Our voice from the field in this issue of AI Practitioner is Nelly Nduta Ndirangu from Nairobi, Kenya. Nelly’s compelling and unwavering commitment to bringing communities together and, through their differences helping to create common ground, is a true symbol of appreciative practice in the world. Her understanding and creative use of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a heartening example of its universal appeal and value which, for the communities Nelly continues to work with, has reassured and consequently reinforced their sense of identity and shared meaning. – Keith Storace

Cultivating Appreciative Communities

As well as presenting this work at the World Appreciative Inquiry Conference (WAIC) 2015 (1), my involvement in the co-authorship of Tukae Tusemesane – Let’s Sit Down and Reason Together: Enlivening Strengths and Community (2), has greatly motivated me to apply appreciative actions in my own community.

In my capacity as a counselling psychologist, along with other psychologists, I helped lead the development of evidence-based programs that supported victims of post-election violence in Kenya; peace-building initiatives; and resettlement programs for internally displaced families in 2007/2008. This year, the Taos Institute has funded a similar peace-building program through the Kimo Wellness Foundation (3) of which James Karanja, also a Taos Associate member, and myself are the lead team. I enjoy using appreciative skills with my clients, trusting that the appreciative approach helps them to deal with unpleasant case scenarios in their lives. Together with the Kimo team of counsellors, we have tailor-made a comprehensive AI trauma-based healing program to reach out to 

affected communities that occasionally suffer from common traumatising experiences, such as being the victims of terrorism, landslides, massive road accidents and incidental fires in schools, among others.

Also along the lines of a strengths-based approach, I have been involved as the in-country project coordinator in Kenya, collaborating with William James College (Massachusetts, USA) and the Kimo Wellness Foundation in the
development and implementation of a strengths-based curriculum for students and pupils. Together with a team of professionals, we have borrowed extensively from the AI model to add value to the kind of education being delivered to children in Kenya. The approach has brought together parents, community and teachers to experience learning that is later cascaded to their children in the school setting. The role of each group is identified and appreciated for the wellbeing of this young generation of learners. This has popularised my work in schools within Kiambu and Muranga counties.

Realising common goals, appreciating differences

The climax of this work occurred during the month of February 2017, when I was invited to train 525 students from twenty-three different schools in the Mount Kenya region, at Our Lady of Consolata Mugoiri Girls’ High School, during the school’s second annual peer-counselling day. The theme this year was ‘Overcoming Youth Challenges in the 21st Century’. This led to another training opportunity, scheduled for July 2017, at the Njiiris High School, one of the national schools in Muranga county.

Given my level of responsibility as the person in charge of the Kimo team, I worked hand-in-hand with Claire Fialkov and David Haddad, both professors from William James College in Newton, Massachusetts, USA, and James Kamau, counsellor and teacher in Muranga county, in connection with their respective research focus, including ‘Research as Future-Forming: Kimo Talks’ (June 2015) and ‘Keep-Kenya Education Empowerment Project’
(March 2017). I have always encouraged my team members to utilise appreciative action skills to complement each other in our different worlds of thought, realising our common goals while appreciating our differences.

Kimo Wellness Foundation and AI

The Kimo Wellness Foundation is the brain-child of a group of community volunteers with different professional backgrounds, ranging from counsellors and psychologists through social workers, addiction practitioners, teachers
and public health workers to medical practitioners. The members either were born in Kenya or have an interest in working with the diverse communities in the country. They embrace the twenty-four internationally accepted character strengths highlighted in the VIA Survey.

The team has learned how to appreciate each other, expressing a willingness to work together without trying to reconcile their differences in terms of ethnicity, education, colour or even economic status. And as the Kimo team puts it: “We appreciate our differences; we look at the differences as strengths. When unleavened outwardly, the strengths help us to relieve human suffering among the communities within the Kenyan community. We appreciate our rich diversity of culture, always trying to make ‘better bread’ out of our rich ethnicity of fortythree different communities.” It is important to note that our country, Kenya, has had a history of ethnic divide in terms of available resources, including employment. Our target population is a mix of the various ethnic groups that co-exist in Kenya. The institutions are an all-round representation of the diversity of citizens, ethnically and politically.
Through appreciating each other, the dialogic process has offered solutions to creatively care for relationships and in reducing the destructive potential of conflict, hence realising a peaceful co-existence among children, the future of our nation. When teachers experience what they teach to children, they learn to appreciate the learners.

