[Ailist] Positive Family Dynamics - a new book

[Dawn Dole]

Hello AI Colleagues,

For years we had been hearing from people about how they would love to see a resource based on AI for families. Well, it's here and it would make a great holiday gift or stocking stuffer for everyone on your list.  http://www.taosinstitute.net/publishing/detailFamily.html

Positive Family Dynamics: Appreciative Inquiry Questions to Bring Out the Best in Families (2008) by Dawn Cooperrider Dole, Jen Hetzel Silbert, Ada Jo Mann, Diana Whitney

Positive Family Dynamics is a wonderful resource for parents and family members who want to bring out the best in their families! It is an Encyclopedia of Positive Questions. The book's imaginative questions, exercises, and positive spirit create a simple yet powerful method for helping families discover hidden reserves of strength and inspired opportunities for better living. They also provide powerful tools for helping all families become increasingly more appreciative, collaborative and effective in creating and shaping the futures they desire for themselves and their communities. This book contains 56 appreciative questions designed to increase learning, listening and positive dynamics within your family. Positive Family Dynamics is recommended for all family members -- grandparents, parents, children, and beyond.

To order the book go to the Taos Institute's online shopping cart: 
http://www.taosinstitute.net/publishing/detailFamily.html

See what people are saying about this book:

"I just dove into the book and THIS IS FANTASTIC! How can we get this book into the hands of moms and dads at the hospital? This is like the first 'loving instruction manual' I've ever seen 'on how to raise kids'! Deep knee bend to all of you for putting this together. YES!"
-- Leslie Sekerka, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Organizational Behavior, Director, Ethics in Action Research and Education Center, Menlo College

"Mix four great women with topics (Families and Appreciative Inquiry) on which they are true experts and about which they carry an enormous passion, and you get a fantastic book. In Positive Family Dynamics, Dawn, Jen, Ada Jo and Diana show what good is possible within our family relations when we open our appreciative eyes, mind and above all our appreciative heart. The unconditional positive way in which they approach the normal day-to-day, the painful and challenging and sometimes difficult situations in our families brings new, inspired hope into our family lives and as such to our societies. By touching the core of our existence, our families, they also add a new dimension to the use of Appreciative Inquiry. By their unconditional positive questions, they bring the story telling in our families to a new, touching and inspiring level. I believe this book is a must for everyone that feels a need to (re-)discover the positive power of our primary support system, our Families."
-- Joep C. de Jong, Director BT Learning Solutions and Chairman of the Board of JLS International

"This remarkable volume is a kind of applied poetics for the family. The book's imaginative questions, exercises, and positive spirit creates a simple yet powerful method for helping families discover hidden reserves of strength and inspired opportunities for better living. As parents we know what it means to purposefully practice appreciation, gratitude, wonder, and search for the best in the other-seeking to re-create with children and each other, the same kind of enchantment one feels when witnessing a beautiful sunrise or the peak of a snowcapped mountain. But obviously it is not always that easy, that is, experiencing the enchantment of everyday life in the midst of the daily pressures, the laundry, and every kind of family dynamic imaginable. That's why this book is so important. It's a vital reminder: family life is a miracle and mystery. It's a precious gift. And it requires dedicated and positive tools, exactly the kind this book provides. Appreciative Inquiry, while applied all over the world in business and organizations, may have just found its most important home with this invitation to flourishing families!"
- -Nancy and David Cooperrider

"Creating positive family dynamics is not about having all the answers to life for your children; it is simply knowing what kinds of positive questions to ask to create uplifting and life-giving conversations with your family members! Dawn, Jen, Ada Jo and Diana have done a superb job bringing together rich questions to ignite meaningful conversations each and every day with our family members. This book makes a wonderful addition to your family to help bring out the best in your family!"
-- Jackie Stavros, co-author of Dynamic Relationship

"This book will take your family experience to new heights, as you learn to use questions to discover and appreciate what is best in those relationships. It's a wonderful read for all, and a must read for parents."
-- Jackie Kelm, author of Appreciative Living: The Principles of Appreciative Inquiry in Personal Life