[Ailist] grief, despair, and anger

[Jack Brittain]

Several comments have hinted at this, but not directly hit it for me.
Many past discussions have struggled with the difference between AI and
positive thinking. The appreciative mode is not the power of positive
thinking, it is finding those forces that sustain people in
organizations and lead to desired outcomes. 

Those that are carrying grief,  despair, and anger, but still giving of
themselves, are powerful examples of sustaining forces because they are
persisting despite emotional pain. They certainly need to give up the
pain for their personal well being, but those things that sustain them
-- indeed that they personally embody -- are worthy of inquiry, things
like core values, dedication to service, selflessness. I am wondering if
the power of AI is not that it ignores the pain, but that it validates
it and identifies the strengths that people have to move beyond the
pain, strengths that also allow them to let go. I have found that a
sense of power and control can do wonders to cure anger and despair. And
for me, this is a core part of the AI experience, helping those in
organizations identify the strengths they possess to become the people,
team, community and organization of their dreams.

Just maybe the fallacy of "dealing with grief" is that implicit in the
method is accepting powerlessness. Certainly relevant to dealing with
individual issues like death of loved ones, but I am dubious of the
validity of this model for organizational applications.
-- 
=================== Jack <Brittain@Business.Utah.edu>