The Kimo team is working with schools to tap the potential toward improved academic performance in the schools. The team has come up with innovative phases to identify and assess character strengths and develop a language of
strengths, using the AI process as well as a set of character strengths and core virtues recognised across world cultures.

To start with, teachers are engaged in identifying and appreciating their own strengths, which helps avoid conflict among the teaching staff. When they learn about their different strengths, each member experiences and appreciates being complementary to the other, rather than a threat. This comes with cultivating good relationships, a healthy community and good citizenship among the diverse ethnic group of teachers. They look at each other
as “rose flowers” from one family, though with different colours. And as we say in the Kimo team: “They can walk the journey together even without trying to reconcile their differences.” This is even more so when parents become part of the learning team; they become more committed to provide for their children’s basic needs in school.

Fostering self-driven behaviour and ownership

Children enjoy being part of the larger community as they struggle to raise their voices higher for improved academic performance. Children learn to appreciate reflecting on and spreading their character strengths outwardly. This fosters self-driven behaviour and ownership in a learning community. Character strengths such as kindness, love for learning, teamwork, humour, selfregulation and social intelligence are enhanced.

I am optimistic that working with diverse communities will one day give birth to an appreciative group of citizens in Kenya, and the tread will impact positively on other African countries, and eventually out into the wider world. I believe in continuing my work as a symbol of appreciative practice in the world.

Footnotes:

(1) Fialkov, C., Haddad, D., Ndirangu, N., & Kamau, J. (2015). Tukae Tusemsane:
Let’s Sit Down and Reason Together: Enlivening Strengths and Community.
World Appreciative Inquiry Conference (WAIC), Johannesburg South Africa 2015
http://www.2015waic.com/images/Abstracts/ai15abstract00019.pdf
(2) Fialkov, C., Ndirangu, N., Karanja, J., & Haddad, D. (2015). Tukae Tusemesane:
Let’s Sit Down and Reason Together. AI Practitioner, International Journal of Appreciative Inquiry.
https://aipractitioner.com/product/
tukae-tusemesane-let-s-sit-down-and-reason-together/
(3) Further information on the Kimo Wellness Foundation can be found at the following link: www.
kimowellnessfoundation.org

About Nelly Nduta Ndirangu

Nelly Nduta Ndirangu is a co-founder of the Kimo Wellness Foundation, an International non-profit organisation based in Kenya. A seasoned, practising counselling psychologist and supervisor, having trained in addiction

counselling and testing, child counselling, teaching and trauma healing, Nelly is also the proprietor of the Kimo Wellness Counselling Centre. She holds a BA in Counselling Psychology and is earning her Masters in Counselling Psychology at the Kenya Methodist University.

I was about to start a management retreat to share our findings from a discovery process when my mobile phone rang. My father was being sent in an ambulance to the hospital in an emergency as he was having difficulty breathing. It turned out his kidneys were failing and he could not breathe: he was literally drowning in his own fluids.

A year later, my mother was diagnosed with early-stage dementia. One of the symptoms of dementia is a change in personality. She was the primary caregiver for my father, who by that point had to be sustained by around-the-clock peritoneal dialysis. One of the most painful aspects of this was to witness a forty-year marriage enter its most difficult phase, the foundation of a lifelong relationship threatened by the onset of a debilitating disease. Whenever we visited, she would repeat stories of experiences in her early life, stories of abandonment, hatred and betrayals. She would relive these stories of heartache and suffering all over again. She would also often lose her temper, usually directed at my father or at their helper. He would call me as a last resort when he could no longer cope, as he would always try to buffer us from these episodes.

One time, he said to me – “If anything should happen to me, I don’t know what will happen to your mother. I must stay alive to look after her for as long as I can.” Perhaps this has been his source of strength: it has been three years now, and he is still soldiering on.

The meaning of the word “covenant” in the Old Testament of the Bible refers to two or more parties bound together by a lifelong promise. I find that it is moments like this where the practice of appreciative living is brought to its ultimate test, when it is challenging us to stay focused on what’s working, and what’s life giving and what has been. It is the rock upon which you stand when the rest of life is washed away by the tides of time. My parents have taught me what is meant by a love that is stronger than death.

