[Ailist] How does it work?

[Cheri Torres]

Roger, 

 

In essence, I think we are in agreement. I agree that making effective
decisions to move towards outcomes we desire (such as improvement) is
definitely the purpose of all of this. 

 

I'd probably quibble over the use of the term 'judgment' simply because it
is so value-laden.  I'd argue for a term such as 'assessment', which calls
for someone to look at something in relationship to something else (like an
outcome).  I think too often our (or should I say my!) habitual judging of
everything around us as 'good' or 'bad', positive or negative makes it easy
to jump and does not call us to suspend.  

 

For me, the idea of not labeling the experience makes room for suspending
our perspective--as you suggest--in order to explore and see what, if any
changes, we want to make. It is perhaps not that the experience is positive
or negative, but rather does it move us closer or further away from a
desired state.

 

Cheri

 

-----Original Message-----
From: ailist-bounces at lists.business.utah.edu
[mailto:ailist-bounces at lists.business.utah.edu] On Behalf Of Roger Davies
Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2008 10:52 AM
To: 'Cheri Torres'; 'BILL SCOTT'; 'Hank Kearns';
ailist at lists.business.utah.edu
Subject: RE: [Ailist] How does it work?

 

Hi Cheri,

 

While I agree with the position of regarding all experience as valuable

regardless of whether it's good or bad at some stage we have to make

judgments based on what we have learned. If not we would be gathering

information rather than practically applying the knowledge that we have

gained. Whilst the act of appreciatively listening and inquiring has an

impact in itself we generally have to use what we have learned to make a

positive change and that involves making judgments. 

 

What we need to do is make the judgments after we have explored, re-framed,

discovered. Hopefully by that time we are an appreciative state of mind with

some very good information to work with.

 

For me all improvement approaches, whether reductionist or generative, have

at their core the purpose of helping people make effective decisions that

result in an improvement. As such our notion of what constitutes an

improvement, or being 'better' is very important. Most of the problems that

we face may well be rooted in our different perspectives of what is better

or worse. The key is to suspend our own perspective when exploring and be

willing to change it based on what we discover. We'll always have to have

notions of better and worse.

 

Roger

 

 

-----Original Message-----

From: Cheri Torres [mailto:cheri at mobileteamchallenge.com] 

Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2008 9:19 AM

To: 'Roger Davies'; 'BILL SCOTT'; 'Hank Kearns';

ailist at lists.business.utah.edu

Subject: RE: [Ailist] How does it work?

 

 

What if we challenge our framework that says our experiences are negative or

positive--what if we step back and just explore them as experiences.  

 

HOW we explore them is what then makes the difference.  There are so many

appreciative questions one can ask about ANY experience.  

 

I also suggest looking at the overall outcome of a whole conversation/

dialogue/interaction and not just the specific individual questions.

Sometimes asking an open ended question that elicits what we label as

negative opens the door to talk subsequently talk about strengths, lessons,

insights, personal power, decision-making points, and greater collective

capacity.

 

Cheri