From Collective Intelligence to Collective Action: Unlocking the Power of the Whole System with Luc Verheijen

Ever since he joined British Telecom (BT) as a senior executive in 1998, Joep de Jong has been using Appreciative Inquiry (AI) to lead, coach, and facilitate change and innovation in organizations . He consults and leads lectures on leadership, change management, organization development, and intercultural work at organizations ranging from the UN’s World Food Program, the European Space Agency to small and big for profit organizations. He is particularly interested in the sustainability of AI in organizations and in the use of it in every day processes (strategic planning, facilitation, coaching, appraisals etc.) in order to achieve the best possible results. Core in his approach is a strong belief in the possibilities and potential that resides in us all. He joins us to share where he has seen AI have a big impact. From mergers, to layoffs, to domestic violence, he demonstrates how AI, and the power of storytelling, can make a meaningful difference.   EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: Joep shares how one of the most powerful invitations in Appreciative Inquiry, that of storytelling,  immediately “sold” him on the approach. He notes how during a technical merger between two companies, storytelling was an integral part of building trust between the two teams. Joep talks about his favorite go-to tool for co-creating visions and values: The Wall of Wonder. Using an appreciative approach and truly walking the talk of his belief in relationships helped Joep during a particularly difficult round of layoffs  He shares how he helped facilitate discussions around domestic violence, using Appreciative Inquiry to help them focus on peace in the house. Joep is credited with the quote, “A problem is nothing but a frustrated dream.” He challenges us to prove him wrong.   LIKE AND SHARE If you liked this podcast, please SHARE an episode with a friend, leave us a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts, and follow Inspiring Impacts wherever you listen to podcasts! Learn more at appreciativeinquiry.champlain.edu.

Dr. Claudia Gross is a soulful Business Humanist, Organizational Visionary, Consultant and Trainer. For over 20 years, she has facilitated transformations in organizations, teams and individuals mainly in the Maghreb, the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa and now online around the world. She trains and offers consultancy regarding a wide variety of topics within the areas of HUMAN futures of work*ing and collaborating. She supports teams in transforming, healing and ultimately liberating their day-to-day work and their truly living organizations. She facilitates purpose-driven planning workshops, team building retreats, multi-stakeholder processes and a variety of interactive and inspiring events. She joins us with stories about global appreciative impacts, from Pakistan to Yemen to Sri Lanka. She also shares her speakGreen work and how appreciative micro practices can greatly enhance your daily life.     EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS Claudia shares with us how she helps groups of people envision a future that they want and take steps toward bringing that future to life. She tells us about work she did in Pakistan, helping them envision a world where hospitals were no longer needed because public health and community development was so strong.  A team in Yemen envisioned no more children begging in the street because there was such an increase in food security and food sovereignty that children could now go to school. Her work in Sri Lanka was with a number of small business owners who were seeking to broaden their network of trade associations, support companies active in regenerative economies, and better represent themselves at trade fairs. She highlights the cross-cultural relevance and global applicability of Appreciative Inquiry. Claudia shares her work as author and founder of speakGreen, which seeks to increase awareness of our language and encourage more conscious and intentional word choices. She shares her favorite examples of where intentional word choice makes a meaningful difference. Claudia shares her advice that embedding these micropractices into your daily life can infuse your life with gratitude and have a profound impact on your life and your relationships.   LIKE AND SHARE! If you liked this podcast, please SHARE an episode with a friend, leave us a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts, and follow Inspiring Impacts wherever you listen to podcasts! Learn more at appreciativeinquiry.champlain.edu.

Dr. Nicole Bossard helps community and social service agencies align organizational values and business practices; strengthen accountability processes; improve collaborative partnerships; improve employee engagement and dramatically expand leadership capacity throughout the organization. With over 25 years experience helping social and human service providers make the shift from compliance-driven practice to real impact for individuals, families, employers, and communities in urban, suburban, rural areas, and Tribal nations across the United States, Dr. Nicole understands the pressures to perform and deliver results in a systems context. She joins us to share her journey with Appreciative Inquiry, where she has seen it have real impact in child protective services, and how she thinks organizations can tap into their best resource: the full engagement and inclusion of their employees and customers!    EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS Dr. Nicole shares how she discovered Appreciative Inquiry and what pushed her toward taking a deep dive in applying it in her work. She shares her commitment to making our relationship accountability objectives as important as our systems change objectives. Appreciative Inquiry challenges the faulty premise that we have to focus in on the problem, which only pigeon holes us to the presenting issue. Dr. Nicole’s work leading systems change in child welfare services meant gathering a whole system of stakeholders, including among others, birth parents. She shares how she helped create safe spaces for people in a system rife with secondary trauma. She walks us through the process of how she ran a Summit to improve system outcomes for child welfare services. There is a transformation that happens when you invite people to see themselves as leaders. Dr. Nicole shares the story of Sherry Tomlinson and how important it is to include big loud, sometimes scary, voices. She leaves us with the takeaway that this approach to human systems allows for a soul blossoming that creates so much value and the kind of collaboration needed in the world today. LIKE AND SHARE If you liked this podcast, please SHARE an episode with a friend, leave us a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts, and follow Inspiring Impacts wherever you listen to podcasts! Learn more at appreciativeinquiry.champlain.edu.