As a way for coping with the increasing levels of stress I was experiencing in my own life, accentuated with frequent trips to the hospital to care for my parents, I started to turn to the practice of mindfulness. I realised through all this that, while I understood the principles of AI cognitively, I could not bring it readily into the rest of my life. While I professed to know how to live well, I was incapacitated when it came to the art of suffering well. As I observed my parents coping with their own frailty at the end of life, I realised that perhaps one of the most important testaments of appreciative living is to also know how to let go when it is time. My friends in healthcare would call it learning how to die well.

My meditation teacher said to me once “pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional”. Much of appreciative living is to learn to let go of our mental expectations and truly accept things as they are. Inquiry is a relentless commitment to hear, see and understand the true nature of things, while appreciation is a covenant with life to know that there is something deeper and more unyielding than the impermanence of life.

In closing, I would like to share an appreciative story that strengthened me. It was written by Paula Underwood, a well-known educator and American author of Native American descent. It is called If you really pay attention. Her father, who was her teacher, would challenge her to listen to stories and retell them, as a way to help her reflect on the underlying meaning behind what people said. She recounted one of her father’s teachings in this story:

Finally, one day there was this old gentleman, Richard Thompson. I still remember his name, he lived across the street. And every time my Dad started to mow the lawn, there came Mr Thompson. And so I would stand out there. Dad says, “You might come and listen to this man, honey girl. He’s pretty interesting.” And so I listened to him, and then my Dad would say, “What did you hear him say?” And I would tell him. Well, eventually I was repeating all the stories he liked to share with my Dad verbatim. I knew them all by heart.

And my Dad says, “You’re getting pretty good at that. But did you hear his heart?” And I thought, what? So I went around for days with my ear to people’s chests trying to hear their hearts.

Finally, my Dad created another learning situation for me by asking my mother to read an article from the newspaper. He says, “Well, I guess if you want to understand that article, you have to read between the lines.”

I thought, “Oh, read between the lines. Hear between the words.”

So the next time I listened to Mr. Thompson’s stories, I tried to listen between the words. My Dad said, “I know you know his story, but did you hear his heart?” And I said, “Yes. He is very lonely and comes and shares his memories with you again and again because he’s asking you to keep him company in his memories.”

It just came out of me. In other words, my heart echoed his heart.

And when you can listen at that level, then you can hear not only the people. If you really pay attention, you can hear what the Universe is saying.

Perhaps my mother, through it all, was asking us to keep her company in her memories, and my father could hear between the words.

References
Underwood, P. (2009) The Power of Collective Wisdom. In Preparing For Collective Wisdom To Arise, Eds. Alan Briskin, Sheryl Erickson, John Ott and Tom Callanan. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler

Jacqueline Wong
Jacqueline is the founder and managing director of Sequoia Group, specializing in the fields of strategy; change; leadership development; organisational Learning and sustainability. Sequoia’s mission is to create organisations that are truly worthy of people’s commitment. She is also the founder of Imagine Singapore and contributes actively in organisational development communities as an author, speaker, facilitator and resource person.

What you seek is seeking you.
– Jalaluddin Rumi

I humbly borrow the above quote from the evocative spiritual poet of the thirteenth century, Sufi mystic Jalaluddin Rumi, to share with you how Appreciative Inquiry has influenced me both professionally and personally.

I envision a world where learning and education is not only the birthright of an individual, but the essence of a being. I am a progressive design thinker, author and research scholar in the areas of learning and education, organisational learning and AI. I also take deep interest in philosophy and spirituality to generate clarity of thought and develop a multifaceted view on matters related to my work and everyday living.

As a progressive design thinker, I facilitate the process of creating environments where learning happens. Using generative questions premised on AI, I attempt to discover what works best for a system, either by identifying from the past or by imagining what is desired. To me every institution is a small-scale democracy where the environment for learning can be designed by the people, for the people and of the people for a just society, with learning central to the existence of a being.

I appreciate classical and contemporary instrumental music to stay connected with art, and prefer reading nonfiction to learn different views on various subjects. Travel enhances my exposure and simultaneously generates confidence and teaches me to accommodate differences. Popo, my dog, is a steady source of perseverance, discipline, honesty, joy and compassion that drives me to stay focused and happy. I like to be in solitude: for me it is an expression of quiet and happiness-with-self, a point where I am in deep connection, my being integrated with active thinking, where all distractions stand still, and where I can restore and start afresh. Work, Worship and Workout are the cornerstones of my everyday living.

