[Ailist] Deficit and Constructionist Approaches & the Maasai approach

Tue Apr 28 01:04:35 MDT 2009

*I would like to take the opportunity to hook up to Jane's comment on the
Maasai to invite anyone who would like to join the next Metafari, starting
in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on September 2009.*

http://www.metafari.com

This is not a traditional course in any way, it's an experience journey.
What it could give to you, I have no idea of.  To me it has provided so much
that even if nobody joins anymore I am happy enough for what I have invested
through three trips and 7 weeks in Tanzania since Nov 2007

   - I have, on a much deeper level, understood about my competencies and
   about my skills.  And about my capacity to use them in new environments
   - I have gained a new understanding of organisations as living systems in
   contrast of organisations as machinery.
   - The mangrove Tidal Swamp in Tanga also gave me some surprisingly
   effective personal tools to manage moods.

Rafael ole Moono has also become one of my very best friends, and a natural
partner.  Rafael is a Retired Warrior/Younger Elder born on the Maasai
steppe north of Handeni Tanzania.  He was one of the very few of his
agegroup who got to go to school.  After primary school and 8 years in the
Benedectiner School close to Kilimanjaro the idea was for him to be a
scholar of some kind, but he chose to return to his settlement to work as a
mediator.  He has a NGO called "Imusot e Purka" which in Ma means appr
"Awareness to All"

The Metafari is not a Safari.  And it is not a course where we visit a
Maasai village and then give our reflections on "them".  Rafael is my
partner, and our local connection.  Being a Maasai we can work directly with
English and Maasai languge when we stay at the Nanyogie Maasai Settlement.

The Metafari has been made possible thanks to Ruth Nesje who is building the
Tanga International Conference Center in Tanga, Tanzania.  The
http://www.MeetingPointTanga.net is built on the principles of Appreciative
Inquiry and is a totally amazing effort.

Joining the Metafari will take your journey from Dar es Salaam, to the
waterhole of Mikumi National Park, into the amazing story of Ruth's dreams
and for a deep encounter with the Maasai people of Nanyogie Settlement.

After the Metafari you can stay at the Centre, or explore Zanzibar, the
Usambara mountains or whatever you might want to do.  Ruth and her staff
will be able to arrange whatever you dream about to explore.

Finally....  People ask me about "selling" something like this in the big
crisis.  I have two personal answers...

   - From Rafael:  Aha, so the economy has gone down 5%....  Well wait until
   it has gone down 90%...  Then we will be in more equal positions.
   - Maybe it is just now that we desperately need new perspectives.  And to
   look for new answers within ourselves with the help of new teachers.  Like
   the Waterhole, the Termite mound, The Tidal Swamp.  Or from each others

Welcome to join!

Please explore www.metafari.com for images, films.  Join or create your own
Meta[?]

ps.  At the bottom you see.  "Metafari - Open Source Leadership course" -
Kate Coutts of Shetland Island took this as a challenge.  So there is now a
Metasaga which is an official part of the School Leadership Training of
Shetland/Orkney/Western Isles
Kate is bloggin in the Metafari Blog:
http://metafari.blogspot.com/search/label/Metasaga

*What can the place teach us?*

Leif Josefsson
Förenklare / Facilitator
LeanderLeander AB
Ölandsgatan 48 - 116 63 Stockholm - tel +46 70-773 00 54

www.leanderleander.com
follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ljosefss
Send me a message: http://twitter.com/direct_messages/create/ljosefss

On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 5:33 AM, Jane Magruder Watkins <
jane at appreciativeinquiryunlimited.com> wrote:

> Dear Colleagues: Another way of looking at this is to understand that in
> "social constructionism" the notion of positive and negative is socially
> constructed! Can you imagine that a large organization would ever be able
> to
> have everyone agree on what is + and what is - ??? I'm really into trying
> to
> learn how see the wholeness of a situation and to know that however I "tag"
> it in my own thoughts and feelings, in fact there are many ways to move
> forward together without insisting on "labeling" an event or situation as
> positive or negative.
>
> AI ALWAYS looks at the whole situation knowing that there are many ways of
> seeing, feeling, labeling the events, ideas, etc. But I truly believe that
> if Jack Welsh focused on what was broken, he also must have moved quickly
> into the AI question, i.e., think of a time when you were in this terrible
> situation and you got through it successfully. What did you learn that can
> be useful to us in this situation. And what is your image of how you'd
> really like this to be...... AI is not about the positive! It is about
> knowing how to avoid getting bogged down in the blame and shame phase and
> move into the search for the best possible outcome of any given situation.
> It's in this ability that empowers and enables groups and systems to create
> images of what they DO want and to share both the ideas and the commitment
> to achieve it.
>
> I was reading an article today in the ODN Journal about work with the
> Maasai
> tribe in Kenya. And once again it reminded me of how the relational
> cultures
> of Africa, Latin America and Asia know that the focus is really not on the
> activity, rather it is on the relationships. If the relationships are in
> alignment, any task can be successfully worked out. Plato and his notion of
> "a perfect tree" or perhaps "perfect treeness" has us Europeans trapped in
> dichotomy! AI gives us a way forward and saves us the angst of blame and
> shame!
>
> I love this discussion! I think this is the heart of what AI is about.
>
> Appreciatively, Jane
>
> Jane Magruder Watkins & Ralph Kelly
> Appreciative Inquiry Unlimited
> An Organization Development Center for Teaching, Consulting and Mentoring
>
> Office & Home
> 233A Woodmere Drive
> Williamsburg, VA 23185
> (757) 259-9942
>
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>
> www.appreciativeinquiryunlimited.com
>
> Appreciative Inquiry: Change at the Speed of Imagination by Jane Magruder
> Watkins & Bernard Mohr can be ordered from Amazon.com or JosseyBassWiley
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ailist-bounces at lists.business.utah.edu
> [mailto:ailist-bounces at lists.business.utah.edu] On Behalf Of Brian Guest
> Sent: Sunday, April 19, 2009 5:29 AM
> To: ailist at lists.business.utah.edu
> Subject: [Ailist] Deficit and Constructionist Approaches
>
> Perhaps some list members would like to comment on, or add their own
> experience or reflections to, the following argument on balancing the two
> approaches?
> Thank you,
> Brian Guest
>
>
> Extract from “The Irrational Side of Change Management” by Carolyn Aiken
> and
> Scott Keller, McKinsey Quarterly April 2009:
>
> It takes a story with both + and – to create real energy.
>
> The “deficit based” approach—which identifies the problem, analyzes what’s
> wrong and how to fix it, plans, and then takes action—has become the model
> predominantly taught in business schools and is presumably the default
> change model in most organizations. Research has shown, however, that a
> story focused on what’s wrong invokes blame and creates fatigue and
> resistance, doing little to engage people’s passion and experience.
>
> This has led to the rise of the “constructionist based” approach to change,
> where the change process is based on discovery (discovering the best of
> what
> is), dreaming (imagining what might be), designing (talking about what
> should be), and destiny (creating what will be). The problem with this
> approach is that an overemphasis on the positive can lead to watered down
> aspirations and impact.
>
> The reason is that, as humans, we are more willing to take risks to avoid
> losing what we’ve got than we are to gain something more. Some anxiety is
> useful when it comes to spurring behavioral change. We believe the field of
> change management has drawn an artificial divide between deficit-based and
> constructionist-based approaches and stories.
>
> While it is impossible to prescribe generally how the divide should be
> split
> between positive and negative messages (as it will be specific to the
> context of any given change program), we strongly advise managers not to
> swing the pendulum too far in one direction or another. Consider Jack
> Welch,
> former CEO at GE, who took questions of “what’s wrong here?” (poorly
> performing businesses, silo-driven behavior, and so forth) head-on, as well
> as “imagining what might be” (number one or two in every business,
> openness,
> and accountability).
>
>
>
>
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> _______________________________________________
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