It was the year 2014. I was working with my brothers in their training company, which was quite large, very well established, and well known in the Ecuadorian market. An important multinational organization contacted us to assist them with organizing a worldwide Appreciative Inquiry Summit for its headquarters in all the countries it operated in. It was the first time I heard of an “Appreciative Inquiry Summit”. Though partly due to being a psychologist by profession, trained in many methodologies, including Human Talent, I didn’t know about Appreciative Inquiry. I am curious by nature, so I decided to investigate it further. I would have liked to play an active part in the summit in my country, but they looked for professionals from other countries for support.
Lorena Merino Naranjo is a dedicated psychologist with fifteen years of experience in a hospital setting, fulfilling her lifelong aspiration. A mother to three wonderful sons, and journeying without time and space with her partner, she is passionate about her profession and consistently seeks to innovate and grow in her role as she continues to discover, dream, design and live appreciatively.
Going back to school: The fundamentals of Appreciative Inquiry
Once I started to understand more about it, I realised how valuable it would be even to our own company and all agreed I should undertake training. I was lucky to find immediately a course at one of the finest universities in Latin America, the Adolfo Ibañez University in Chile, where I attended “Fundamentals of Appreciative Inquiry”. I’m grateful to the universe that the one I found was the best for me and close to home. Feeling as if I was back in school on that first day, I listened: the words made sense and resonated with every dream created in the training and embedded in the process of individual and community psychotherapeutic intervention. I met Miriam Subirana in person and David Cooperrider in a closing conference online, as well as Chilean academic professionals, Jorge Sanhuenza and Roberto Aristegui, exponents of AI who planted an appreciative seed in the lives of others, including vulnerable Chilean communities. I returned home, first to apply AI to my own life, and then put it into practice working with others, and ultimately to life as a whole.
One of my brothers, Mauricio, also a crazy dreamer like me, saw how excited I was about the course I explained the ways in which what I had experienced and learned could be used in the work we already did by bringing in the concepts of AI, and that we could use our new understanding to help others find similar paths. Armed with these new ideas, we approached various Ecuadorian groups who we felt might be interested: producers and exporters of roses, public and municipal companies, and those in El Caquetá, a region of great natural beauty in Colombia.
Our first intervention: Living with guerilla activity
We received our first invitation in January 2015 to facilitate an intervention and conference about the experiences lived in Ecuador. A group of teachers living with the reality of the guerrilla activity that affected the country for many years, and the social impact this had on families and school structures, initiated a diploma course in the development of equipment and technologies with social implications. Well, there we were, our first extraordinary summit – full of feeling, so much to elaborate upon, so much to discover, so many dreams to bring to life and, above all, the possibility of designing possible solutions around their current reality. This journey was leading us to fulfil and live an appreciative transformation. So began our collective dreaming – the sum of this respectful group of souls, outstanding professionals from different countries: Argentina, Columbia, Ecuador and Mexico, including Andrea Torrecilla, Rosalinda Malagón, Mauricio Merino and María José Barona.
Our commitment was to life: what we were dreaming of would affect the lives of many and we had to look at the ‘whole life’ situation. I already knew what I wanted my way of life to be. The process of writing also brought about greater understanding of life choices. The dreaming helped me to crystallise my thoughts of how my own journey could be used as a basis to help others by explaining how they could use something that had changed my life to do the same. This meant writing about AI psycho-therapeutically, about the discovering of what exists and what works well, including looking at everything that had left a mark on me and, what I had learned from it. This brought home to me even more clearly just how amazing the effect of the AI approach was having on me as an individual. Using an AI approach, listening to others and listening to myself, let everything begin to make sense – how our experiences could be used in co-designing ways forward.
Thus began the transformation of how I viewed myself and my immediate environment – and the world. Everything makes sense in its totality, in the appreciative, in listening to my voice, to the voices of all, to co-build from the foundations we discover in ourselves, in dreaming ourselves, designing ourselves, and in living that transformation by choosing appreciatively.
María José Barona and I worked on the design of a psychotherapeutic methodological proposal which we call “person-oriented, humanistic, appreciative psychotherapy”.
A humanist, person-centered perspective
The psychotherapeutic approach we use focuses on the humanistic person-centered perspective in the here-and-now, where we consider the person in a bio-psychosocial-spiritual way, respecting their uniqueness, their unrepeatable, irreplaceable being. We look beyond the symptoms and diagnosis: as our approach focuses on the person’s welfare in which unconditional acceptance, transparency, the principle of free choice and the search for real solutions from a non-directive approach prevail. We connect the outcomes of our summit dreaming, with using AI, to what we have been supporting in private practice and clinical intervention for approximately ten years. We’ve done this in such a way that the view of mental health in our country has now shifted to one that sees the positive aspects of people receiving therapy.
The patient who turns for help to a consultation does so from a position of crisis or vulnerability, or a driving need for transformation. Most arrive feeling that they are lacking something and, unable to see what to do alone, seek help. The results, which are clear, include:
Children who have found meaning in living after serious accidents,
Women who have overcome abandonment, abuse and loneliness to become the protagonists of their dreams,
Men with diagnoses of diseases that can’t be treated, choosing to take charge of their life history,
Couples who have reunited from the essence, the very core, of who they are to design stronger families together,
Young people who can look in the mirror to discover that they can choose to be the makers of their lives with powerful images that move them to change their here-and-now forever.
The process begins with the idea of the person recognizing the peak moments in their history, knowing themselves to be the author of those moments . This is where resilient resources are awakened, the key and the positive core of the whole process which lets them go beyond the self-doubts to see a positive way forward.
In undertaking this journey through personal history and the resources present in the person’s four intertwined dimensions, best described as the bio-psychosocial-spiritual self, we begin to see the appreciative path as one that the individual concerned and I take together. However, I strongly believe that this will only be fruitful if I, as the facilitator, have looked at, recognized and valued myself in the same way as I am asking the individual to do. Only then can I dream a new outlook and see myself as if it were already happening, in every detail. I design myself to the measure of what I am, and I dream. Destiny is the moment in which I choose to walk, to live this dream.
When you look at yourself appreciatively, you admire the world, and the people who come to you are appreciative, so the path also becomes appreciative.
The continuing path of learning
The path of learning, application, experience, debate and transformation continues: Chile 2014 Fundamentals of AI; Colombia 2015 Caquetá Summit; Lima 2015 Appreciative Coaching; Ecuador 2015 Appreciative Leadership; Mexico 2016 Contagiando la AI; Buenos Aires 2016 Advanced AI; Ecuador 2017 First Edition Discover yourself MujerIA; Rosario 2018 Second Edition MujerIA. In Nice, in 2019 at WAIC (the World Appreciative Inquiry Congress), we were part of the Latin American group Unity Towards the Common Good. From 2020 to the present, many communities, companies, families and patients in Ecuador and Latin America have benefited from a change of outlook, an appreciative transformation of their lives.
Thanks to each one of those brilliant professionals, who have accompanied me and continue to do so, in this work that bears fruit, work that builds ideas that become a reality, because they do it with their soul in their hands! The voice of each one of the people we work with is present in each step taken! Thank you, Miriam Subirana, for teaching me and for trusting me.
Thank you, David Cooperrider, for dreaming, creating and designing an appreciative world, for leaving the written lines and inviting us to keep editing them every day!
We are still on the road, talking about summits.
Intro by Keith Storace
In Voices from the Field, Lorena Merino Naranjo recounts her transformative journey with Appreciative Inquiry. In her article titled “We Are Still on The Road, Talking About Summits”, Lorena presents how she collaborated with María José Barona to integrate Appreciative Inquiry into a psychotherapeutic approach that leverages personal strengths, achieving significant positive outcomes for patients and communities across Latin America. Her ongoing commitment to personcentred and strengths-based therapy is reflective of the extent to which people have benefited from such a unique approach to therapy.
In November 2017, I had the privilege of working with Rosemary Bell, Community Development Officer for the City of Toronto Canada and Amanjot Gill, Mental Health and Addictions Clinician originally based in northern British Columbia, Canada. In conjunction with the Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy 2020, Rosemary and Amanjot were focussed on the co-creation of a Leadership Development Training pilot program for higher education students on placement in areas including: social development, finance and administration. In this issue of AI Practitioner, Rosemary and Amanjot provide an overview of their work with these students as well as further application of an appreciative approach in other settings.