Premised on AI, I aspire to use design thinking from ideation to fruition in institutions involved in constructing and executing policies in learning and education for a variety of stakeholders. I explore the possibilities for learning within a given context with recipients, and then align the potential available with the educators, generating a environment conducive to the needs of the learner. The focus on discovering possibilities with collaborators gives birth to common ideas, establishing a paradigm for collective working. Both on a professional and personal front, the focus is to remain generative and to create what works best for people – including myself. I look forward to doing good work that is mutually beneficial, attempts excellence, and is gratifying to all associated with the work at hand.

This brings the narration full circle. To remain conscious and keep searching for my purpose guided me to AI. To look for possibilities in every situation and work with those possibilities for an imagined future laid the bedrock of my present career. Without obstructing ideas that come to me, I consciously encourage idea generation, get into imagination and then think about how what I imagined can be manifested, given the present set of possibilities. AI is not a tool – it is an approach that has the potential to drive individual behaviour and transform character. Through the appreciative lens every individual can affirm the self.

I belong to the place I believe I belong.

Accelerating pace of change
We are familiar with both linear and cyclical concepts of time. Every day is 24 hours; in our moderate climates we have four seasons that structure our lives. These concepts emphasise repetitiveness. Nowadays, though, we experience a new notion of time: exponential time, due to the contemporary exponential acceleration of change.(1)

Eddie Obeng, a professor at Henley Business School in the UK, confronted this exponential pattern with another pattern: our rate of learning. See Figure 1.
The rate of learning increases almost at a linear pace. When the pace of change is relatively low the context is fairly stable and predictable. We have learned to cope
with this particular context. As long as we could fi gure out what was needed, we worked according to plans and procedures, we structured our companies hierarchically, and we implemented our objectives via a step-by-step approach. “When the lines crossed over, the rules for success were rewritten,” concluded Obeng. To many executives this transformation changed their paradigm and it felt like “life after midnight.”(2)

The accelerating change around us forces many companies to change the way they operate. They adopt new strategies, new types of organisations and new ways of working together in order to be able to cope with the increasing complexity and the need to sustain corporate performance. The traditional corporate grip and central decision-making units are losing impact. Such organisations need to open up and transform into more open and agile systems. They require responsiveness, adaptability and flexibility as well as balance. They need to include a variety of stakeholders in their decision-making processes and re-connect the “hard” and “soft” sides of the organisation.

“That is when AI bumped into my advisory and training practices.”

Appreciation matters. So does the inquiry process, as we first have to include all stakeholders to fi nd out common ways to proceed. More than ever, we need to align people around mutual goals and perspectives, bringing them together, uniting them by creating positive energies, generating a flow as people co-operate with their best talents and skills. Appreciative Inquiry is extremely worthwhile beyond the point where Obeng’s lines cross over: it is the natural habitat of AI.

McKinsey authors Keller and Price have concluded that organisations must pursue a dual purpose: the ability to generate bottom-line results in the shortterm is as important as the ability to sustain growth in the longer term. The latter purpose requires a healthy, vital and resilient organisation.

Roughly 95% of business literature is focused on optimising “hard”, commercial and technological aspects and especially financial consequences.

It is only half the story!

Organisations also need to become healthy and resilient by investing in people, enhancing collaboration and supporting their culture. It is the passion, creativity,
imagination and perseverance of people that make a difference. Introducing AI can make a substantial difference. I am therefor grateful for AI and the international AI network for having developed principles, methods and procedures that support modern organisations in a complex world.

References & Footnotes
Scott Keller and Colin Price. (2011) Beyond Performance: How Great Organizations Build Ultimate
Competitive Advantage. John Wiley & Sons.

1 Examples are the growth of the world population, increase of CO2 and Moore’s law.
2 Eddie Obeng (2012), Smart Failure for a Fast-Changing World, TED Global 2012

Marcel van Marrewijk
Dr. Marcel van Marrewijk supports people to transform organisations into effective, binding and more people-oriented ways of working. He does this as an organisational architect, (appreciative) researcher, trainer, speaker and writer. His findings rest on a sound scientific basis and provide an integrated business perspective in response to the increasing complexity of experienced professionals and executives.

