Upcoming Events -- MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

• Appreciative Leadership Development Program, May 7-10, 2007, Chicago, IL
• Association of Unity Churches International Convention, June 19, 2007
• Being AI: A Spiritual Retreat for Change Agents, July 18-21, Chapel Hill, NC
• Appreciative Inquiry Creativity Salon, August 27-30, 2007, Taos, NM
• The Institute for Management Studies (IMS) One-day Appreciative Inquiry workshops

Diana’s on the Move!

Our dear President and colleague, Diana Whitney, has moved to Chapel Hill, NC!  After 18 beautiful years in the Taos desert, it’s a really big move – but with it she gains warmth, green, a beautiful new home in the woods, and the potential for a fine new community of professionals. We can all look forward to joining her there for future meetings, retreats and workshops. Her new contact information is:

621 Damascus Church Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27516
919-942-6832 (voice)
919-942-6833 (fax)

She can still be reached at diana@positivechange.org.

CPC Consulting News

The new leadership of Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) has embraced Appreciative Inquiry as a way to shape the organization’s emerging culture, as they undergo substantial reorganization and downsizing. Consultants Tish Wilson and Carolyn Miller continue the culture change work begun last year by Tish and Mike Mantel. The most recent program, entitled “High Performance Work System Design” and the "Power of Ad Hoc Teams," integrated the work of previously formed innovation teams focusing on technology, communication and leadership.  Future activities will include AI summits for LACOE delegate agencies. 

A positive "core map," LACOE's January program

The National Endowment for Financial Education is a 501©(3) organization dedicated to helping all Americans acquire the information and gain the skills necessary to take control of their personal finances. In late January, with the guidance of Amanda Trosten-Bloom, they implemented an AI-based all-staff planning session focused on building internal capacity to deliver future services. For more information about NEFE and its offerings, visit their web site:  www.nefe.org.

Later this month, the State of New Mexico, Children, Youth and Families Department, Office of Child Development implements an AI session for newly-funded Pre-K, with Tish Wilson as their facilitator. This program marks the beginning of a months-long initiative aimed at enhancing collaboration between the state’s Head Start and PreK programs.

First Plymouth Congregational Church in Englewood, CO continues its twelve-month long-range planning process, dubbed the First Plymouth Futures Project (see http://www.firstplymouthchurch.org/whatshappening.html).  Following the January All Church Summit, facilitators Amanda Trosten-Bloom and Tish Wilson worked with a design team to finalize design principles, which are now being integrated into the church’s existing systems and structures.

Participants in the First Plymouth All-Church Summi envision the church’s future

Late next month, Tish Wilson travels to Harare, Zimbabwe to continue her work building teacher and community support for the Goromonzi Project. The Goromonzi Project provides food, school uniforms and education for AIDS orphans in this rural Zimbabwean community. To learn more about this initiative go to www.goromonzi.org.

In Appreciation...

We extend kudos to Bill Scott and The Children’s Foundation of Vancouver, BC for having hosted an extraordinary learning experience last month. Appreciative Inquiry: Creating Dynamic Destinies drew over 300 people, who gathered to learn about Appreciative Inquiry, share ideas, and enhance the practice of positive change in schools, businesses and government agencies.  Diana Whitney and Jim Ludema, along with long-time colleague Gervase Bushe co-moderated the conference, while CPC consultants Nila Rinehart and Amanda Trosten-Bloom  presented workshops Conference handouts will soon be available to participants and CPC affiliates at http://www.tcf-ti.com/.

Did you know that the idea for this conference came to Bill Scott when he attended CPC’s Appreciative Leadership Development Program? It’s true. As Bill envisioned his future he imagined hosting an AI Conference in Vancouver. Powerful images do lead to powerful action. Hundreds of people have already benefited from Bill Scott’s vision, courage and leadership.

As conference sponsors we were delighted to see so many CPC colleagues as presenters and as participants. If you would like to sponsor a regional gathering like the Vancouver conference, give us a call. It is a great way to build a local AI community and make a positive difference in your world. Just ask Bill Scott.

Focus on Longmont Receives Project of the Year Award. The International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) awarded Focus on Longmont its 2006 Core Values Project of the Year Award (www.iap2.org) in Montreal. The award recognizes excellence in public participation, reflecting IAP2’s core values which speak to openness, inclusivity, responsiveness and sustainable decision-making.   CPC consultants Amanda Trosten-Bloom and Barbara Lewis designed and facilitated the AI process in partnership with the City of Longmont. Focus on Longmont, the citywide strategic plan, was a highly engaging community planning process whose outcomes continue to unfold in unexpected yet positive ways. (http://www.ci.longmont.co.us/focus/index.htm). 