Keith Storace
Keith is a registered psychologist with the Psychology Board of Australia (PsyBA) and associate fellow with the Australasian College of Health Service Management (ACHSM). He has designed and implemented health and wellbeing frameworks across the community, health and education sectors. Keith’s current focus is on developing his work in Appreciative Dialogue (ApDi) to assist individuals in moving from self-doubt to inspired positive action.
Rosemary Bell
Rosemary has worked as a community development officer for the City of Toronto since 2003. Since her first exposure to Appreciative Inquiry during a conference in Washington, D.C. she has used it as a facilitative approach integrating it into her community development work. Along with appreciative practice, she also uses asset-based, strength-based, solution-focused and anti-oppressive practices.
Amanjot Gill
From September 2017 to April 2018, Amanjot worked alongside Rosemary Bell in a variety of community-based initiatives including co-creating and co-facilitating placement student workshops while working towards her Masters’ in Social Work. Appreciative Inquiry (AI) has assisted her in developing questions and evaluation sheets and by using the concepts within research. As a newly exposed user of AI she hopes to learn more and integrate AI approaches to evaluation, outcomes and non-profit management.
Developing Leadership Confidence in Canadian Students
Every fall I get the opportunity to work with new placement students from a variety of educational institutions in the city of Toronto where I work as a Community Development Officer for the municipality. As part of my orientation with them I share the frameworks used in my community development work rolling out the Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy 2020. These frameworks include: anti-oppression, asset-based, strength-based, solution-focused practices and last but definitely not least, appreciative practice frameworks. As a person who has been working for more than thirty-five years in my field, it is always interesting to dialogue with students about why my practice has evolved and expanded over the years; I am exposed to new approaches that have practical applications in both my professional and personal life.
In the fall of 2017, Amanjot Gill, a Masters of Social Work candidate from the University of Toronto, joined me for her eight-month practicum placement. She came from the Social Work Leadership and Management stream of the Masters’ program. While she was aware of and using many of the practice frameworks previously mentioned, the appreciative practice framework was new to her.
One of our joint projects was co-creating and then rolling out a Leadership Development Training pilot program for twenty-four students doing their placements in the social development, finance and administration division. These students came from a diverse list of educational institutions (both colleges and universities) and multiple programs (i.e. social service worker, community worker, Bachelor of Social Work, Master of Social Work, Master of Science in Planning, Urban Studies/Geography, Masters of Environmental studies, etc.)
From 2017 to 2018 placement students met with us once a month for an afternoon to be trained in a variety of topics (i.e. communications, decision-making at city hall, health and safety, using census data to enhance community work, networking, conflict resolution with stakeholders, working with community not for profit organizations, making the transition from placement to work, etc.)
We noticed that the students were very quiet over the first few months as we got to know them and each other. We realized that many of them were a little hesitant and unsure of themselves. Their lack of confidence was surprising. They had achieved a placement with the city government, yet some of them felt like imposters who were just waiting for someone to realize that they didn’t belong.
Managing self-doubt
It was at this time that I saw an article in the August 2017 issue of AI Practitioner by Keith Storace, a registered psychologist in Melbourne Australia entitled “Appreciative Dialogue: Managing Self-doubt Through Inspirational Discourse”. Keith’s work focused on self-doubt in higher education students. A little voice in my head said reach out and ask for help, so we emailed Keith and asked if he would share his expertise with us. Lucky for us, he said yes. Using Skype and with some careful juggling of time zones, he worked with us in November 2017 to craft a series of questions that focussed on past, present, and future along with developing a workshop specifically targeted toward our group of students.
On 1 December, 2017, having pre-read the questions Keith had developed, students came prepared to share their reflections in a paired exercise. The questions included the following:
Past
What are all the things you can think of that made your study pathway possible?
What is one of the best experiences you can think of that involved working on something with a group of people and what was your role?
What was a challenge you experienced in the past that had a positive outcome? What did you do and what did you learn?
Present
If you had one desire for the future in relation to work, what would it be?
How will you know that things are moving in the right direction for you in relation to work?
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be and how could some of the experiences you mentioned in your answers above help you achieve this change?
When we debriefed their discussion in pairs we asked them:
What are some of the things that came up in your pairs?
What have you learned from sharing your story with your partner that came up in terms of self-doubt?
What do you feel you have achieved in life with the strengths and desires that you have?
Future
If you had one desire for the future in relation to work, what would it be?
How will you know that things are moving in the right direction for you in relation to work?
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be and how could some of the experiences you mentioned in your answers above help you achieve this change?
When we debriefed their discussion in pairs we asked them:
What are some of the things that came up in your pairs?
What have you learned from sharing your story with your partner that came up in terms of self-doubt?
What do you feel you have achieved in life with the strengths and desires that you have?
(Consultation via Skype with Keith Storace, November 25th 2017)
We then flip-charted the key themes that came out of this discussion and addressed similarities in their lived experiences.
Intentional conversation with a positive direction
Keith describes Appreciative Dialogue (ApDi) as an “intentional conversation with a positive direction” and, as he indicated might happen, we found that by using ApDi to explore student values, experiences and key strengths, it motivated and supported students in working through and beyond their self-doubt. We were able to reinforce with them that:
“Successful careers take planning.”
“There is no failure, only frustration” – If you consider your so-called failure as an inconvenience or frustration, rather than a failure, and use it as part of a personally creative and innovative process, you stand to gain more rather than experiencing it as a loss.
“Self-doubt will not stop you, self-denial will.” – Self-doubt will not necessarily stop you from achieving something whereas self-denial is more likely to prevent the successful outcome you are working towards. This is because, in essence, self-doubt is a feeling and self-denial is behaviour.
“Enter the world of work knowing it is okay not to know everything.”
(Consultation via Skype with Keith Storace, November 25th 2017)
The student process worked so well for us that when we started discussions about our next project in the winter of 2018 on resident engagement, we decided again to use the Appreciative Dialogue (ApDi) approach. A template for a series of one-on-one interviews and focus groups in the Jane and Finch community in northern Toronto was created using the following premises:
Recognizing residents’ individual and collective successes
Emphasizing their experience of what is working well for them, but changing the narrative in discussions and in questions
Validating individuals’ expert knowledge gained from lived experience of community challenges and the solutions to address them
Supporting them to moving toward to their best future
Encouraging them with an opportunity to be creative and innovative through a neighbourhood grants program for residents
A youth focus group of seventeen participants and a senior focus group of five participants were conducted from March to April of 2018. As well, nine resident interviews with youth, adults and seniors were held. These interviews took place in a variety of spaces in the community of Jane and Finch.
Sharing hopes and dreams
We asked residents to share with us their hopes and dreams for their family and community. This community has been studied often and as a result feels violated by the process. We shifted the dynamic by exploring how their ideas, skills and projects are supported in their community. We also asked them what currently works well in their neighbourhood.
The information we received from residents has been summarized and will be shared with them, other networks and planning tables. The intent is to follow up on the ideas generated and suggestions for more functional ways to provide services, meet needs and shift the stigmatizing narrative by highlighting their community assets.
From an overall Appreciative Inquiry perspective, we also decided to use an appreciative framework in the design of a workshop formatted to introduce resident neighbourhood grants on 5 April, 2018. At the local library, thirty residents and other stakeholders met one evening to hear about grant processes. Rather than focusing the whole meeting on the “dos” and “don’ts” of application writing we used the 5D approach for our facilitation:
Definition of the opportunity
Residents told the City:
We have expert knowledge, gained through lived experience, of the challenges in our communities and we are have the solutions.
We’ve got ideas to make our neighbourhoods stronger, healthier places to live, help us make them happen.
We want our community to reflect the strengths, assets and creative capacity of its residents.
The City has responded with neighbourhood grants for resident groups.
Discovery: Appreciate what is already working
What are your best experiences in your community?
What important local wisdom can you share today?
Dream: Imagine the best version of your community
Share the creative concept/new idea that you need funding to make happen.
How will you focus this new opportunity?
How will you use your energy to spark positive change in your community?
Design: The steps needed for your neighbourhood project
Who do you need to build partnerships with?
How will you build your budget?
How will you reach out to residents and other community members?
Where will you hold your event?
Have you thought about insurance and/or permits for space?
What other things do you need to do?
In conclusion, Amanjot shared that she will be moving forward with a strong tool and approach that she can use in future work place settings. She said that the use of Appreciative Dialogue with the placement students resulted in a much deeper and meaningful participation from them in workshops and their placement overall, which was reflected in their evaluation surveys. In turn, she used the appreciative lens during her studies in university, recognizing that this was beneficial to both her personal and professional development.