Voices from the Field in 2017

Keeping a clear focus on what is right in an organisation by tapping into its positive core, Appreciative Inquiry (AI) encourages individuals and teams to move beyond being on the cusp of something great to experiencing the transformational power of positive discourse. Through the wisdom with which it “sees” how ecology and economy can work in unison to benefit the global community, AI continues to be the much-needed revolution that encourages organisations and institutions toward a deep humanity while “getting the job done”. In this issue of AI Practitioner, Mille Themsen Duvander and Marcel van Marrewijk share their experience of such a revolution within their particular fields.

Voices from the Field are brought together by Keith Storace. You have a story to share? Mail to keithstorace@kikuimagination.com

Keith Storace is a psychologist/manager at La Trobe University Melbourne Australia driven by a deep interest in social inclusion. As a result of his Appreciative Inquiry experience across the Health and Education sectors, Keith uses appreciative dialogue to assist higher education students in moving from self-doubt to inspired positive action.

There are many moments in conducting research that give us a chance to pause, rewind and consider another methodological tack. After transcribing hours of interviews with award-winning multimedia freelancers discussing their projects, I was getting depressed from hearing a familiar refrain, “You have to chase the work down, do the work and then chase down the money” (Goldman, 2013).

Although grounded in social construction, it became apparent that I had to find a new way to assess the situation. I did not want to eliminate the barrage about clients not paying on time or reduced wages – but I needed a wide-angle lens, a more positive framework in which to operate. I interviewed eleven Guggenheim, Emmy and award-winning freelancers during the recession so it was understandable that financial issues dominated. After all, I was exploring the central question, “What is the lived experience of a media freelancer at the border of a changing work culture?” The larger “aha” moment appeared when I asked myself,

“What has allowed these folks to creatively persevere in this capacity for fifteen, or thirty years or more and succeed?”

The Appreciative Reflection is a short six-to-ten -page interactive ethnographic takeaway, inspired by an interest in Appreciative Inquiry (Cooperrider and Whitney, 2005), where the conversation shifts to what is working. These generative narratives countered the excessive grumbling by showcasing the participants’ work and highlighting factors contributing to career longevity while allowing for a richer portrait to emerge of lessons learned.

For example, Jimi Izrael, a nationally recognized commentator on National Public Radio’s The Barbershop, CNN, Nightline Faceoff, The Root blog, and author of The Denzel Principle: Why Black Women Can’t Find Good Black Men – expressed agitation with magazine editors owing him money and was candid about seeing a 60-percent reduction in rates. While mentioning his frustration, I appreciatively explored Jimi’s ability to get national airtime on radio, television and blogs because of his brash, bold style that courageously and with humor speaks “his” truth on challenging topics such as politics, race and identity. As a storyteller, he creates a vivid visual and emotional snapshot.

On CNN news, after receiving notoriety for his blog bashing Joe Jackson’s self-promotion at the Black Entertainment Television tribute for his son Michael, Jimi declares, “I have friends who have lost parakeets, dogs, guinea pigs and wino uncles, and they’ve spent more time in mourning than Michael Jackson’s father. I’ve been more distraught over bad sushi” (*). He illustrates the importance of creating a conversational space that moves away from abstract positions and is rooted in a story (McNamee and Shotter, p. 4). Jimi’s commentary is straightforward, hard-hitting and rarely politically correct.

These self-disclosive storytelling moments mirror my academic attempt to create intimate, relatable writing and research rooted in AI. The Appreciative Reflection, a shared conversation, highlights the relational connection with participants and removes the pretence of observational distancing. AI has helped me to discover a new way of interpreting research. (**)

Footnotes:

*)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvNUBtgitDQ

**)  For complimentary access to these reflections in The Migrant Creative, visit the Wake Forest University Digital Press website http://wfu.tizrapublisher.com/the-migrant-creative-by-laine-goldman/.

REFERENCES

Cooperrider, D. L., & Whitney, D. K. (2005) Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Revolution in Change. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.

CNN (2009) Interview with Blogger on “Shameless Joe Jackson”.

Izrael, J. (2010) The Denzel Principle: Why Black Women Can’t Find Good Black Men. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Izrael, J. (Producer). (2010) Nightline Faceoff: “Ladies, stop choosing bums,”

McNamee, S. and Shotter, J. (2004) Dialogue, Creativity, and Change. In R. Anderson, L. A. Baxter & K.N. Cissna (Eds.), Dialogue: Theorizing Difference in Communication Studies. (pp. 91–104) Thousand Oaks, CA US: Sage Publications, Inc.

