Background

Jersey City planner, Tanya Marione-Stanton was thumbing through GOOD magazine when she saw the call for cities to take part in GOOD 2.0, (R&D) Initiative described as “an open workshop platform for improving your city.” Tanya entered Jersey City into the contest and the application was one of eight accepted out of 100s. You can read more about the background in The Jersey City Independent

Workshop Design

Over 60 (from 80+ RSVPs) people showed up at the elegant Culinary Conference Center, Hudson County Community College  to participate in the world cafe style workshop on the topic of THRIVING FARMS IN THE CITY.   We followed the classic appreciative inquiry story-telling format first to DISCOVER what strengths, gifts and capabilities already exist in the community in relation to our topic:

Question 1: Discover
What already exists in us, around us that we can build on to create thriving farms in the city?

We moved on to DREAM in order to tap into our imaginative capacities to envision what else in possible in urban agriculture in the neighborhoods of Jersey City:

Question 2: Dream
Imagine your biggest dream for your Farm in the City.  In 2 years, what do you see, hear, taste, smell, touch, enjoy?

Next, we turned our serial conversations to DESIGN where we began to co-create how we best organize ourselves and include others to bring the dream into reality;  we got tactical about the requirements and resources:

Question 3: Design
How do we make it happen?  What are the organizing elements? Who do we work with and where and when?

From there the participants broke out into their 6 residential wards to look at huge maps of their streets and place icons of what already exists as designated green space and what can be turned into green space.  This information will be added to the Jersey City Green Map. While in their ward groups, residents noted projects they’d like to be part of with their commitment to participate in an ongoing way, and they were invited to design some kind of creative, fun announcement that would inform and entertain the other breakout ward groups of their initiatives.

By way of closure, we gathered in a large circle to share what new insights had come as a result of investing 4 hours on a Saturday afternoon in community with others who share their interest in healthy food and farms in the city.  I was touched (and not surprised) to hear some deep and practical reflections from members of the group.

Facilitator’s Reflections

I continue to be energized and rewarded with how Appreciative Inquiry (AI)’s Discover, Dream, Design affirmative questions deliver immediate, heightened energy, excitement and power to a group.  I know why:  I am grounded in the theory and practice of AI, yet it still astounds me and brings butterflies to my gut and tears to my eyes.  The structure takes participants immediately into a state of valuing themselves and others present in the room (and may not be present in the room), and quickly moves them into imagining what they have the power to collectively co-create.  Because I know that, I can only stress, it is so important not to short-circuit or derail the creative sharing opportunity that people find they have courage to present in the moment, nor cut off  the deep insights and reflections they feel moved to share.  These two pieces touch the core of our being and bring out our inner leadership.  In a closing circle, not to let that emerge is such a missed opportunity.  We are on sacred ground when we connect with each other at this new, deep level.  When we by-pass it, we possibly short-change the passion and power of everyone in the circle.

Discover Best Stories

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUpGpPIROuo

Best Stories of Purpose-Driven Selling

We have all, at some time or another, been part of a successful, rewarding selling experience, whether it was selling a pretty pink lipstick, a million-dollar service contract, or tickets to your local arts fund-raising dinner. Reflect on a time when you felt at your best in a selling situation. Everything seemed perfectly aligned—timing, customers, your knowledge and message, the questions, and how you managed your responses, and so forth. Share your story.

• What was the situation?
• What was the purpose?
• Who was there?
• What was the outcome?
• How did you feel?

Without being modest, what do you value about yourself in your story?

What do you value about the work you were doing?

What did you value about the organizations—yours and your customer’s?

The participants paired off to interview each other. Very soon the room was alive with energy as the pairs exchanged stories of their best selling experiences.  After 25 minutes, single pairs linked up with another 2 pairs to form groups of six where interviewers introduced their interview partners and shared highlights of their partners’ stories of a high point purpose-driven sales experience.  They were invited to:

• Listen respectfully, focus on the common themes that came up across the stories;  listen for the collective strengths across all the stories:  key roots of success.   They selected a story that exemplified the strengths, best assets, and successes in a sales experience and shared with all other groups.

We then reconvened to listen to what came up for people during this discovery interview.

Collective findings of best selling experiences

We identified the most powerful and successful selling experiences happened when the following elements were present:

• we took time to notice and observe client behavior;
• we listened deeply;
• we engaged with full presence (not distracted by others, seeking information from them);
• we proposed a solution that represented the above two points and was fresh in its presentation;
• there was synchronicity and alignment of mutual respect and purpose;
• we knew we were helping;
• we felt confident and were very well-prepared; we were authentic and loved what we did; we trusted our intuition; we let go of assumptions;
• it felt easy and natural;
• we were acknowledged, complimented and  invited back;
• clients reported to feeling heard and understood and the solution offered was very good.

