"What if instead of seeing organizations as problems to be solved, we saw them as miracles to be appreciated?" -- David Cooperrider, Professor of Organizational Behavior, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University
What if you could spend time with someone who is actively involved with the process of helping the world's top religious leaders better understand each other ... as well as helping top organizations make giant leaps in effectiveness and profitability? That describes only a small part of the spectrum of activities that Convergence 2004 keynote speaker, David Cooperrider, is involved in.
He is also the founder of a radical new movement in management -- Appreciative Inquiry. The term Appreciative Inquiry (often abbreviated to AI) was created in 1986 by David in his doctoral thesis: 'Appreciative Inquiry: Toward a Methodology for Utilising and Enhancing Organizational Innovation.' He developed the methodology with a team of colleagues including Suresh Srivastva and Diana Whitney.
Appreciative Inquiry is the cooperative search for the best in people, their organizations, and the world around them. It involves systematic discovery of what gives a system "life" when it is most effective and capable in economic, ecological, and human terms. AI involves the art and practice of asking questions that strengthen a system's capacity to heighten positive potential. It mobilizes inquiry through crafting an "unconditional positive question" often involving hundreds and sometimes thousands of people. In AI,
intervention gives way to imagination and innovation; instead of negativity, criticism, and spiraling diagnosis there is discovery, dream, and design. AI assumes that every living system has untapped, rich, and inspiring accounts of the positive. Link this "positive change core" directly to any change agenda, and changes never thought possible are suddenly and democratically mobilized.
We'd love to have you join us at Convergence This is the 10th annual conference of innovation practitioners and it's an incredible opportunity to exchange ideas with folks from organizations around the world.
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