Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. ~ Melody Beattie
Appreciative Inquiry
Think of a time when you or your organization performed the best. What made it so good? What did you bring to the experience? What did others bring? What policies and practices were in place that supported the experience? These questions begin a methodology that taps into the positive core already existing in individuals and organizations.
Appreciative Inquiry was first developed at Case Western Reserve University Weatherhead School of Management in the 1970's. It is proving to be effective for developing sustainable futures by cycling through these five phases:
1) Define Identify your focus: what is it you want to know more about?
2) Discover Appreciate what is: what it is that exists right now,
pertinent to your focus, that works really well?
3) Dream Imagine what might be: how would you like things to be in the future?
4) Design Determine what should be: how might we get there?
5) Destiny Ongoing innovation: how will we review, communicate, and support success?
Appreciative Inquiry is an asset-based approach based on the assumption that whatever you want more of already exists in the organization. It's a process that identifies the best of the past and extends it into future possibilities. It's been used as a leadership strategy and as a basis for managing change.