In the final instalment of Our Principles in Action: Appreciative Inquiry for Justice & Belonging, Faith Addicott presents “Bringing It Home – the Positive Principle” and expands on its hidden treasures and power to move us forward. I would like to thank Faith Addicott and Staceye Randle for such a necessary and insightful series that has challenged, inspired and developed our understanding of the AI principles.
Continuing with another transformational series – in her second article of this four-part presentation, A Practitioners Journey to Living with Climate Change – Alex Arnold shares an overview of the Climate Coaching Alliance Global Festival that was held in March this year. “Which Door Are You Going to Choose?” is a compelling essay that considers three ways to spark climate conversations.
I am also pleased to introduce Rolene Pryor. Her article, titled “Growing Towards the Light” reveals her AI journey and how it has transformed her work and her life, leading to the development of Beyond BaselineTM, an approach to planning that embraces the power of the AI principles and processes.
Keith Storace is a Registered Psychologist with the Psychology Board of Australia (PsyBA) and Associate Fellow with the Australasian College of Health Service Management (ACHSM). He manages a private practice at Kiku Imagination where he applies the Appreciative Dialogue (ApDi) therapy program to assist individuals move toward, strengthen, and enjoy what is meaningful while dealing with the challenges they encounter along the way.
Throughout this series, as we have examined the ways in which our AI principles open the doors to inclusive, equity-centered practices, we have spoken to the unique mindset that each principle invites. For all of them, there is a lens that underlies our day-to-day understanding as it applies to our AI work.
Faith Addicott, MPA, MPOD is working to improve the intersection of work and life through innovative and human-centered process design. Her consulting work has centered on nonprofits and local government, where she has undertaken organizational assessments and strategic planning using AI and other strengths-based processes. She is a champion for inclusive workplace design.
There is a deeper layer.
Beneath the core concepts of our principles – Anticipatory, Constructionist, Simultaneity, Poetic, Wholeness, Awareness, Enactment, Narrative & Free Choice – there is a truth. Simply put, we cannot appreciate where we do not include. The appreciative eye is the eye that holds the whole, in all its awkwardness and splendor.
Likewise, the inquiring mind – inquisitive, full of wonder, never ceasing in the search for truth and beauty – is a space where the kind of false certainties that lead to racist and and oppressive ideologies cannot exist. Because a mind (or a person, or a community) dedicated to asking is always open to discovery, and discovery inevitably unearths the connections and meaning that lie between us all.
The Positive principle is the action principle, the call to move into the pursuit of our questing in full, to ASK QUESTIONS. “Momentum for [small- or] large-scale change requires large amounts of positive affect and social bonding. This momentum is best generated through positive questions that amplify the positive core.”
A single frame of reference
We ask without fear of the answers, in complete acceptance of contradictions and complexities, in the pursuit of wonder, and we explore the fullness of what it means to be human by framing consistently in the positive. We intentionally seek what is best in all of us, in all people. Our exploration brings us into the stories of other cultures, of different ways of knowing. We set the context for
mutual understanding in a single frame of reference: what is BEST in you? What is best in me? What is best in us?
This principle is the one that gets the most negative reactions from people … it’s easy to think positive = Pollyanna, a false shine that silences the very real harms and traumas that make our experiences visceral. As discussed in the work of Gervase Bushe, the real heart of the positive principle is in generativity, not simple positivity. This principle moves us, pulls us, draws us into a best possible future by inviting us into a mindset that demands a positive option, not just dystopian wastelands.
In the context of Justice & Belonging work, the Positive principle looks beyond what we don’t want and asks us what good is possible for a just society. Intentionally, it asks that we pursue these questions not only with an expectation of wonder, but also that we do the work with each other, together.
The dance of ask-and-answer
Because the dance of ask-and-answer always involves more than one person; it also always includes more than one viewpoint. Intrinsically interconnected, our principles again lead us to each other, to amazement in the possibility of it all, and in the child-like glee of asking.
Thank you all for taking this journey with me. I hope these thoughts have informed your own sense of what is possible for justice in our work.
Rolene Pryor is a facilitator, planner, trainer and management consultant who loves supporting her clients to get beyond baseline. Rolene uses her background in facilitation and planning to understand client context, needs, goals and strengths, and applies that learning to co-create compelling visions for the future. Rolene holds a master’s degree in Applied Social Psychology and is energized by people and teams.
In 2010, Kelly and I were working together in the Institutional Research and Planning team at a higher education institution in the Middle East. Our institution was a satellite campus of an established Canadian organization and had never been asked to create a strategic plan that was specific to the needs of our campus.
When the call for a strategic plan came, a team was assembled to get the job done. The challenge was that this team didn’t have a lot of experience with strategic planning. Plus, the timeline was short. And the needs were complex.
Enter Kelly. One of her most beautiful strengths is her love of new ideas and models. Kelly had been reading about Appreciative Inquiry (AI) and its potential to bring large groups together to align on vision. She was intrigued by the potential to use AI in our work and suggested that we get trained in AI so that we explore further.
‘Viva, Las Vegas!’ Elvis Presley
The training was in Las Vegas, USA; I was sold! So, we made the long journey from Qatar to Nevada to take our four-day Appreciative Inquiry Facilitator Training (AIFT) with Company of Experts. In those four days, we were continually inspired and energized with all the ideas that were coming up for us, and the ways we could see the potential to meaningfully use AI in our work. Before our trip, I was excited to see Las Vegas. After our trip, I was excited about what we were about to try.
Kelly and I returned to the Middle East with enthusiasm and energy, and pitched our idea to the strategic planning team. Given the timelines and the other pressures, they agreed to let us run the process with what we had just learned in our time away.
‘You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.’ Martin Luther King, Jr
And we were off! Through our planning process, we did a lot of great stuff. We engaged more than 400 key partners through the planning process in both English and Arabic, we built a culturally appropriate space to hold our events (a majlis), we heard inspiring and energizing stories of institutional excellence, we co-created directions for the future, and we created a compelling multi-year strategic plan.
But the best part of it all was the bonds that were created, the relationships that were deepened, and the shared understanding that was built that cut through the challenges being faced at the institution. Kelly and I saw, firsthand, the power of Appreciative Inquiry. We left our planning sessions each day with tired feet and electrifyingly energized minds – I will always remember that feeling. Together, we had unlocked real magic.
More than a decade later, I look back on our AI-for-strategic-planning process as a peak career experience and something that forever changed how I move through the world, both at work and at home.
‘Unlimited. Together we’re unlimited.’– Stephen Schwartz
I left that institution in 2012 to start a career back in Canada as a management consultant. As I began to work with clients in different industries who were all presenting with unique challenges and needs, it became clear that, despite their uniqueness, AI could have a positive impact for all of them – just as it had for our campus in the Middle East back in 2010.
As I used AI more and more with my clients, I started to realize that the power of focusing on strengths, finding ways to create more of those strengths, and creating an expansive view of the future was allowing my clients to get well beyond where they were now and where they thought they could be in the future. My clients were getting beyond the baseline that they had set for themselves; instead, they were realizing that their future was truly unlimited.
I took what I had learned from years of facilitation, research and planning, combined that with the power of the principles and process of AI, and created an agile planning process called Beyond BaselineTM. This approach meets people, teams and organizations where they are, seeking to understand their context, pain points, fears,and concerns. That, combined with additional research, becomes the starting point for future-state visioning, action planning and implementation. Each client engagement is different, and the specifics of the approach are highly customized and flexible for each clients’ needs, goals and preferred outcomes. One thing remains the same – the process is grounded in finding, appreciating and amplifying the strengths present in every team and organization.
Insomuch as this Beyond BaselineTM model is agile for my clients, it’s agile for me too. As I learn more, try more and explore more, I add to and adjust the model. I recently completed the Appreciative Resilience Facilitator Training (ARFT) course offered by the Center for Appreciative Inquiry and I have folded learnings and insights from that experience into my Dscovery phase flow with my clients, recognizing that hope, despair and forgiveness are normal and fluid in everyone’s lives, at work and at home.
‘If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.’ Henry Ford
I am very thankful to work for an organization that embraces the ideas (like Beyond BaselineTM!) that passionate practitioners bring to the table – and I am passionate about the power of AI in consulting.
In addition to using Beyond BaselineTM for clients, I’ve had the support from our team to turn the lens inward for our organization Our Barrington Consulting team has used Beyond BaselineTM, and its grounding in strengths, to build our own corporate multiyear strategy and to understand and celebrate our corporate culture.