Office Updates

Along with Diana, the CPC office has moved.  Thank you, Dawn Tirschel, our outgoing CPC office coordinator! If you met Dawn over the phone, online or in person over the last year, you know how wonderful she is. We will miss her warmth, initiative and can do attitude. If any of you would like to reach her directly, now that she’s gone, please feel free to contact her directly at soandso@cybermesa.com. 

And welcome, Suzanne Fey-Gaiser, our new "go to" gal as of March 8.  Suzanne brings loads of experience with consulting and training businesses like ours, and will be a joy to work with in the coming years. If you have questions about CPC, or need information or wish to register for our workshops, please contact Suzanne in our new office: 

303-972-5155 (voice)
303-978-9543 (fax)
office@positivechange.org
www.positivechange.org.

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CPC on the Podium!

Dr. Diana Whitney will deliver the keynote address at this year’s Association of Unity Churches International Convention, June 19, 2007. With a theme of Unity in Unity: One in Spirit, the convention is open to ministers, licensed teachers, board members and lay people.   Daily and half-day rates are available. For more information or to register visit http://www.unity.org/conf.html.

If your organization is a member of The Institute for Management Studies (IMS) register now to attend one of the upcoming day-long Appreciative Inquiry workshop with Diana Whitney. The February workshop in Dallas was a great success and set the stage for upcoming workshops in Cleveland, Detroit, Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City as well as Scotland and the UK. To learn more about The Institute for Management Studies and to see Diana’s schedule, go to http://www.ims-online.com/widgets/search/outline.asp?id=whitney1.

Diana Whitney will be joining U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, James Nave, Allegra Houston and Jack Smith at the Writing Salon in Barcelona, Spain in September 2007. Learn more and register at:  www.thewritingsalon.net.

Nila Rinehart provided a keynote address at February’s Southwest American Indian Child and Family Conference in Mesa, Arizona. Her address showed how AI can lift up all that is best in American Indian Head Start programs across the country.  Interviews provided content for a "Wall of Wonder," that became a touchstone for participant learning throughout conference.

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Putting Training to Work

What happens when a passionate certificate program participant pilots an AI process on a top university campus? Nothing less than engaged, excited students journeying forward to discover what they can create when they are truly at their best. 

In the fall of 2006, Jean Meeks, adjunct instructor of Management at the University of Oregon and founder of Positive Eye Consulting, decided to teach management classes from a different frame of reference than the old SWOT analysis.  Using certificate program workshops and Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Revolution in Change as her guides, Jean took her 170 business students on an appreciative inquiry journey exploring what happens when business students look at management through the eyes of AI.

Incorporating AI as a foundational piece when looking at all management processes and practices proved not only to be exciting, but transformational to many students.  Jean incorporated a term paper project titled, “I want to be a '?' " in which students considered their life journey using a 4D Process. The halls were filled with students doing one-on-one discovery interviews and then taking this information and synthesizing this as a basis for defining their positive core.

Closing comments on students’ papers were stunning.

• "I feel confident now that I can realize the positive core of myself within an organization" (Intile). 
• "MGMT 321’s term paper was one of the most rewarding and helpful experiences I have had in any school setting" (Field). 
• "This paper paved a way towards my future……it gave me determination that I never had before" (Sadhi). 
• "AI showed me things about myself that I had not noticed before, making me much more aware of what I really want in life" (Ayoub). 

The excitement for using AI as a foundation in management classes has gained momentum as Jean’s AI approach to teaching was reflected in her winter classes reaching capacity within an hour after registration opened. "My journey through CPC’s certificate program gave me the confidence to launch AI as a pilot idea in the School of Business Management at the University of Oregon," said Meeks. "The thirst for this way of ‘being’ underlies AI’s success with the students, who truly want a different experience in the classroom. They want to be engaged and to learn. They want passionate instructors. In short, they want life."  And life is what AI brings to academics!

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Dear CPC: a source for ongoing capacity-building, questions and answers

Question: What is happiness?  And once we figure out what "it" is, how do we get more of "it"?

Answer: This past summer CPC friend Jackie Kelm intended to find out, and initiated a study on joy with thirty people from across the U.S. Her results, which she describes as Three Simple Steps to Joy, were astounding.

Participants did three simple exercises that were based on applying the principles of Appreciative Inquiry to their daily experiences. They spent five minutes a day doing a gratitude list and answering a short question, and then did a 15-minute visioning exercise once a week. Participants got significantly happier over the course of four weeks, and many had insights that were life-changing. Some even experienced major transformations. The exercises were found to be so helpful that the majority of the participants continued doing them on their own after the study ended. 

Here are some quotes from participants:

"The one most impactful insight was the thought that I truly do create my reality based on the questions I ask myself and the answers I THINK to those questions. I am in control of my happiness and asking the right questions makes all the difference in the world."