Goldman, L. (2013). The Migrant Creative: US Media Freelancers at the Border of a Changing Work Culture.

(Ph.D. dissertation).Tilburg University, Netherlands. Wake Forest Digital Publishing, 2014.

http://wfu.tizrapublisher.com/the-migrant-creative-by-laine-goldman/

The theory of Appreciative Inquiry has been made very accessible in the past years; there are countless books, case studies, films and websites. The challenge lies in the translation of the ideas into practise. AI comes to life in conversation and interaction. A central figure in these relational processes is the AI facilitator, who is an omnipotent figure, really: radiating hope and trust, shining like a beacon, while non-judgmental and unobtrusive like a fly on the wall. Warm, welcoming, result-oriented and “AI-authentic” to the core. When conflicts arise, all eyes are on the AI-facilitator–how will she exhibit appreciation, when under pressure? Far from being a perfect AI facilitator myself, I would like to share five lessons I have embraced through the years:

1. Practise what you preach

AI facilitators are only credible when they live and act out appreciation not only to others, but also to themselves. People will not remember what you said,

they will remember your energy, how you are, your choices under pressure. An appreciative mindset goes further than just using the AI-tools; it should have become a core-value that is reflected in personal habits and choices. Let AI sink into your personality. What do you appreciate about yourself as a facilitator? For what do you receive compliments?

Lesson 1: Keep developing an appreciative mindset in your professional and private life.

2. Affirmative topics need time

What is the question behind the question? I have learned to never underestimate this stage and always make sure to give it enough time. If the first stones of the foundation are not set properly, the entire building will not stand strong. What is the question the group really needs to answer? What is the essence of what they really desire? Often, such a clarification process is not straightforward. Discussions arise, frustration sets in. It is tempting to rush and cut this important phase short, as participants might “want to get going”, or find what they have done so far “good enough”. However, the satisfaction of a group that succeeds in crafting a truly relevant core-question is a great reward. In addition, the facilitator has led the group through their first mini-AI-process, which will pay off in the process that follows.

Lesson 2: Take enough time for the wording of the “question behind the question”.

3. Balancing result and process

Regularly I hear from participants that “time flew by”. Elements of AI, like generative questions and analysing successes, release energy. It is an art to create a feeling of space, a secure setting that allows emotions and a supportive atmosphere to foster creativity, on the one hand, while keeping an eye on the results and structure on the other hand. You want to facilitate a balanced process of inclusion, where the voice of each one is heard and where a concrete output is realised.

Lesson 3: Invest time to design and shape a balanced program that lets the AI principles come to life.

4. A space that reflects the nature of AI

A pleasant environment contributes to good conversations. This is also a sign of appreciation for the participants. Choose a space that helps them relax,

with enough water, healthy snacks, air and light. Music can play a fine role in contributing to an atmosphere of comfort and inspiration. You want to create a day that stands out and feeds positive emotions.

Lesson 4: Pay attention to the facilities and space. This supports the wellbeing of the group.

5. Focus on contact before content

Before the actual AI process begins, it is important to enable the participants to get to know each other, the programme and the environment. Participants who feel at ease are more likely to engage in open conversations. I have created a repertoire of active, fun, interactive exercises to open a meeting.

Lesson 5: Pay close attention to introduction and contact before engaging in content.

These are a few of my personal lessons. There are many more, maybe this article will trigger you to reflect on what AI has taught you.

The more I work from an AI perspective, the more apparent it becomes that the inner self and the outer self are both supported by the learning. We need to be appreciative and kind to our own self before we can do the same at work. My own journey is testament to this, having worked through major illness, learning how to be less tough on myself in the process. Asking myself “would I rather be right or happy?” was the kind of appreciation of my situation at the time that continued to reassure my confidence in AI. It provides for a broader perspective, a more helpful attitude, and the tools to move forward.  This was one of  the reasons we developed two appreciative journals (*), and why participants get a copy of one of our journals on all our training courses, with a request to use it to develop their appreciative muscle. We also refer to the power of journalling when we talk about both the enactment principle and the awareness principle.

It became clear to me that AI builds emotional intelligence, effective communication, relationships and understanding. As I emphasised in an article (**) I co-authored that focussed on my observations of the effectiveness of this process within homeless hostels, it was apparent that AI offered a unique advantage of being:

• an Organisational Development (OD) and team-building tool;
• a process that residents could use to rebuild their lives; and
• a way in which staff could communicate better with each other and residents.