Just like that first strategic planning experience in 2010, our Barrington team has worked together to create powerful and compelling visions of the future which were excellent. But the most powerful outcome of the process was the way that relationships were formed, deepened and solidified. Our team understands the power of AI because they’ve experienced it. We are all excited to bring more clients through the Beyond BaselineTM flow because it’s so uplifting and poignant while also being incredibly effective and powerful.
‘Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it.’ Maya Angelou
I feel the power of AI in my own life, every day. Being able to reframe an issue or a gap into a request for what it is that I actually want, framed in the affirmative, has been transformational. As an AI trainer, I often hear the question – “aren’t we ignoring the problems when we reframe?” I strongly believe that the answer to that is no, we aren’t ignoring the problems that exist. Instead, we are asking for what it is that we want, what we want to create, what success looks like, and/or what we want more of.
I believe that more is a small word with incredible power. In my life, more has opened many doors for me – doors to hard conversations, doors to increased clarity in relationships, doors to shared understanding, and doors to vulnerability. These are all doors that, when we walk through them, build more and more authenticity within ourselves and our relationships with others.
‘Wherever there is air and light and open space, things grow.’ Helen Oyeyemi
So, what does the future hold for me and Appreciative Inquiry? It’s more!
I am excited to build more and more AI into my consulting work. Beyond BaselineTM is growing and I am excited to continue to evolve this method as I have more opportunities to serve current and new clients. I continue to be inspired when I see how widely applicable a strengths focus is across so many specific needs, realities and sectors. I’ve had the chance to use these techniques and principles on dozens of different client engagements over the years – each one has worked and each one has been transformational in its own way. I trust the process because it works.
I am excited to breathe in the power of more in my daily life. As AI practitioners, we often talk about the difference between being AI and doing AI. Doing AI is about the process – following steps that work to create a vision based on a specific topic or opportunity. Being AI is about how you move through the world, finding the joy in small things, fanning the flames in others, seeing what is possible.
My goal is to continue to grow AI in everything I do, in every breath I take, and every interaction I have. I’m a work in progress and I’m excited to continue to grow towards the light.
Alex Arnold (she/her) MSPsy, MSHR/ OD, ACC, is program director at The Taos Institute and a climate resilience coach at Alma Coaching, where she uses positive psychology and Appreciative Inquiry to help introverted and highly sensitive people shift from climate anxiety to inspired action.
Over the course of the month of March 2023, the Climate Coaching Alliance Global Festival featured more than 50 virtual events on the theme: Tools for Transitions – Navigating the Paradoxes, Polarities and Paradigms in Climate Coaching. Sessions were hosted by people from around the globe on topics that go far beyond traditional news headlines, alarmist messages, or the most common calls for action. In this article, we will explore the wide variety of ways one (whether a coach or not) can start climate conversations, at home, at work, and with oneself. Let’s see what happens when we open some of these doors …
(Most gatherings started with a grounding exercise and lighting a candle, which you may want to do before you read on, allowing yourself to slow down and honor your own experience with this topic.)
Door #1: Gut microbiome
When it comes to climate change, the scale of the problem can make us feel very small, as when we stand in a forest surrounded by really tall trees, looking up. Cara Wheatley-McGrain, host of the session Compassionate connection to our inner and outer ecosystems, invited us to look down instead: at the fallen leaves, the earth, the small creatures and plants on the ground, and to consider that, from this perspective, we are standing on the rooftop of a whole world. Indeed, there are more microbes in a teaspoon of soil than there are people on the earth! It is with this vantage point that Wheatley-McGrain guided her audience through a visualization to visit the garden of their guts, which hosts the largest bacterial ecosystem in the human body. We’ve all heard the term “gut feeling”, and for a good reason.
Recent research on psychobiotics led by Professor John Cryan suggests that our gut health is not only linked to our physical, but to our mental, health. When it comes to microbes and bacteria, our gut thrives on abundance, diversity and balance. Unfortunately, in addition to being the principal cause of habitat loss (in turn contributing to species extinction), the industrialization of our food system has been leading to an invisible extinction of our gut microbiomes. A conservative estimate is that modern city dwellers have lost around 50% of their microbes through urbanization. If it is sometimes hard to relate to larger ecosystem changes taking place due to climate change, looking – or rather feeling – right inside of our guts may be a powerful motivator for positive change.
Inquiry practitioners. Rather than taking a “fix it” attitude, she calls for a reverse engineering process by asking “What is the future asking of us? What does that energy feel like?” Visualization, non-linear perception, and using a vocabulary of increase are tools that can replace the current narratives that keep us stuck with the constructs that got us where we are in the first place. By using other tools, we clear ourselves on the inside so that we can emanate conscious influence, or positive energy frequency. Check out Dr. David Hawkins’ map of consciousness to find out what emotions you want to cultivate to create the highest frequencies, life energy or level of enlightenment. Doing so, as Trager said in her session, “in ourselves and others, is the most accelerated path to a thriving and sustainable world … As conscious influencers, we have a deeper ripple impact from the inside out, through power versus force.”
Door #3: Cosmology
Cosmology is the study of the origin and structure of the universe. For Drew Dellinger, host of Planetizing the Movement with the Powers of Dream, Story, Art, and Action, cosmology is also a worldview, a story of separation of humans and nature that has been dominating a large part of the world. “How do we move from a cosmology of exploitation to one of interconnectedness?” he asks.
Or, as cultural historian Thomas Berry puts it, “from viewing the universe as a collection of objects to a communion of subjects”. One way, Drew Dellinger suggested in his session, is to bring the arts back from the fringe to the center, to remember that art is how heart speaks to heart; it is essential to who we are, and we are all artists in our own way. Art has a central place in activism. Art puts pressure with joy and love. Slowing down, being in stillness, spending time alone, and meditation can be ways to activate our innate creativity and perhaps even connect with the wisdom of the universe.
Other topics included: How we can draw on indigenous wisdom for the challenges facing us now; Successfully attract your clients to climate action; The self in a zillion eco-transitions; How to become a resilient and confident female leader for climate change?; Preventing climate burnout; Our traumas hold the key to the more beautiful world; How can the 3Cs of inclusive leadership enhance leading for sustainability?; Glorious 2030 – How to guide topic discussions and the building of desirable futures; How can playfulness help unlock climate action?; and many more.
As you can see, ways to enter conversations about climate change are endless, and sometimes quite surprising. Even so, there are common themes that emerged from all of these sessions. Clover Hogan, activist, entrepreneur, global speaker, and only twenty-three years old, captured them in a powerful opening session:
Acknowledging eco-anxiety (a chronic fear of environmental doom) and ecophobia (an ethical undervaluing of the natural environment that can result in cataclysmic environmental change). In a survey of 10,000 young people, 70% reported being eco-anxious. Denial, grief, sadness, hopelessness, loss of faith in institutions, burnout, confusion, a sense of betrayal … all are now part of the dialogue. But they are not problems to be fixed: they are “beautiful evidence of our humanity”. Processing rather than bypassing these emotions is important, with someone who can hold the space and facilitate empowerment and agency rather than allowing despair to set in.
Finding community. We can’t do this alone – and we are not alone. We all need to be with others, in a group or an organization, to find validation, motivation, support and accountability. Taking a collective approach also means bringing many voices into the room and genuinely listening to diverse views, especially those that have been largely ignored or suppressed.
Hogan has a special request for the adults who so often instinctively want to remove the pain and suffering for young people. This has to stop, she says, as it only fuels the feeling of betrayal. It’s time to have honest conversations about the reality, the losses and the pain among people of every age. Hold these conversations with tenderness and care to rebuild trust. In her view, “it is intergenerational wisdom and action that will make a difference”.
Choosing a focus. Too many are stuck because they feel too small to make a difference, think that the system is too broken, or don’t know where to start. Empowerment comes from finding a unique way to contribute. Rather than trying to fix it all, let’s ask “what is the one thing I can show up to solve, where does my impact come from?” Coaches and AI practitioners can play an important role in helping individuals identify the values, skills, unique gifts – the positive core – that will ignite sustainable action and a sense of agency. Here again, it’s essential to team up with others and not try to go at it alone.
Changing the story. Being exposed to constant stories of disasters around the world in the news and social media is too much. Pointing out that consumption is at the heart of the crisis and asking people to sacrifice their habits and lifestyles is not working. Vilifying those in power is too easy. Relying solely on technology to solve it all is spreading false hope.
