Resources for Positive Change

Corporation for Positive Change is at the center of an international community of practitioners. Listed below are some of our partners in positive change along with a few articles we think you will find meaningul.

Organizations | Individuals | Articles

Organizations

AI Commons

AI Commons is a worldwide portal devoted to the fullest sharing of academic resources and practical tools on Appreciative Inquiry and the rapidly growing discipline of positive change. This site is a resource for you and many of us--leaders of change, scholars, students, and business managers--and it is proudly hosted by Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management. If you are looking for general reference material, the AI Commons is a great resource.

AI List Serve

AIList is a forum for individuals interested in learning more about the practice of Appreciative Inquiry. The list has over 1000 subscribers from all over the world. Questions are welcome, as are case postings, observations, and other experiences that can help all list subscribers improve their organization change practice. (To subscribe or unsubscribe, visit the Ailist Info Page.)

AI Practitioner

The quintessential resource for articles on the practice of Appreciative Inquiry.

Appreciative Living

This informative site contains free articles, questionnaires, books and products all focused on applying the principles of Appreciative Inquiry to personal living. It also contains three simple AI-based exercises you can do to increase your joy, based on a study with 30 people from across the U.S.

CDI – Community Development Institute

CDI staff are experts in organizational development, having worked at all levels of public and private agencies and organizations. A sampling of groups CDI has worked with include preschool, community colleges, universities and government agencies, including the DHHS, IRS, Forest Service and the U.S. Navy and major corporations including RR Donnelly and Kodak-Manville.

Heartland Circle

Heartland convenes conversations, programs, trainings, and communities of engagement, dedicated to creating love in action for a world that works for all. Knowing that how we do is as important as what we do, Heartland convenes conversations and gatherings to practice the skills of the new and evolving leader.

Human Value  (in Japan)

KCC International 

KCC is a learning organization. Within their learning programs, attention is centered on creating contexts where individuals and groups can work, live and develop to their full potential in their chosen professions and relationships. In the pursuit of this we explore with people, using systemic/social-constructionist approaches, how they can communicate and contribute, understand their position of influence in ways which enhance their own abilities to make good judgments in the organization within which they work.

Positive Eye

Positive Eye Consulting is committed to increasing organizational functionality, efficiency and effectiveness, while keeping a vigilant eye on bottom-line profits.

Sabine Bredemeyer & Friends

Sabine Bredemeyer has been an independent consultant for organizations and communities since 1987. As a coach, consultant, facilitator, and trainer Sabine works together with her partners of Bredemeyer & Friends on organizational health and transformation, conscious leadership and personal development. The clients are large and mid-sized German and international companies, organizations and communities.

Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center

Saybrook's mission is to address 21st century needs by educating leaders to bring humanistic principles to key elements of our world – educational reform, healthcare, the environment, vulnerable populations of our society, sustainable business development and practice and to affect positive change through that leadership.

Schleifer & Associates

With over 30 years experience, 15 exclusively with couples, Hedy and Yumi Schleifer offer transformational workshops and sessions for couples, and relationship training for therapists, coaches and organizations. Based on Imago Relationship Theory, Appreciative Inquiry, Relational Brain Neurobiology and other sources, their programs are regularly held in 10 countries and in 4 languages.

Taos Institute

Committed to the belief that social constructionist ideas have powerful and positive implications for human life and well-being, a group of scholars and practitioners came together to found the Taos Institute in 1991. With special attention initially directed to organizational development, and to family therapy, the Institute held international conferences in Taos, as well as provided consultation grounded in social constructionist theory to individuals and organizations and access to social constructionist literature.

United Religions Initiative

The purpose of the United Religions Initiative is to promote enduring, daily interfaith cooperation, to end religiously motivated violence and to create cultures of peace, justice and healing for the Earth and all living beings.

The Vallarta Institute

The Vallarta Institute associates recreate more of what works best for individuals, work teams and communities. Associates work on-site, over the phone and/or at the inspirational Vallarta Institute Retreat Center in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. US offices are in Oakland, California and Mexican offices are in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco.

The Writing Salon

The Writing Salon is a group of multitalented writers and artists who come together for workshops and other learning experiences. Please visit the site for more information.

Individuals

(Contact information to follow shortly)

Barbara Bitondo

Allan Henderson

Jackie Kelm

Jim Lord

Hedi and Yumi Schieffler

Jackie Stavros

Cheri Torres

Articles

Handouts from the October, 2007 Advances in Appreciative Inquiry workshop:

Designing Organizations as if Life Matters: Principles of Appreciative Organizing: Whitney, D., Advances in Appreciative Inquiry, Volume 2, Avital, M., Boland, R., and Cooperrider, D. (Eds.), Elsevier, 2008. PDF, 644 KB.

Managing as Designing with a Positive Lens], Advances in Appreciative Inquiry, Volume 2, Avital, M., Boland, R., and Cooperrider, D. (Eds.), Elsevier, 2008. PDF, 136 KB.

Strategic Inquiry → Appreciative Intent: Inspiration to SOAR: Stavros, J., Cooperrider, D. and Kelley, D., AI Practitioner, November 1, 2003. PDF, 504 KB.

Sustaining Appreciative Change Through Organization Design: Loures, R., Transformation (World Business Academy), April 17, 2002, Vol. 16, Issue 4. PDF, 144 KB.

Sustaining Positive Change: Inviting Conversational Convergence through Appreciative Leadership and Organization Design: Mantel, M. and Ludema, J., Advances in Appreciative Inquiry, Volume 1, Cooperrider, D. and Avital, M. (Eds.), JAI Press, 2004. PDF, 668 KB.

Creating Appreciative Learning Cultures: Barrett, F., Organizational Dynamics, January 1, 1995, Volume 24, Issue 1. PDF, 1.2 MB.

The Heart of Appreciative Inquiry: Sutherland, J. and Stavros, J., AI Practitioner, November 1, 2003. PDF, 348 KB.

Miscellaneous Articles

Appreciative Leadership and Participatory Planning: Published in Participatory Quarterly, December, 2007, The Journal of the International Association of Participatory Planning. Diana Whitney, Ph.D. Word doc, 2.9 MB.

Improving Nursing Practice and Patient Care - Building Capacity with Appreciative Inquiry: Journal of Nursing Administration (JONA), Nov. 10, 2006. Donna Sullivan Havens, PhD, RN, FAAN; Susan O. Wood, MS, BA; Jennifer Leeman, DrPH, MDiv. PDF, 268 KB.

Leading by Design: The Five Elements of Appreciative Leadership as Design Criteria: Diana Whitney, Ph.D. Word doc, 52 KB.

Why Appreciative Inquiry Works: excerpted from Chapter 11: “Why Appreciative Inquiry Works,” The Power of Appreciative Inquiry: A Practical Guide to Positive Change, D. Whitney and A. Trosten-Bloom, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2003. Word doc, 48 KB.