CCTNetwork2Apr2018Activity

Appreciative Inquiry Activity

1. Freewriting (5-7 minutes):
"When I think of a time when I had a wonderful experience -- when things were working well, when I (and others) brought the best of ourselves to the situation, when I look back and feel gratitude and/or appreciation -- the following comes to mind..."

• (Notes: the experiences that you recall can span any areas of work or life; focus on what was best about them or how they turned out to be wonderful in some way even if they didn't start that way, or even if only certain aspects were wonderful. Alternate to freewriting: draw a sketch or visualization of the situation).

2. Sharing, groups of 3 (25 minutes):
Each person takes a turn sharing their experience, while the others listen. The others should then continue to interview the storyteller, drawing upon the following questions as time allows (divide the time available and then repeat so that each person gets to be the storyteller):

• What was the time when you had the wonderful experience?
• What hopes or dreams motivated you to be part of that situation in the first place?
• What were some of factors that made it so enjoyable, rewarding, exciting?
• What do you value the most about your own role in that situation? What were your strengths? (Don't be modest!)
• How do the strengths that you showed in that situation carry forward to your work, learning, and life now?
• As you look at the world around you and the current realities that we face, why are your strengths some of the ones that are most greatly needed at this point in our history?
• If you could recreate the best parts of that earlier situation that you described toward positive change in your current situation, what would that look like? What would the outcome be? (sometimes called the "provocative proposition").

3. Return to the whole group and continue, using the dialogue process (guidelines). (~35-40 minutes). Theme: extending what we have learned through the Appreciative Inquiry activity.

4. Gathering thoughts and closing circle (~10 minutes)