Instead, Hogan encourages us to create a compelling message, an invitation for people to be part of something bigger, a reminder that true happiness comes from within, and a celebration of the fact that there is already a shift toward increased spirituality and connection with nature. “How do we make climate action irresistible?!”
The message throughout this month-long festival, across 50 virtual sessions hosted by change agents from around the globe, is loud and clear: we won’t solve the climate crisis with the same people and thinking that created it. It’s time to open up new doors, tell new stories, and pick up new tools. It begins at the personal level and requires a “going back to nature”.
This event was made possible by the dedication and generosity of CCA volunteers and has resulted in a fantastic library of resources. Watch the recordings available on each event page at www.climatecoachingalliance.org/ global-festival-2023 and spread the word.
These resources were chosen by Joeri Kabalt, the editor of this issue, to share with practitioners some of resources that she has found to be particularly relevant on the topic of living and working with climate change.
How would nature change leadership? Tedx Talk
by Andres Roberts
Inspiring talk by AIP contributor Andres Roberts on how we can come to a new narrative of progress by learning from and working with nature.
Beautifully illustrated “spellbook” for conjuring back the words for the natural world around us that have slowly disappeared from our language.
ISBN-10 : 1487005385; ISBN-13 : 978-1487005382
Braiding Sweetgrass
by Robin Wall Kimmerer
A book that celebrates our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world by drawing on indigenous wisdom.
ISBN-10 : 1571313567; ISBN-13 : 978-1571313560
Hope Free Online Course
by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone
This course offers tools that help face concerns of our world, as well as find and play our role in the collective transition towards a society and way of being that support the flourishing of life.
Throughout this series, as we have examined the ways in which our AI principles open the doors to inclusive, equity-centered practices, we have spoken to the unique mindset that each principle invites. For all of them, there is a lens that underlies our day-to-day understanding as it applies to our AI work.
Faith Addicott, MPA, MPOD is working to improve the intersection of work and life through innovative and human-centered process design. Her consulting work has centered on nonprofits and local government, where she has undertaken organizational assessments and strategic planning using AI and other strengths-based processes. She is a champion for inclusive workplace design.
There is a deeper layer.
Beneath the core concepts of our principles – Anticipatory, Constructionist, Simultaneity, Poetic, Wholeness, Awareness, Enactment, Narrative & Free Choice – there is a truth. Simply put, we cannot appreciate where we do not include. The appreciative eye is the eye that holds the whole, in all its awkwardness and splendor.
Likewise, the inquiring mind – inquisitive, full of wonder, never ceasing in the search for truth and beauty – is a space where the kind of false certainties that lead to racist and and oppressive ideologies cannot exist. Because a mind (or a person, or a community) dedicated to asking is always open to discovery, and discovery inevitably unearths the connections and meaning that lie between us all.
The Positive principle is the action principle, the call to move into the pursuit of our questing in full, to ASK QUESTIONS. “Momentum for [small- or] large-scale change requires large amounts of positive affect and social bonding. This momentum is best generated through positive questions that amplify the positive core.”
A single frame of reference
We ask without fear of the answers, in complete acceptance of contradictions and complexities, in the pursuit of wonder, and we explore the fullness of what it means to be human by framing consistently in the positive. We intentionally seek what is best in all of us, in all people. Our exploration brings us into the stories of other cultures, of different ways of knowing. We set the context for
mutual understanding in a single frame of reference: what is BEST in you? What is best in me? What is best in us?
This principle is the one that gets the most negative reactions from people … it’s easy to think positive = Pollyanna, a false shine that silences the very real harms and traumas that make our experiences visceral. As discussed in the work of Gervase Bushe, the real heart of the positive principle is in generativity, not simple positivity. This principle moves us, pulls us, draws us into a best possible future by inviting us into a mindset that demands a positive option, not just dystopian wastelands.
In the context of Justice & Belonging work, the Positive principle looks beyond what we don’t want and asks us what good is possible for a just society. Intentionally, it asks that we pursue these questions not only with an expectation of wonder, but also that we do the work with each other, together.
The dance of ask-and-answer
Because the dance of ask-and-answer always involves more than one person; it also always includes more than one viewpoint. Intrinsically interconnected, our principles again lead us to each other, to amazement in the possibility of it all, and in the child-like glee of asking.
Thank you all for taking this journey with me. I hope these thoughts have informed your own sense of what is possible for justice in our work.
Intro by Keith Storace
In the final instalment of Our Principles in Action: Appreciative Inquiry for Justice & Belonging, Faith Addicott presents “Bringing It Home – the Positive Principle” and expands on its hidden treasures and power to move us forward. I would like to thank Faith Addicott and Staceye Randle for such a necessary and insightful series that has challenged, inspired and developed our understanding of the AI principles.
Rolene Pryor is a facilitator, planner, trainer and management consultant who loves supporting her clients to get beyond baseline. Rolene uses her background in facilitation and planning to understand client context, needs, goals and strengths, and applies that learning to co-create compelling visions for the future. Rolene holds a master’s degree in Applied Social Psychology and is energized by people and teams.
In 2010, Kelly and I were working together in the Institutional Research and Planning team at a higher education institution in the Middle East. Our institution was a satellite campus of an established Canadian organization and had never been asked to create a strategic plan that was specific to the needs of our campus.
When the call for a strategic plan came, a team was assembled to get the job done. The challenge was that this team didn’t have a lot of experience with strategic planning. Plus, the timeline was short. And the needs were complex.
Enter Kelly. One of her most beautiful strengths is her love of new ideas and models. Kelly had been reading about Appreciative Inquiry (AI) and its potential to bring large groups together to align on vision. She was intrigued by the potential to use AI in our work and suggested that we get trained in AI so that we explore further.
‘Viva, Las Vegas!’ Elvis Presley
The training was in Las Vegas, USA; I was sold! So, we made the long journey from Qatar to Nevada to take our four-day Appreciative Inquiry Facilitator Training (AIFT) with Company of Experts. In those four days, we were continually inspired and energized with all the ideas that were coming up for us, and the ways we could see the potential to meaningfully use AI in our work. Before our trip, I was excited to see Las Vegas. After our trip, I was excited about what we were about to try.
Kelly and I returned to the Middle East with enthusiasm and energy, and pitched our idea to the strategic planning team. Given the timelines and the other pressures, they agreed to let us run the process with what we had just learned in our time away.
‘You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.’ Martin Luther King, Jr
And we were off! Through our planning process, we did a lot of great stuff. We engaged more than 400 key partners through the planning process in both English and Arabic, we built a culturally appropriate space to hold our events (a majlis), we heard inspiring and energizing stories of institutional excellence, we co-created directions for the future, and we created a compelling multi-year strategic plan.
But the best part of it all was the bonds that were created, the relationships that were deepened, and the shared understanding that was built that cut through the challenges being faced at the institution. Kelly and I saw, firsthand, the power of Appreciative Inquiry. We left our planning sessions each day with tired feet and electrifyingly energized minds – I will always remember that feeling. Together, we had unlocked real magic.
More than a decade later, I look back on our AI-for-strategic-planning process as a peak career experience and something that forever changed how I move through the world, both at work and at home.
‘Unlimited. Together we’re unlimited.’– Stephen Schwartz
I left that institution in 2012 to start a career back in Canada as a management consultant. As I began to work with clients in different industries who were all presenting with unique challenges and needs, it became clear that, despite their uniqueness, AI could have a positive impact for all of them – just as it had for our campus in the Middle East back in 2010.
As I used AI more and more with my clients, I started to realize that the power of focusing on strengths, finding ways to create more of those strengths, and creating an expansive view of the future was allowing my clients to get well beyond where they were now and where they thought they could be in the future. My clients were getting beyond the baseline that they had set for themselves; instead, they were realizing that their future was truly unlimited.
I took what I had learned from years of facilitation, research and planning, combined that with the power of the principles and process of AI, and created an agile planning process called Beyond BaselineTM. This approach meets people, teams and organizations where they are, seeking to understand their context, pain points, fears,and concerns. That, combined with additional research, becomes the starting point for future-state visioning, action planning and implementation. Each client engagement is different, and the specifics of the approach are highly customized and flexible for each clients’ needs, goals and preferred outcomes. One thing remains the same – the process is grounded in finding, appreciating and amplifying the strengths present in every team and organization.