Participants agreed participating in the AI approach was an empowering experience, as most of them didn’t believe that selling was a strength, yet during their interviews they discovered strengths they were not yet aware of, or did not consider to be valuable.   Moreover, in hearing stories from other consultants in the room, they discovered skills and behaviors they too had, and made the connection that they could develop those same skills sets and behaviors that would help them shift to a new level of performance when it came to selling their services and products.

As a close, they each made a wish or two (in the form of a personal commitment) about what they would do to reconnect to their latent talents around selling-on-purpose and how to co-construct it with their clients.

Debriefing

As a debrief we contrasted this strength-based, generative approach to selling to the more traditional approach of telling people how to sell.  Moreover, there is a strong underlying assumption in sales-drive organizations, that sales people  are motivated by financial incentives, competition and fear of failure.  We recognized the negative consequences of contraction in such circumstances, when we feel fear and unconsciously we  jump to control mode and shut down.  On the other hand, when we come from a place of strength and feel positive about ourselves, we access our generative states, trusting ourselves and others.  We open ourselves up to possibilities, become more personally expansive and are more inclusive of others. We also spoke of the value being in positive resourceful states that the AI process facilitates, such as appreciating, imagining, collaborating and empowering.

I thank all who showed up to participate in the workshop to make it a fun and generative learning experience.  I would be most honored for those of you who were there, if you took a moment to add your own insights and experience to this blog post.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaFa91DSRi4

Workshop details -- FREE

Wednesday, July 28 2010 5:45 -- 8:00 PM

You’re invited to experience Appreciative Inquiry in Action and discover your strengths in relation to selling. If you think you can’t sell, or wish to improve, come along to this workshop on the affirmative topic of PURPOSE-DRIVEN SELLING and discover strengths you did not know you had in relation to selling.

I  will be facilitating this workshop which is one of the 21 workshops in my new book, Appreciative Inquiry for Collaborative Solutions: 21 Strength-based Workshops.

Location

John Jay College
899 10th Avenue @59th Street
New York, NY
Room 531

To Register

Please register in advance at this link:  http://bit.ly/bQZxcN
Questions: contact robyn @ positivematrix.com

My New York Cab story:

I’m in New York City and when I get into a cab, after I put on my seat belt and settle into the backseat, I ask the driver casually. “What’s the best thing that’s happened to you today?” It could be any time of day. It could be snowing, sleeting, or sweltering with heat and humidity. The traffic is usually at a stand still and horns are honking and sirens screeching. And, every single time, I get an almost identical response …. the driver suspiciously raises his eyes and looks up into the rear view mirror to check out who is this kook in the back of his cab. Then slowly a smile comes across his face, his eyes twinkle as they make contact with mine and he repeats: “The best thing that’s happened to me today?” And he begins to tell me. There is more. Through my appreciative inquiry I get to hear more of his story – where he comes from, who is family is, what he does in his spare time, what life is like back in his country of origin and much more. Over these last years, I have connected with the most wonderful and extraordinary people simply by asking an unconditionally positive question.

Every person, whose story I’ve heard has touched me and I know I have touched them. Perhaps, most illustrative of the power of inquiry is the driver who was so moved by our generative conversation, driving me from Wall Street to Park Avenue said, when we reached my destination, “Ma’am you do such good work in the world, you don’t pay me!” I thanked him and responded he also was doing such good work in the world. Then as I got out of the cab, I mentioned to the next passenger who was already impatiently holding the cab door, “He’s a good guy”, flicking my head in the direction of the driver. Before the cab pulled away from the curb, I heard the driver laugh out loud when the new passenger said, “I hear you are a good guy.”

Appreciative inquiry, it works every time.

Five actions using appreciative inquiry to shape your experience

1. Pay special attention to your first question, it determines what comes next.
2. Ask what works, rather than what’s wrong?
3. Notice, the more positive the question, the more it will create the possible.
4. Stay in the inquiry to help people think.
5. Believe in the goodness of people to see the goodness of people.

What are your positive stories about shaping your experience to bring out the best in you and others?

image courtesy of berkessel.com

Appreciative Inquiry is a change method with the perspective that every organization has something that works right – things that give it life when it is most alive, effective, successful and connected in healthy ways to its stakeholders and communities.

It’s how we ask those very first questions that begin the change process.
Why not ask what’s right, rather than what’s wrong?

For example:

What is a high point experience in your organization – a time when you were most alive and engaged?