Ignacio is an Assistant Professor at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, with a joint position between the Business School and the Institute for Sustainable Development. His research focuses on the foundations and practices of appreciative organization development and change, the study of teams in organizations, the integration of sustainability into the business strategy of a firm, and the potential of inter-organizational collaboration to tackle grand challenges. As a consultant, he has specialized in implementing appreciative approaches; embedding sustainability as a way to create competitive advantage; and developing value-based cultural transformation programs. He shares with us his discovery of Appreciative Inquiry, his inspiration and work  to shift the educational paradigm in Chile, and the impacts of some of his consulting work and research. 

Fran Stoddard is a journalist and consultant who has been involved in education, public relations, media production, facilitation, and strategy development for more than 30 years. With a deep interest in helping organizations and communities move forward, Fran has used Appreciative Inquiry to help inspire impacts in towns and communities across the country.

Dr. Jackie Stavros is globally renowned as the thought leader behind the SOAR approach to strategic planning, revolutionizing how organizations approach their future with generative conversations that yield tangible results. With her new groundbreaking work on 'Conversations Worth Having,' Jackie exemplifies how to seamlessly integrate AI principles into everyday life.

Who’s Inspiring Impacts today? It’s the one and only, Dr. David Cooperrider, the first person to coin the term “Appreciative Inquiry”! David Cooperrider, PhD, is a professor and Founder of the Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. As we wrap up Season 1 of Inspiring Impacts, David joins host Dr. Lindsey Godwin to share his definition and perspectives on three decades of global f Appreciative Inquiry work. David shares stories of how  Appreciative Inquiry first developed, how he’s applied it in his own life, and how he’s seen others use AI to create positive change in their lives and the world for over 30 years. Highlighting many of the themes we’ve discussed throughout this season, he answers questions you’ve likely been wondering. He also details the powerful role of language in bringing people together in a creative mode, practicing Appreciative Inquiry, and realizing transformation. David Cooperrider, PhD, is the Fairmount Minerals Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University. Currently David serves as Faculty Director of the Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit. David is best known as the co-creator and creative thought leader of Appreciative Inquiry (AI). His founding work with AI is creating a positive revolution in the leadership of change; it is helping institutions all over the world discover the power of the strength-based approaches to multi-stakeholder innovation and collaborative design. Cooperrider’s work is especially unique because of its ability to enable positive change, innovation, and sustainable design in systems of large and complex scale. Episode Highlights: The origin story of the term “Appreciative Inquiry”. Why the “whole system” approach is so important in the Appreciative Inquiry model. “Words create worlds.” – What is the meaning behind that phrase? Reframing as a core principle of Appreciative Inquiry & how David brought reframing to life in his own health journey. Why storytelling is a powerful tool and a core part of any appreciative process. Appreciative questions you can take with you into work, relationships, personal health, and more. Join us next season for more conversations, stories, and guests who are Inspiring Impacts all over the world! Did this episode inspire or impact you? Want to make an impact on us? If so, SHARE this episode with a friend, leave us a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts, and follow Inspiring Impacts wherever you listen to podcasts! Resources & Previous Episodes Mentioned: More about David's work and writing: https://www.davidcooperrider.com  David's commentary on the original AI article he and Suresh Srivastva published https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/S1475-9152(2013)0000004001/full/html UN Global Compact Appreciative Inquiry Summit: https://aicommons.champlain.edu/educational-material/united-nations-global-compact-leaders-summit/  Making Change Easy: The Tiniest Ai Summit in the World.  This article details David's personal health journey using AI reframing as an approach AI and the United Religions Initiative (URI) http://www.theinterfaithobserver.org/journal-articles/2019/5/13/appreciative-inquiry-and-the-united-religions-initiative Ame Lambert: add link when live Jackie Wong: add link when live Liz Vogel: https://bit.ly/43IjfSz Luc Verheijen: https://bit.ly/43KO7Sg Tojo Thatchenkery: add link when live Ellen Drolette: https://bit.ly/44HAgOc Yabome Gilpin-Jackson: https://bit.ly/47aQjWc Ronald Fry: https://bit.ly/44GXN1F Inspiring Quotes: “Appreciative Inquiry is all about the search for the true, the good, the better, the possible.” “We grow and we become what we most deeply, frequently, and most powerfully ask questions about.” “There’s a big difference between eliminating something and enabling something and you can’t enable what you can’t talk about it.” “We’ve underestimated the role of the positive in human systems… What good is hope, inspiration, and joy as it relates to growing into a changed person, growing into a transformed organization?” “People don’t resist change, they resist being changed by others. We are hardwired to love change when it’s done in a way that brings forward hope… joy… learning.” What is Appreciative Inquiry? Appreciative Inquiry, sometimes referred to as “the other AI”, is one of the best kept secrets behind meaningful and lasting change at organizations. The AI approach is strength-based, meaning it focuses on identifying and leveraging successes to solve problems, rather than focusing on trying to fix individual failures.

