Allowing ideas to cook, Conversation and dialogue: Harnessing a breadth of perspectives, experience...

Allowing ideas to cookConversation and

dialogue:Harnessing a breadth

of perspectives, experience and know

howPeter FranksForging Partnerships For

Sustainable Poverty Reduction In Limpopo Province:

Making rural voices countEdupark 21 -22 November 2007

Allowing Ideas to Cook Copyright 2007

Peter E. Franks

Achad Ha'am 1891• “Our greatest need is emancipation from self-contempt, from this idea that we are really worse than all the world. Otherwise we may in course of time become in reality what we now imagine ourselves to be.”


Peter E. Franks

Limiting horizon• In everyday life, most people and organizations are constrained by the perception that their resources, and hence their horizons, are limited. This perception -- that we must "face realities" -- is without a doubt the greatest single constraint on human imagination, vision and enterprise.


Peter E. Franks

Ap-pre’ci-ate• verb., 1. Valuing; the act of recognising the best in people or the world around us; affirming past and present strengths, successes and potentials; to perceive those things that give life (health, vitality, excellence) to living systems. 2. To increase in value – for example, the economy has appreciated in value. Synonyms: VALUING, PRIZING, ESTEEMING and HONOURING.


Peter E. Franks

In-quire’ (kwir)• verb., 1. The act of exploration and discovery. 2. To ask questions; to be open to seeing new potentials and possibilities. Synonyms: DISCOVERY, SEARCH and SYSTEMATIC EXPLORATION, STUDY.


Peter E. Franks

Appreciative Inquiry (AI)

“AI asks us to pay special attention to "the best of the past and present" -- in order to "ignite the collective imagination of what might be."

Appreciative inquiry is about seeing that which others may not see. It's about heightening our awareness of the value, strength and potential of ourselves and others -- and overcoming the limits that we impose, often unconsciously, on our own capacities. Dr. David L. Cooperrider Case Western Reserve University


Peter E. Franks

“The power of positive imagery is not just some popular illusion or wish but is arguably a key factor in every action.”

• “We see what our imaginative horizon allows us to see. And because "seeing is believing," our acts often take on a whole new tone and character depending on the strength, vitality, and force of a given image.”

Positive Image,

Positive Action: of Organizing

David L. Cooperrider 1990


Peter E. Franks

Socially Constructing RealityRather than seeing language as a passive purveyor of meaning between people, post modernists see language as an active agent in the creation of meaning. As we talk to each other, we are constructing the world we see and think about, and as we change how we talk we are changing that world. From this perspective, theory, especially theory that is encoded in popular words or images, is a powerful force in shaping social organization because we "see what we believe". Creating new and better theories/ideas/images is, therefore, a powerful way of changing organizations. Appreciative inquiry seeks these new images in and among people’s best intentions and noblest aspirations, attempting a collective envisioning of what the group could be at its very best.

However, beware the half truth


Peter E. Franks

The Heliotropic Hypothesis

That social systems evolve toward the most positive images they hold of themselves.


Peter E. Franks

Imagining - visioning“We are each made and imagined in the eyes of one another. There is an utter inseparability of the individual from the social context and history of the projective process. And positive interpersonal imagery, the research now shows, accomplishes its work very concretely. Like the placebo response it appears that the positive image plants a seed that redirects the mind of the perceiver to think about and see the other with affirmative eyes.”D. Cooperrider (1990)


Peter E. Franks

Assumptions of AI• In every society, organisation or group something works.

• What we focus on becomes our reality.• Reality is created in the moment, and there are multiple realities.

• The act of asking questions of an organisation or group influences the group in some way.

• People have more confidence and comfort to journey to the future (the unknown) when they carry forward parts of the past (the known).

• If we carry parts of the past forward, they should be what is best about the past.

• It is important to value differences.• The language we use creates our reality.


Peter E. Franks

Principles of AI

• Appreciate: the best of what exists, hopes for the future.

• Apply: knowledge of what works and what’s possible.

• Provoke: imaginations regarding new ways of organising, creative improvements.

• Collaborate: collective capacity building, expertise and resources


Peter E. Franks

The AI Change ProcessDefinition:

Decide What to Learn About

Discovery: Opportunity Context

Positive Core

Dream: Envisioning what might be; shared

images for a preferred future

Design: Finding innovative ways to create that future; Breakthrough

propositions

Delivery: Sustaining the

ChangeTopic(What you Want

More of)


Peter E. Franks

A Concern in Appreciative Inquiry

Promoting appreciation where there has been little can, of itself, generate a wave of energy and enthusiasm but that will go away just as quickly as the next challenge or tragedy to a social system rears its head. Gervase R. Bushe (1998)Five Theories of Change Embedded in Appreciative Inquiry


Peter E. Franks

Will The aesthetics or progressiveness of the systems and structures is not as important as the willingness to make even inadequate systems and structures work for the people they are meant to serve.


Peter E. Franks

Some principles• Allowing as many perspectives to emerge as possible

• Deal with everything that emerges, • look for the positive in ideas you instinctively reject or resist

• Both/and rather than either/or.• No one can win, the whole really is bigger than the sum of the parts

• Let the ideas cook, it is the magic that creates new knowledge


Peter E. Franks

Native American Proverb

Tell me and I’ll forget.Show me, and I may not remember.Involve me, and I’ll understand


Peter E. Franks

Confucius

‘In order to establish oneself, one has to establish others.’


Peter E. Franks

The Bottom Line

You can’t get more out of truth then what you put into it

Milorad Pavic

Allowing ideas to cook, Conversation and dialogue: Harnessing a breadth of perspectives, experience...

Documents

Transcript of Allowing ideas to cook, Conversation and dialogue: Harnessing a breadth of perspectives, experience...