appreciative inquiry and give you the opportunity to
discover it for yourself. Throughout the year, I will be
conducting a series of programs that will be used to
deliver practical and effective programs for business
owners and individuals at the Management Association in
Oak Brook.
If you would like to find out more about appreciative
inquiry or simply stay informed about future events,
enter your e-mail address in the box below.
As you review my web site, you'll see that I'm not
viewing appreciative inquiry as a panacea for everyone.
Some companies will not be in a position to conduct an
appreciative inquiry summit. In other instances, when
people are asked to draw upon peak experiences from the
past, for example, regarding teamwork, effective
meetings, productive workplaces, and other areas of
business, they do not always have best practices to draw
upon. In these instances, and in those cases where a
specific development program is necessary, the other
services are most appropriate.
If team development is of interest, you will also find a
recent article of mine on appreciative inquiry with
teams, which was published in the November 2003 issue of
Training Today.
I hope this top line overview of Appreciative Inquiry
had an inspirational affect for you. It was by no means
a method to give you a true experience of appreciative
inquiry. In order to do that, a specific situation needs
to be identified and then the appreciative inquiry
design can be created and implemented. Once experienced,
it becomes self-evident why this is such a powerful
model for transformation rather than incremental change
efforts and why you will most likely hear about it more
frequently in the years to come.
If you are interested in developing a High-Performance
organization or would simply like to schedule an initial
conversation of "discovery" by phone or
in-person...click here. | 