Insomuch as this Beyond BaselineTM model is agile for my clients, it’s agile for me too. As I learn more, try more and explore more, I add to and adjust the model. I recently completed the Appreciative Resilience Facilitator Training (ARFT) course offered by the Center for Appreciative Inquiry and I have folded learnings and insights from that experience into my Dscovery phase flow with my clients, recognizing that hope, despair and forgiveness are normal and fluid in everyone’s lives, at work and at home.
‘If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.’ Henry Ford
I am very thankful to work for an organization that embraces the ideas (like Beyond BaselineTM!) that passionate practitioners bring to the table – and I am passionate about the power of AI in consulting.
In addition to using Beyond BaselineTM for clients, I’ve had the support from our team to turn the lens inward for our organization Our Barrington Consulting team has used Beyond BaselineTM, and its grounding in strengths, to build our own corporate multiyear strategy and to understand and celebrate our corporate culture.
Just like that first strategic planning experience in 2010, our Barrington team has worked together to create powerful and compelling visions of the future which were excellent. But the most powerful outcome of the process was the way that relationships were formed, deepened and solidified. Our team understands the power of AI because they’ve experienced it. We are all excited to bring more clients through the Beyond BaselineTM flow because it’s so uplifting and poignant while also being incredibly effective and powerful.
‘Ask for what you want and be prepared to get it.’ Maya Angelou
I feel the power of AI in my own life, every day. Being able to reframe an issue or a gap into a request for what it is that I actually want, framed in the affirmative, has been transformational. As an AI trainer, I often hear the question – “aren’t we ignoring the problems when we reframe?” I strongly believe that the answer to that is no, we aren’t ignoring the problems that exist. Instead, we are asking for what it is that we want, what we want to create, what success looks like, and/or what we want more of.
I believe that more is a small word with incredible power. In my life, more has opened many doors for me – doors to hard conversations, doors to increased clarity in relationships, doors to shared understanding, and doors to vulnerability. These are all doors that, when we walk through them, build more and more authenticity within ourselves and our relationships with others.
‘Wherever there is air and light and open space, things grow.’ Helen Oyeyemi
So, what does the future hold for me and Appreciative Inquiry? It’s more!
I am excited to build more and more AI into my consulting work. Beyond BaselineTM is growing and I am excited to continue to evolve this method as I have more opportunities to serve current and new clients. I continue to be inspired when I see how widely applicable a strengths focus is across so many specific needs, realities and sectors. I’ve had the chance to use these techniques and principles on dozens of different client engagements over the years – each one has worked and each one has been transformational in its own way. I trust the process because it works.
I am excited to breathe in the power of more in my daily life. As AI practitioners, we often talk about the difference between being AI and doing AI. Doing AI is about the process – following steps that work to create a vision based on a specific topic or opportunity. Being AI is about how you move through the world, finding the joy in small things, fanning the flames in others, seeing what is possible.
My goal is to continue to grow AI in everything I do, in every breath I take, and every interaction I have. I’m a work in progress and I’m excited to continue to grow towards the light.
Intro by Keith Storace
I am also pleased to introduce Rolene Pryor. Her article, titled “Growing Towards the Light” reveals her AI journey and how it has transformed her work and her life, leading to the development of Beyond BaselineTM, an approach to planning that embraces the power of the AI principles and processes.
Alex Arnold (she/her) MSPsy, MSHR/ OD, ACC, is program director at The Taos Institute and a climate resilience coach at Alma Coaching, where she uses positive psychology and Appreciative Inquiry to help introverted and highly sensitive people shift from climate anxiety to inspired action.
Over the course of the month of March 2023, the Climate Coaching Alliance Global Festival featured more than 50 virtual events on the theme: Tools for Transitions – Navigating the Paradoxes, Polarities and Paradigms in Climate Coaching. Sessions were hosted by people from around the globe on topics that go far beyond traditional news headlines, alarmist messages, or the most common calls for action. In this article, we will explore the wide variety of ways one (whether a coach or not) can start climate conversations, at home, at work, and with oneself. Let’s see what happens when we open some of these doors …
(Most gatherings started with a grounding exercise and lighting a candle, which you may want to do before you read on, allowing yourself to slow down and honor your own experience with this topic.)
Door #1: Gut microbiome
When it comes to climate change, the scale of the problem can make us feel very small, as when we stand in a forest surrounded by really tall trees, looking up. Cara Wheatley-McGrain, host of the session Compassionate connection to our inner and outer ecosystems, invited us to look down instead: at the fallen leaves, the earth, the small creatures and plants on the ground, and to consider that, from this perspective, we are standing on the rooftop of a whole world. Indeed, there are more microbes in a teaspoon of soil than there are people on the earth! It is with this vantage point that Wheatley-McGrain guided her audience through a visualization to visit the garden of their guts, which hosts the largest bacterial ecosystem in the human body. We’ve all heard the term “gut feeling”, and for a good reason.
Recent research on psychobiotics led by Professor John Cryan suggests that our gut health is not only linked to our physical, but to our mental, health. When it comes to microbes and bacteria, our gut thrives on abundance, diversity and balance. Unfortunately, in addition to being the principal cause of habitat loss (in turn contributing to species extinction), the industrialization of our food system has been leading to an invisible extinction of our gut microbiomes. A conservative estimate is that modern city dwellers have lost around 50% of their microbes through urbanization. If it is sometimes hard to relate to larger ecosystem changes taking place due to climate change, looking – or rather feeling – right inside of our guts may be a powerful motivator for positive change.
Inquiry practitioners. Rather than taking a “fix it” attitude, she calls for a reverse engineering process by asking “What is the future asking of us? What does that energy feel like?” Visualization, non-linear perception, and using a vocabulary of increase are tools that can replace the current narratives that keep us stuck with the constructs that got us where we are in the first place. By using other tools, we clear ourselves on the inside so that we can emanate conscious influence, or positive energy frequency. Check out Dr. David Hawkins’ map of consciousness to find out what emotions you want to cultivate to create the highest frequencies, life energy or level of enlightenment. Doing so, as Trager said in her session, “in ourselves and others, is the most accelerated path to a thriving and sustainable world … As conscious influencers, we have a deeper ripple impact from the inside out, through power versus force.”
Door #3: Cosmology
Cosmology is the study of the origin and structure of the universe. For Drew Dellinger, host of Planetizing the Movement with the Powers of Dream, Story, Art, and Action, cosmology is also a worldview, a story of separation of humans and nature that has been dominating a large part of the world. “How do we move from a cosmology of exploitation to one of interconnectedness?” he asks.
Or, as cultural historian Thomas Berry puts it, “from viewing the universe as a collection of objects to a communion of subjects”. One way, Drew Dellinger suggested in his session, is to bring the arts back from the fringe to the center, to remember that art is how heart speaks to heart; it is essential to who we are, and we are all artists in our own way. Art has a central place in activism. Art puts pressure with joy and love. Slowing down, being in stillness, spending time alone, and meditation can be ways to activate our innate creativity and perhaps even connect with the wisdom of the universe.
Other topics included: How we can draw on indigenous wisdom for the challenges facing us now; Successfully attract your clients to climate action; The self in a zillion eco-transitions; How to become a resilient and confident female leader for climate change?; Preventing climate burnout; Our traumas hold the key to the more beautiful world; How can the 3Cs of inclusive leadership enhance leading for sustainability?; Glorious 2030 – How to guide topic discussions and the building of desirable futures; How can playfulness help unlock climate action?; and many more.
As you can see, ways to enter conversations about climate change are endless, and sometimes quite surprising. Even so, there are common themes that emerged from all of these sessions. Clover Hogan, activist, entrepreneur, global speaker, and only twenty-three years old, captured them in a powerful opening session:
Acknowledging eco-anxiety (a chronic fear of environmental doom) and ecophobia (an ethical undervaluing of the natural environment that can result in cataclysmic environmental change). In a survey of 10,000 young people, 70% reported being eco-anxious. Denial, grief, sadness, hopelessness, loss of faith in institutions, burnout, confusion, a sense of betrayal … all are now part of the dialogue. But they are not problems to be fixed: they are “beautiful evidence of our humanity”. Processing rather than bypassing these emotions is important, with someone who can hold the space and facilitate empowerment and agency rather than allowing despair to set in.
Finding community. We can’t do this alone – and we are not alone. We all need to be with others, in a group or an organization, to find validation, motivation, support and accountability. Taking a collective approach also means bringing many voices into the room and genuinely listening to diverse views, especially those that have been largely ignored or suppressed.