Who’s Inspiring Impacts today? Cindy Stull! Cindy Stull is the Chief Revenue Officer at Dealer Tire. Listen in as Cindy joins host Dr. Lindsey Godwin to shed light on how she’s spearheading large change initiatives and moving organizations in inspirational directions through Appreciative Inquiry. Cindy inspires us to foster a company culture that’s rooted in Appreciative Inquiry and thoughtful questions. She highlights the powerful benefits of hosting an Appreciative Inquiry summit along with how Appreciative Inquiry can improve every aspect of leadership and business. If you’re looking to drive strategic and cultural advancements across your organization, this episode is one to take notes on! Cindy Stull is Partner & Chief Revenue Officer at Dealer Tire in Cleveland Ohio. Dealer Tire is a value-added distributor that manages tire programs for over 20 automotive manufacturers. Cindy joined the company in 2006 and is responsible for leading a team of over 500 people who help auto dealerships to be more profitable and drive customer retention. Previously holding the positions of Chief Sales Officer and Chief People & Strategy Officer, Cindy plays a key role in shaping the strategy and culture of Dealer Tire, while ensuring top-notch execution. Episode Highlights: How Cindy uses Appreciative Inquiry to solve problems, increase engagement, and achieve long-lasting change in organizations like Dealer Tire. What is an Appreciative Inquiry summit and how do these AI summits impact employees and customers? How Appreciative Inquiry can improve talent management, safety programs, and diversity and inclusion in leadership. Why  Cindy choose to adopt an appreciative approach to leadership Resources Mentioned: Co-Creating Roadmap for Inclusion: Dealer Tire’s Inclusive Leadership (COIL) article  Inspiring Quotes: “If we’re asking questions that are more focused on the strengths and what we want to be and how we grow, then we find that we accelerate the pace of change and the change is actually much more long-lasting.” “Learning more about Appreciative Inquiry has given me the structure and science behind why it works and helped me to leverage new methodologies, new tools, take what might have been a natural collaborative style to just a whole different level based on the research that’s out there.” “I can envision that we are probably going to have a real opportunity to have a summit around the customer experience and ensure that we are galvanizing our leaders to every level, including our frontline technicians.” What is Appreciative Inquiry? Appreciative Inquiry, sometimes referred to as “the other AI”, is one of the best kept secrets behind meaningful and lasting change at organizations. The AI approach is strength-based, meaning it focuses on identifying and leveraging successes to solve problems, rather than focusing on trying to fix individual failures. Did this episode inspire or impact you? Want to make an impact on us? If so, SHARE this episode with a friend, leave us a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts, and follow Inspiring Impacts wherever you listen to podcasts!