I’m fortunate to work with a good team from a perspective that provides AI approaches for groups and organizations, as it allows me to see how talented and imaginative people truly are. AI brings out the best in individuals, teams and organisations. Over the last two years we have trained 140 people in an international charity so that they could use AI to develop and support “positive engagement” conversations.  I found it particularly satisfying that many of them saw how they could then move forward and apply AI to many sections of their work – whether it was OD, youth education or working with refugees.  Most recently, I worked with a group using AI to build personal resilience to help staff deal with redundancy. One participant in particular highlighted how it had helped her rebuild her sense of connection with others; be aware of her tendency to frame things in terms of deficits or problems; reinvigorate her capacity and appetite for taking the actions she needed to take in the next phase of her life; and remind her of tools, approaches and resources that can help her.

A “stand-out” feature I most enjoy about training people in AI is introducing them to the principles, particularly social constructionism. It is a way to encourage participants to explore the concept that our thoughts are not fixed – that things we thought were facts were actually more like habitual ways of seeing the world. It is possible to change the “unhelpful, habitual” way we sometimes think and, by paying attention to good things in our lives and connections with others, be more deeply appreciative – even, at times, actively delighted – as we go through our day. Regular journalling helps build this “appreciative muscle”.

AI is, indeed, that inner and outer journey that gently challenges us to appreciate the inherent power of that journey in taking us to where we need to be!

*) Food for Thought and How to Be More Awesome. You can find a bit more detail about the benefits of appreciative journalling at www.appreciatingpeople.co.uk/the-power-of-appreciative-journaling/

**) Organisational development, Appreciative inquiry and the development of Psychologically Informed Environments (PIEs) Part I: A positive psychology approach www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/HCS-03-2014-0003.

I had just turned 20 when I started working with homeless women who faced psychiatric and addiction problems. These 25 women lived together in a shelter for homeless women in Amsterdam in the Netherlands, where they secured a safe place with “bed, bath and bread”, the “3-B’s” policy at that time for the homeless sector. As a student at the Social Work Academy, I observed that assistance focused on damage control in order to keep everyone safe and prevent fights.

We provided more attention around women’s personal well-being.

Together with the team, I developed a strengths-based approach to support these women within the limited time and resources we had: the Eight Steps Model (ESM). We provided more attention around women’s personal well-being by using individual support plans. I was awarded first prize for our dissertation project and that gave me the confidence to scale up to national level. Policy changed at that time acknowledged that people who faced homelessness needed more guidance during their rehabilitation process. The fourth ‘policy B’ was introduced: that of guidance (Begeleiding in Dutch). These new policy ambitions, in combination with the practice-based origin, led to a great success for the ESM. In 2008, about 75% of all homeless shelters in the Netherlands used the model. Later we embraced the opportunity to test the model abroad in Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Portugal.

One important aspect of the ESM is to analyse a person’s strengths and challenges in all important areas of life. It was normal to report about difficulties and weaknesses, but strengths-based questions were hardly ever asked. Interests, hopes, dreams, relations and meaningfulness were not addressed. For me, the basic aim of the model is to see human beings again instead of problems. It is wonderful to see what happens when social workers experience the impact of this change in their work. They get to know their clients as complete persons.

The way AI works with teams is exactly how social workers work with their clients in ESM.

As the work continued, I found that some shelters that said they used the model did not share the basic principles of strengths-based work. They implemented the model according to the steps described in the handbook, but the soul was missing. It made me wonder. The handbook, although valuable, did not invite teams to use their own ideas, strengths and power. In 2013, I learned about AI. It felt – and still feels – like the perfect match for the implementation of ESM. The models share the same principles and processes are similar. The way AI works with teams is exactly how social workers work with their clients in ESM. It is about asking the right questions, involving others and building on strengths. In 2014 I was given the chance to implement ESM at two Salvation Army locations and this time I used AI. It was an exciting experience, leading to fundamental changes in the team. It really touched people’s hearts; it was the only right place to start strengths-based work. It all fell in place.

Almost 20 years from the beginning of my work with the homeless women, it feels like I am still graduating… It has been a privilege to be part of such wonderful changes and chances. With my new implementation partner, AI, I hope to be involved in much more strengths-based social work. It is wonderful to see what happens in social work and care if we actually look at people as complete persons and build on their strengths.