"I think that doing these exercises has changed the way I look at the future. I am genuinely envisioning paths that include concrete ways to pursuer more joyful living.”

"The possibilities for framing a day are endless. If we don’t make a conscious effort to decide, if we leave it up to the winds, it’s like seaweed in the ocean. It goes wherever the current takes it. We need to deliberately frame it and make a conscious choice."

"I was not truly aware of how I felt on a moment by moment basis during the day. It was been very good to be so aware, as I am better able to turn around negative thinking much faster before it spirals downward."

"The biggest learning I had was moving from a life of default to saying I can design my life; deconstructing what I had constructed (divorce, job elimination, etc). It’s like building a house – first you have to dig a big hole."

"You find what you are looking for."

Go to the Books and Publications section of this newsletter for more information about Kelm’s study and writing.

Nila Rinehart, Carolyn Miller and Tish Wilson
CPC Associates

Do YOU have a question for CPC? If so, contact us at office@positivechange.org. We will answer it in a future Appreciative Inquiries.

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CPC Certificate Program: Appreciative Inquiry and the Practice of Positive Change

Please join us in welcoming a wonderful new group of participants to CPC’s Appreciative Inquiry and the Practice of Positive Changecertificate program!

• Sister Barbara Beasley – Sisters of the Good Shepherd
• Maura Conlan-McIvor, Ph.D. – Author, Consultant & Journalist
• Linda Denton
• Sister Mary Catherine Massei – Sisters of the Good Shepherd
• Sister Mary Carolyn McQuaid – Sisters of the Good Shepherd
• Sister Janice Rushman – Sisters of the Good Shepherd
• Peggy Thompson – International Association of Collaborative Professionals
• Ralph Weickel – Performance Management

And also, help us to congratulate our latest graduates:

• Randall Johnson – Consultant
• Jean Meeks – Positive Eye, Inc.
• Rosemary Williams – Boulder County Aging Services

In addition to the training they receive through CPC workshops, certificate program participants and graduates have access to ongoing peer consultation and coaching by CPC consultants through quarterly conference calls. 

Our next quarterly coaching call, scheduled for Friday, March 23, will be moderated by CPC consultant Amanda Trosten-Bloom.  Check the CPC web site (www.positivechange.org) for the new program brochure, along with the list of 2007 call-in dates, times, and numbers.  

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2007 Workshops Scheduled

Coming up next:

Appreciative Leadership Development Program, Chicago, IL, May 7-10, 2007.
The Appreciative Leadership Development Program (ALDP) is an exclusively strengths-based workshop, led by Appreciative Inquiry pioneers Dr. Jim Ludema, Dr. Diana Whitney, and Susan Wood that will enable you to discover your leadership high-performance pattern and put it to work immediately building successful teams, bringing out the best in others, and getting the results that matter most. Join along with other executives from business, government, health care, social profit, and education for this transformational leadership development experience. For information and to register contact Corporation for Positive Change at office@positivechange.org or 303-972-5155.

What participants are saying about the Appreciative Leadership Development Program:

This was a life altering experience. I not only got in touch with my strengths as a leader but really got in touch with who I've been "being" as a leader and what is effective about it as opposed to what I've been "doing" as a leader. I loved how we took the different data points and used them to look at ourselves and what we're up to as leaders. I am completely re-inspired as a leader and feel very supported and connected with my colleagues. Thanks.

Tish Wilson
Vice Presiden
Community Development Instutute

Complete List of 2007 Workshops

Workshop descriptions and details are posted at www.postivechange.org.

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Books and Publications

Big News!  Appreciative Team Building is now available in Norwegian. 

A completely revised and massively expanded version of The Change Handbook has just been released.  This edition, like its predecessor, contains an outstanding chapter on AI, co-authored by Diana Whitney and David Cooperrider – along with a description of the essential concepts and processes of more than sixty other change methods.  To learn more or order the book, go to www.bkconnection.com/ChangeHandbook.

Check out other leading books on Appreciative Inquiry and positive change by CPC consultants here (www.positivechange.org/appreciative-inquiry-books.html) or in the sidebar.

Also, go to www.AppreciativeLiving.com for more information on Jackie Kelm’s study on joy, or to purchase her book, Appreciative Living. 

Finally, subscribe to the AI Practitioner, the only newsletter on the practice of Appreciative Inquiry.

About Corporation for Positive Change

Corporation for Positive Change (CPC) is the premier consulting firm using Appreciative Inquiry for transformation and innovation in business, government, and non-profit organizations around the world. For more information about CPC, or to contact any of our consultants, please visit our Web site at www.positivechange.org.

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