“Appreciative Inquiry”  inquires into what is positive and what works, thereby starting a virtuous network  which amplifies, expands and heightens energy and vision for change.

To find out more and register for our next Appreciative Inquiry Foundations in New York City, please visit http://nyaipartners.com

Experience the full Appreciative Inquiry process, learn the principles and practice the skills and be apple to apply it in your context.

Applications

• Leading Positive Change
• Igniting Leadership at All Levels
• Life-centric Coaching
• Valuing Diversity of All Kinds
• Collaborative Break-throughs
• Creating Cultures of Engagement
• Trusting Rapid Protyping

“What are you excited about?”

I love the question.  In my practice of Appreciative Inquiry, we say  it’s the question that starts the change process.  If Justin had asked, not “What are you excited about” , but instead, “What are you depressed about?” a totally depressing story would have been told.  But he asked a powerfully affirmative question that inspires me to think about the successes and strengths I already know about and can celebrate.  Moreover, the question leads me to focus on what I want more of.

It was no effort to list what I am excited about.

I am excited that the conversation is widening and we are becoming more conscious of what is importance to us and what we value – more people becoming engaged and more voices are being heard.

I am excited that we are changing policies and introducing reforms to bring greater equity and justice into the world, especially in the financial sector.

I am excited we are taking actions , globally, around all the factors pertaining  to ecological sustainability – energy, transportation, earth.

I am excited when I hear leadership speak from the heart, ethically, and listens loudly.

I am excited that social media is increasing our participation and collaboration across the world and is a force of natural democratization in the world.

I am excited that we now, in America, will be able to care for the sick, children and elderly who are most vulnerable in our world.

I am excited the natural disasters that have occurred are showing us we how inter-connected we are and we cannot not think systemically.

I am excited that Americans are increasingly learning there is a world outside the US and it’s a beautiful world to be celebrated and shared.

I am excited that Americans are learning more about good health and there is conversation and action about eating natural, unprocessed, wholesome food with less sugar and less salt.

I am excited that there is continued conversation about the inhumanity of cruelty to animals.

I am excited that as a human species,  we are evolving rapidly and exponentially to live our lives with heightened and enlightened levels of consciousness.

I am excited we are thinking holistically, and seeing the world through multiple lenses, and listening to the myriad of diverse stories, and integrating the physical with the virtual

I am excited to be alive in 2010 and have this opportunity to tell my story.

I am excited to know if you, too, are moved to answer this question: “What are you excited about?”

How so absolutely real is that!  Coming back from India and Nepal recently, and being immersed in the experience of other cultures brought “the experience of being alive” up front and personal. I saw and felt both the rawness of poverty co-exist alongside the comfort of wealth, and latest mobile technologies being used along side women filling vessels from community water pumps.   It’s those in-your-face contrasts that jolt us into the fullness of being alive.

If we don’t experience the fullness of life personally, we can vicariously.  We see more and more reality TV shows in the US which expose us to aspects of life that maybe outside our own experiences.  For example, where bosses are going undercover into the trenches to experience what it’s like to work in their own companies outside their board rooms; where couples race around the world and experience many difference cultures and environments;  where cooks initiative food revolutions to expose school kids to food that is different from their regular, routine food in the hope to introduce healthier diets that will create greater awareness of what it takes to live a healthier life style, free from fatal diseases associated with obesity.  And there are so many others that open us up to the fullness of being alive.

Awareness is the first step in any change.  If we can suspend judgment and see others as they are, it opens us up to seeing the wholeness of life with an appreciation of difference and what it could be like to be in someone else’s  shoes.  With such awareness, we begin to expand our own perspectives and the experience of being alive, and with that, comes the principle of Umbunto – I am because you are.

My dream for a more equitable, loving world, where communities can sustain themselves, women increasingly take public leadership roles, in the home, in business and governments, children are literate, and wealth is more evenly distributed is being realized bit-by-bit.  This bit-by-bit phenomenon is growing.  Social entrepreneurs, who believe in patient capital, participatory leadership and mindsets, and social media that instantly spread messages, are powerful facilitators of this positive, equitable trend.

If you too embrace the “fullness of being alive”, with optimism, hope and possibility, how is it showing up for you?

How important?