Hogan has a special request for the adults who so often instinctively want to remove the pain and suffering for young people. This has to stop, she says,as it only fuels the feeling of betrayal. It’s time to have honest conversations about the reality, the losses and the pain among people of every age. Hold these conversations with tenderness and care to rebuild trust. In her view, “it is intergenerational wisdom and action that will make a difference”.
Choosing a focus. Too many are stuck because they feel too small to make a difference, think that the system is too broken, or don’t know where to start. Empowerment comes from finding a unique way to contribute. Rather than trying to fix it all, let’s ask “what is the one thing I can show up to solve, where does my impact come from?” Coaches and AI practitioners can play an important role in helping individuals identify the values, skills, unique gifts – the positive core – that will ignite sustainable action and a sense of agency. Here again, it’s essential to team up with others and not try to go at it alone.
Changing the story. Being exposed to constant stories of disasters around the world in the news and social media is too much. Pointing out that consumption is at the heart of the crisis and asking people to sacrifice their habits and lifestyles is not working. Vilifying those in power is too easy. Relying solely on technology to solve it all is spreading false hope.
Instead, Hogan encourages us to create a compelling message, an invitation for people to be part of something bigger, a reminder that true happiness comes from within, and a celebration of the fact that there is already a shift toward increased spirituality and connection with nature. “How do we make climate action irresistible?!”
The message throughout this month-long festival, across 50 virtual sessions hosted by change agents from around the globe, is loud and clear: we won’t solve the climate crisis with the same people and thinking that created it. It’s time to open up new doors, tell new stories, and pick up new tools. It begins at the personal level and requires a “going back to nature”.
This event was made possible by the dedication and generosity of CCA volunteers and has resulted in a fantastic library of resources. Watch the recordings available on each event page at www.climatecoachingalliance.org/ global-festival-2023 and spread the word.
Intro by Keith Storace
Continuing with another transformational series – in her second article of this four-part presentation, A Practitioners Journey to Living with Climate Change – Alex Arnold shares an overview of the Climate Coaching Alliance Global Festival that was held in March this year. “Which Door Are You Going to Choose?” is a compelling essay that considers three ways to spark climate conversations.
During the European Summer of 2022, I spent some time in the Netherlands where I was invited by Joep de Jong to be interviewed for a short film that focuses on the discovery of self. A filmmaker well-known for his work and expertise in Appreciative Leadership, Joep suggested a free-flowing conversation, one that would develop organically. The result was a welcomed exploration into how each person is a story interconnecting with the stories of others, and how Appreciative Inquiry (AI) encourages my personal understanding of these connections. Ultimately, I felt reassured that the more we understand our own story and the things that stir our curiosity, the more likely we will be to recognise all that emerges to liberate who we truly are.
Keith Storace | Australia
Keith Storace manages a private practice at Kiku Imagination where he applies the Appreciative Dialogue (ApDi) therapy program to assist individuals move toward, strengthen, and enjoy what is meaningful while dealing with the challenges they encounter along the way.
Many AI practitioners I have spoken with over the years describe their introduction to AI as a kind of homecoming, where they feel a deep sense of connection. I am always intrigued to learn more about their story and how their sense of connection is often a re-connection to something that has remained meaningful to them. I refer to this re-connection as “appreciative beginnings”, those moments in our early history where we experience a feeling of bliss usually connected to something that we find deeply meaningful.
I use the term “appreciative” in three ways: as acknowledgement of what has brought us joy and what inspired curiosity at such an early time in our lives; how this combination of joy and curiosity continues to hold meaning for us to the present day; and as recognition of how our embrace of Appreciative Inquiry has been influenced by appreciative beginnings.
Since commencing as editor of Voices from the Field in 2016 for the AI Practitioner journal, certain aspects of every article written for the column by AI practitioners across the globe can be traced back to each author’s appreciative beginnings. For them, AI has been a bridge between what matters most and bringing it to life in the world. It’s the depth of meaning their work holds for them that is a manifestation of the ripple effect set in motion by those early days of joy and curiosity, a pivotal aspect of self-discovery that eventually leads to good work.
Appreciative Inquiry is a promise, a process and way of life that continues to move each of us along the good side of human history. It embraces, ponders, and elevates us to the reality that we are connected – we are each other – and together we have what it takes to co-create a future that is best for all life on this planet.
Joep C. de Jong has filmed over 70 conversations elaborating on the power, validity, strength, and truth of Appreciative Inquiry. Reflections on the Discovery of Self is available on vimeo, along with a list of other conversations, each one a unique and inspiring story revealing what is possible.
Intro by Keith Storace
The final article is one I was invited to write following a short film created by Joep C. de Jong where he interviewed me while I was in the Netherlands in 2022. In Reflections on the Discovery of Self, I was encouraged to explore questions on the emerging self, Appreciative Inquiry, and the Inner Child.
This article, the first in a series of four that focus on climate change, is an invitation to AI practitioners to help shift the paradigm of “fighting the climate crisis” to one of deep transformation so that we, our organizations, our communities, the world at large, and the more-thanhuman world can learn to live with the undeniable and irreversible changes occurring on our planet. “Living with” does not mean accepting passively what is happening. Rather, it calls us to acknowledge, adapt – and imagine new ways to thrive.
Alex Arnold (she/her) MSPsy, MSHR/ OD, ACC, is program director at The Taos Institute and a climate resilience coach at Alma Coaching, where she uses positive psychology and Appreciative Inquiry to help introverted and highly sensitive people shift from climate anxiety to inspired action.
As coaches, consultants, educators, leaders and change agents, we are “change experts”. What better position to be in to shape the future of our world? Sure, it’s an enormous responsibility. But, with AI at our side, we are well equipped to step up to it. For a start, we know the benefits of bringing all voices into the room.
In their recently published book, Ecological and Climate-Conscious Coaching: A Companion Guide to Evolving Coaching Practice (Whybrow, Turner, McLean, 2022), members of the Climate Coaching Alliance discuss the “eco-phase cycle”, originally developed by Peter Hawkins. This model suggests that each of us finds ourselves in one of five eco-phases: eco-curious, eco-informed, ecoaware, eco-engaged or eco-active. Indeed, our journey to living with climate change begins with curiosity, and by listening to more than just one story.
Listening to science
There is a lot of data available, varying opinions, and all sorts of messages – from “it’s too late anyway” to “someone else will fix it”. We could talk about degrees, pounds of carbon dioxide, or number of years before we reach one catastrophe or another. How much do we really need to know?
The causes and effects of climate change reported by the United Nations can be summarized in one paragraph:
The world is losing species at a rate 1,000 times greater than at any other time in recorded human history. Melting ice sheets cause sea levels to rise, threatening coastal and island communities. Cyclones, hurricanes, and typhoons feed on warm waters at the ocean surface and destroy homes and communities, causing deaths and huge economic losses. Changes in the climate and increases in extreme weather events are among the reasons behind a global rise in hunger and poor nutrition. Wildfires start more easily and spread more rapidly when conditions are hotter. Changing weather patterns are expanding diseases, and extreme weather events increase deaths and make it difficult for health care systems to keep up. Climate change increases the factors that put and keep people in poverty.
Given the enormity of what we are facing, it is easy to go from denial to despair, or to listen to lots of facts without fully integrating them. Yet it is important that we “not only listen to the science with our conceptual mind, but also listen with our hearts and guts and whole being”. (Whybrow et al., 2022).
Listening inside
In any form of change, and for a new way of life to emerge, we must first acknowledge what has been lost or must be left behind; this isn’t a logistical problem, it’s an emotional one.
Climate grief, or ecological grief, is now recognized by the American Psychological Association. This Canadian Climate Institute article (Cunsolo & Rezagian, 2021) breaks it down into four types: grief from acute disasters; grief from slow-onset changes like loss of ice, habitat or species; vicarious grief when witnessing suffering in faraway places; and anticipatory grief, which is closely tied to eco-anxiety. There is no shame in adding to this list: grief for a way of life, for the comforts, conveniences, habits and traditions that are no longer sustainable, and the realization that change is inescapable.
“Climate grief differs from other forms of grief in that rather than one loss, we experience multiple losses, past, current, and anticipated. Where the pain of a more traditional form of loss may lessen over time, climate grief may keep returning, ever sharp and differently textured, with each new loss. If we can learn to grieve well – making space for it, and knowing that it will not destroy us – we can accept grief as a familiar friend, and that acceptance might allow us to experience a deeper connection to our world. If we can do that, then there is a gift in this time of sadness and anxiety; in surrendering to grief, we can connect to love.” (Cox & Flynn, 2022)
According to Neena Verma, author of Grief, Growth, Grace: A Sacred Pilgrimage (2021), grief is an inevitable part of life, and so is “the human capacity to grow strength in the garden of sorrow and seek the path of deep growth, transformation, and grace.” Death and growth are not separate or consecutive. They are intertwined. What would it look like to allow death and grief to also hold beauty and hope? In some parts of the world, dying leaves in autumn are celebrated for their vibrant colors. In our gardens, it is decaying organic matter that provides nutrients for new food to grow.
