Category: appreciative inquiry

appreciative inquiry, Diary entry2 Comments

UK update#6 – UK’s first free WiFi town

wenmothd

Listening to the BBC in the car on the way back from our last appointment today I heard an interview with a representative of the town of Swindon in Wiltshire, where they have just announced a plan to provide free WiFi access to the internet for all residents. The £1million project to build a ‘WiFi Mesh’ aims to provide blanket wi-fi coverage using a network of ‘internet access points’ at 1,400 locations in the town. The initiative is a public-private partnership,with residents provided with free line rental, and no connection charge. They will be able to access the internet and … Continue reading UK update#6 – UK’s first free WiFi town

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Appreciative inquiry 2

wenmothd

Another day with Don Hanna today – plenty of work with the appreciative inquiry approach to change management. (Interesting quite – it’s not change that needs to be managed, but the people affected by it!) Appreciative inquiry does stand up as a reserach methodology of sorts, but is primarily a methodology to be used in the process of managing change. The primary focus is on “appreciating” what is working and building on that, as opposed to the traditional mehtods which begin with by “problematizing” everything and working from this perspective. This often results in deficit model thinking. Continue reading Appreciative inquiry 2

appreciative inquiry2 Comments

Appreciative Inquiry

wenmothd

Have just spent a fascinating day with Don Hanna from the University of Wisconsin, Extension, who is in Wellington for the week. (More details of who Don is and the work he does can be found in the extended entry link).
We had a great discussion around the theme of appreciative inquiry – something Don introduced me to a couple of years ago when he was here as a keynote speaker at the DEANZ conference.
appreciative inquiry is an approach to organisational change based on the premise that ??organisations change in the direction in which they inquire.?? I’ve been attempting to adopt this approach in the work Iv’e been doing over the past two years, and can really vouch for its effectiveness. Amazing how differently people react in a change environment where there is a positive focus, rather than the traditional approach which tends to problematize everything.

Continue reading “Appreciative Inquiry”