To be doing something you are good at and having fun and involving others in co-creating fun.  That’s participation, collaboration and engagement and playing to one’s strengths!   The New York Times is talking about Matt Harding who seems to have fun doing what he’s really good at.  The article brings attention to a number of the positive attributes that living in 2010 is all about: having the internet to share one’s own creativity; involving our global village life-centric ways that unite us through music, laughter, activity, play.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY

“However you interpret it, you can’t watch “Dancing” for very long without feeling a little happier. The music (by Gary Schyman, a friend of Mr. Harding’s, and set to a poem by Rabindranath Tagore, sung in Bengali by Palbasha Siddique, a 17-year-old native of Bangladesh now living in Minneapolis) is both catchy and haunting. The backgrounds are often quite beautiful. And there is something sweetly touching and uplifting about the spectacle of all these different nationalities, people of almost every age and color, dancing along with an uninhibited doofus.

Children, not surprisingly, turn out to be the best at picking up on Mr. Harding’s infectious vibe. There’s frequently a grown-up, on the other hand — especially one in the front row of a crowd — who tends to ham it up and make a fool of himself.

The other remarkable thing about the “Dancing” phenomenon is that it is, to a very considerable extent, a creation of the Internet. It doesn’t just live, so to speak, on the Web; it was the Web that, more or less accidentally, brought it into being.”

How to register for this free event.

This was the most diverse AI conference to date: the location, Kathmandu, Nepal, the participant mix from 42 countries, and the range topics showing the many, many applications of AI in the world today in all sectors was a testament to the power of AI globally. It was a simultaneous online and in person conference.

I, together with Susanne Mueller, Barbara Christian and Timothy Germany,  will be sharing the high points of our experience.  Come hear our stories as we share examples of how AI as an instrument of change is impacting the lives of people in the poorest communities, in schools, in government, in industry, in hospitals, on topics of social justice, environmental responsibility, aging, leadership, families and so much more.

In addition, I will provide a quick overview of the contents and objectives of my  new book  “Appreciative Inquiry for Collaborative Solutions: 21 Strength-based Workshops”, published by Pfeiffer Imprint of Wiley, ISBN 978-0-470-48316-9 will be available. David Cooperrider  has described it as “a brilliantly applied book with over 21 workshops ready for prime time delivery – helping leaders tap the revolutionary power of appreciative inquiry…”

Date:  Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Time:  5:45 pm  – 8 pm
Location:   John Jay College, 899 Tenth Avenue @ 59th Street , Room 610 T
Registration Fee:  Free
Here is the closest Subway stop/lines   59th Street Columbus Circle/Broadway  – Subway A, B, C, D, 2, 1

Participants will need to pre-register in order to access the building.   (You may need to sign in to yahoo groups.)

The NYAISIG is a community of practice that is committed to the study, exploration and application of the Appreciative Inquiry Philosophical Approach along with other positive/collaborative approaches and practices around change and transformation.  It is our hope to create a supportive community of practitioners to bring more of these approaches into New York City and Area Organizations.   It is co-sponsored by Dispute Resolution Program at John Jay College.

I am equally inspired by their responses, so I’ve created a comment area on my blog for us to continue sharing ideas, stories, experiences, insights and aspirations.

Below are some examples of their emails:

“I read the activity about Business as a change agent in the world … I love the legacy aspect. So this gave me an idea for my storytelling….You inspired me at lunch, and also in the subway! This book arrives at the perfect time for me it seems!”

“Now that I’ve had a little time to actually read the book (the first few sections), I love it more. It’s got clear insights and your tapestry of weaving together the several strands that influence your thinking/this book is one of golden and silver threads. Just stunning synthesis and vision. This book is simply wonderful.  Much success!”

“I’m back in Germany now after a very exciting two weeks in New York City. Your workshop at Marymount was one of the highlights of the workshop circuit. I am planning on using appreciative inquiry in BPW and present it, as you did, as a useful trainer tool and at the same time to find out what members and prospective members want and need from BPW.  Perhaps I can also use the method in a team building workshop.”

“I’ve had a quick browse – what a wonderful resource it will be for the AI community ”

“I love your book! It’s a perfect tool for incorporating Appreciative Inquiry in group coaching/training, so I can’t wait to put it into action. Thanks for this beautiful work, it’s really going to change things ”

“Looking forward to working with your book – maybe already next week in an interview with a friend to capture her Art of Hosting training experience in Sweden last month. Will let you know -   Here is my little report from Friday’s event on Pioneers of Change.”

“Robyn Stratton-Berkessel led us through an Appreciative Inquiry exercise that showed us the power of hearing other people telling our own leadership story.”

“Can your workplace benefit from better collaboration + appreciation of each others work? Try @robbiecat‘ s workbook.”

Please also read my interview on Axiom News,  whose mission is “To be the news agency of the world’s most socially generative organizations’.

I am very grateful to you all!

And let’s keep sharing and here’s the comment area to share ideas and practices.