In nature, death is everywhere. What else can we learn from the very world we are trying to save?
Listening beyond
When reconnecting with our deeper emotions, we are reconnecting with our humanness. As human beings, we are part of the greater living system of our planet. How do we make sure that our non-human neighbors always have a seat at the table? In programs such as the Dialoguing with the Earth certification, founded by ICF-accredited coach Lilith Joanna Flanagan, you can learn to dialogue and partner with nature to create a collaborative cohabitation with the earth.
Another way to invite the perspective of the natural world in our work is with the Council of All Beings practice, based on the work of Joanna Macy, where participants are chosen by a non-human life form and speak on its behalf in front of a council in ways that “grow the ecological self, for it brings a sense of our solidarity with all life” (Macy, 2017).
To access knowledge from beyond our limited human experience, let’s acknowledge just how young we are in comparison to other species and within the history of this planet. There is a clash between our short-term self-focus and the much longer timeframe that needs to be considered in the context of climate change, like the seventh-generation principle found in Indigenous wisdom.
To stretch your time horizon, you may take a Deep Time Walk (2022), a recording of the earth’s 4.6-billion-year history to be listened to on a 4.6 km walk. In this unique experience, science and poetry merge to share the story of how our planet formed, of how life evolved and finally, in the last one-fifth of a millimeter of that walk, of the devastating impact of humanity since the industrial revolution
When we listen to the natural world we are part of, the deep emotions inside us, or the news around us, we bring a multiplicity of voices into the room, and we take the first step into living with climate change.
REFERENCES Cox, C. and Flynn, S. (2022). Climate Change Coaching – The power of connection to create climate action. Open University Press. https://climatechangecoaches.com/our-book/ Verma, N. (2021) Grief, Growth, Grace: A Sacred Pilgrimage. Rupa Publications India. Whybrow, A., Turner, E. and McLean, J. (2022) Ecological and Climate-Conscious Coaching: A Companion Guide to Evolving Coaching Practice. Routledge.
Intro by Keith Storace
Also, in a new series for Voices from the Field, A Practitioners Journey…, Alex Arnold will present four articles over the next four issues of AI Practitoner that focus on living with climate change. In her first article titled: Bringing All Voices into the Room, Alex provides us with an initial overview of the current state of climate change, listening to the science, and how all this challenges contemporary thinking.
What is equity? We hear that word all the time; in fact, it has become a buzz word that sounds good. So many companies and organizations have initiatives and employees whose sole role is to ensure equity, but what is equity really? In many places equity is defined as ‘a condition of being fair or just’. Sounds straightforward, but with people it’s not that straightforward at all. This can be problematic because we, in the world, have competing ideas about what fairness is and what justice is. We often see things based on our lived experiences, which complicate how people see fairness and justice. This attempt to both name equity and to advocate for the application of fairness and justice in our systems is messy and leads to a proliferation of meanings that aren’t necessarily aligned towards the same goals, diluting the power of our work.
Faith Addicott, MPA, MPOD is working to improve the intersection of work and life through innovative and human-centered process design. Her consulting work has centered on nonprofits and local government, where she has undertaken organizational assessments and strategic planning using AI and other strengths-based processes. She is a champion for inclusive workplace design.
Staceye Randle | USA
Staceye Randle, MPOD is a Human Resources professional who is passionate about creating workplaces focused on helping people grow and learn. She is also an advocate for ensuring equity and justice in every aspect of her private and professional life.
If, however, we apply the AI principle of Enactment to the task, we learn that the most important word in the definition of equity, above, is ‘being’. In enactment, we are called to ‘be the change we want to see’. In our diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work, this means embodiment of equity, being in our own actions and stories, both fair and just. It’s not that we don’t need the application of these concepts to our systems and institutions (we do!), it’s that through enactment we bring them into being in a way that influences every situation.
In this frame, Appreciative Inquiry asks us to BE equity, to manifest and occupy the space of justice with our own lives. This is revolutionary.
In a system dominated by tokenism and performative actions related to equity (start DEI projects but don’t fund them, hire diverse candidates but don’t address the racist cultures that harm them and force them out, or just check the boxes), the enactment of equity is soul-deep. It resonates through us, and we ring like bells in the halls of change, clarion calls shattering the falseness of racist systems. Enactment of equity silences rooms and erupts in cheers in the same breath.
How do we come to embody justice? We ask ourselves and others deep questions. We ask, in the spirit of complete exploration, what is equity? What is fairness? What is justice? In short, we come to enactment through inquiry – the Simultaneity principle, which says that inquiry is an intervention. The moment we ask a question, we begin to create a change. When we ask those questions of ourselves and others, we open the space for being – for the creation of new pathways, both neural and generational.
These two principles are deeply entwined when applied to the work of belonging. We ask; we become. We ask others to become.
When fully realized, our questions become more than generative; they are transformative, alchemical. Because, in the face of centuries of inertia (these harmful ways of thinking and doing have been around a long time), questions are an acknowledgement of possibility. The possibility of something else, something better that we have only to find.
We find a more just and equitable world first in our own humility, in our love of others, in our curiosity and in our being. Through these principles, we come to be what we seek.
Intro by Keith Storace Continuing their ongoing series titled: Our Principles in Action: Appreciative Inquiry for Justice & Belonging, Faith Addicott and Staceye Randle ponder the AI Principles of Enactment and Simultaneity and how these principles move us to understanding the power, value, and transformational aspects of “Being the question”.
Once I started to understand more about it, I realised how valuable it would be even to our own company and all agreed I should undertake training. I was lucky to find immediately a course at one of the finest universities in Latin America, the Adolfo Ibañez University in Chile, where I attended “Fundamentals of Appreciative Inquiry”. I’m grateful to the universe that the one I found was the best for me and close to home. Feeling as if I was back in school on that first day, I listened: the words made sense and resonated with every dream created in the training and embedded in the process of individual and community psychotherapeutic intervention. I met Miriam Subirana in person and David Cooperrider in a closing conference online, as well as Chilean academic professionals, Jorge Sanhuenza and Roberto Aristegui, exponents of AI who planted an appreciative seed in the lives of others, including vulnerable Chilean communities. I returned home, first to apply AI to my own life, and then put it into practice working with others, and ultimately to life as a whole. 
We received our first invitation in January 2015 to facilitate an intervention and conference about the experiences lived in Ecuador. A group of teachers living with the reality of the guerrilla activity that affected the country for many years, and the social impact this had on families and school structures, initiated a diploma course in the development of equipment and technologies with social implications. Well, there we were, our first extraordinary summit – full of feeling, so much to elaborate upon, so much to discover, so many dreams to bring to life and, above all, the possibility of designing possible solutions around their current reality. This journey was leading us to fulfil and live an appreciative transformation. So began our collective dreaming – the sum of this respectful group of souls, outstanding professionals from different countries: Argentina, Columbia, Ecuador and Mexico, including Andrea Torrecilla, Rosalinda Malagón, Mauricio Merino and María José Barona. 
Thus began the transformation of how I viewed myself and my immediate environment – and the world. Everything makes sense in its totality, in the appreciative, in listening to my voice, to the voices of all, to co-build from the foundations we discover in ourselves, in dreaming ourselves, designing ourselves, and in living that transformation by choosing appreciatively. 
Rosemary has worked as a community development officer for the City of Toronto since 2003. Since her first exposure to Appreciative Inquiry during a conference in Washington, D.C. she has used it as a facilitative approach integrating it into her community development work. Along with appreciative practice, she also uses asset-based, strength-based, solution-focused and anti-oppressive practices.
From September 2017 to April 2018, Amanjot worked alongside Rosemary Bell in a variety of community-based initiatives including co-creating and co-facilitating placement student workshops while working towards her Masters’ in Social Work. Appreciative Inquiry (AI) has assisted her in developing questions and evaluation sheets and by using the concepts within research. As a newly exposed user of AI she hopes to learn more and integrate AI approaches to evaluation, outcomes and non-profit management.
Keith Storace | Australia
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