Who’s Inspiring Impacts today? Tojo Thatchenkery! Dr. Tojo Thatchenkery, PhD, is a professor, author, and Founder of the Appreciative Intelligence® Model, which is based on Appreciative Inquiry and mindfulness. Listen in as Tojo joins host Dr. Lindsey Godwin to detail the concept of Appreciative Intelligence and share how you can develop your own Appreciative Intelligence® with just three simple techniques. From doctors to economists to parents, everyone can benefit from growing their Appreciative Intelligence®! Tojo says a big part of that is practicing mindfulness and positive reframing. Tune in to learn more about the power of Appreciative Intelligence® and even how it  helped Tojo transform his relationship with his daughter. Tojo Thatchenkery, PhD, is a professor and director of the Organization Development and Knowledge Management program in the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. He is an internationally known speaker, consultant, and educator and is featured as one of the leading change thinkers in the Palgrave Handbook of Organizational Change Thinkers. Thatchenkery’s research has been funded by agencies such as the United States National Science Foundation, National Security Agency, and the U.S. Postal Service. He is the author of more than a dozen books and hundreds of articles. Episode Highlights: The difference between Appreciative Inquiry and Appreciative Intelligence®. How leaders, individuals, and organizations are using Appreciative Intelligence® (plus their results). Why reframing is a crucial part of Appreciative Inquiry and Intelligence. How to develop your Appreciative Intelligence® and reframing skills. The 4 qualities of people with Appreciative Intelligence®. How Tojo has used Appreciative Intelligence® and reframing in his personal life. What is the circular economy and how do you see it as reframing in action? Resources Mentioned: http://www.appreciativeintelligence.com/ Appreciative Intelligence®: Seeing the Mighty Oak in the Acorn (book) by Tojo Thatchenkery and Carol Metzker The Development and Validation of the Appreciative Intelligence ® Scale (article) by Brian Whitaker, Tojo Thatchenkery, and Lindsey Godwin Inspiring Quotes: “Appreciative Inquiry is a systematic way of building on those core values, competencies, assets, etc. thereby creating a much better and healthier organization. “We also find mindfulness as one of the best examples of a practice for reframing and seeing the positive because in mindfulness, you are accepting the present as good without judging.”  What is Appreciative Inquiry? Appreciative Inquiry, sometimes referred to as “the other AI”, is one of the best kept secrets behind meaningful and lasting change at organizations. The AI approach is strength-based, meaning it focuses on identifying and leveraging successes to solve problems, rather than focusing on trying to fix individual failures. Did this episode inspire or impact you? Want to make an impact on us? If so, SHARE this episode with a friend, leave us a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts, and follow Inspiring Impacts wherever you listen to podcasts!

Who’s Inspiring Impacts today? Jacqueline Wong! Jacqueline Wong is a Singapore-based Appreciative Inquiry Practitioner and Founder/Managing Director of Sequoia Group. Listen in as Jackie shares with host Dr. Lindsey Godwin how she’s been integrating Appreciative Inquiry into Singapore’s labor movement, healthcare system, community engagement, and more! In this episode, Jackie sheds light on the powerful impact of intentionally seeking where things are working and asking new questions to figure out how we can sustain success together. She breaks down some prime examples of how she has used this Appreciative Inquiry methodology to bring positive change to the people and systems of Singapore (and how you can, too!). Jackie Wong is an Appreciative Inquiry Practitioner and Founder/Managing Director of Sequoia Group, a management consultancy specializing in Leadership & Organizational Development (OD). She is the Founder of Imagine Singapore and board member of the International Appreciative Inquiry Journal. Episode Highlights: How Jackie first used Appreciative Inquiry to help transform Singapore’s labor movement. The behind-the-scenes of Imagine Singapore, which aims to create hope and possibility through AI and meaningful conversations. Reimagining Singapore’s Healthcare: How Appreciative Inquiry fueled a quest for a sustainable, relationship-based healthcare system. Resources Mentioned: Learn more about Imagine Singapore: https://www.sequoia.com.sg/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Synopsis_on_Imagine_Singapore_Age_Unlimited_Inquiry_Summit.pdf The Sequoia Group: https://www.sequoia.com.sg/about-us/  Imagine Chicago: https://www.imaginechicago.org Inspiring Quotes: “I have infused Appreciative Inquiry into every single intervention.” “I want to say how important it is to understand the principles of AI, not just the tools and the techniques and the questions.”  What is Appreciative Inquiry? Appreciative Inquiry, sometimes referred to as “the other AI”, is one of the best kept secrets behind meaningful and lasting change at organizations. The AI approach is strength-based, meaning it focuses on identifying and leveraging successes to solve problems, rather than focusing on trying to fix individual failures. Did this episode inspire or impact you? Want to make an impact on us? If so, SHARE this episode with a friend, leave us a 5-star rating on Apple Podcasts, and follow Inspiring Impacts wherever you listen to podcasts!