Replying to LO30128 --
Dear Organlearners,
John Dicus <jdicus@ourfuture.com> writes:
>I've not written much for the last few months. Not sure why.
>I've been listening. Life experiences and current events have
>caused many questions to surface.
- cut -
>Does Organizational Learning include, or leave room for,
>those who may have been strongly in favor of a war in Iraq?
>Does Open Space? Does Appreciative Inquiry? If they do
>(or don't) then what does that say about these concepts,
>disciplines and practices?
Thank you, John for your questions. They helped me to reflect, as they
have clearly helped many people.
As someone who uses Appreciative Inquiry - and am currently writing about
it - I think that the answer has to be yes. Appreciative Inquiry is
something that happens among a group of people (although, in theory, one
could do it alone). The group does appreciates 'the best of what is'
among the group. It searches for where there is energy for change. And
it makes use of those things - those places of energy for change - which
are COMMON for the group. As a for instance (but without running an
inquiry - or enquiry as we say in England - we will never know exactly
what would come out), perhaps we could focus on the people who were very
pro-war and look at what motivated them to be that way. And perhaps we
would find that they felt strongly that all people had a right to freedom
of speech and/or liberty and/or a government of their own choice. That
might then be something that others felt was positive energy for change
that they could work with and build upon.
Another example could be people who were very anti-war. We can look at
the energy behind that too. Appreciative Inquiry would - I believe -
focus on the vision of what not having a war would look like (people who
are very anti- something usually have a good idea of what 'the right
thing' looks like) or what other alternatives could (have been) be used.
Again, by uncovering that we might have something to build upon.
Appreciative Inquiry works towards constructing a JOINT future. Of
course, it is subjective as human beings are subjective. What is 'best'?
But, it is an inclusive method. So, my belief is that it does have room
for people with strongly differing viewpoints.
Any other Ai-ers out there who might like to take a stab at this?
Hope that helps - I found it hard to explain clearly.
All the best
Tricia Lustig (another lurker of late)
--"Tricia Lustig" <TLN@lasadev.com>
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