Manila, October 2004 “Why in the world did we come to this BGU course?”

• “What does what we have in the two weeks in Manila have to do with our dissertation project?”

• “I thought you might like to know how one

person in three years organized the church to bring shalom to 4 million marginalized people living in such impossible conditions.”

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In twenty minutes Corrie DeBoer transformed our doctoral program.

Appreciative Inquiry (AI): a capacity building process

for people interested in strength-based approaches to

transformation.2

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Appreciative Inquiry

A tool of Transformation

AI develops four important competencies

• Affirmative Competence: the capacity to focus on what an organization has done well in the past and is doing well in the present.

• Generative Competence: the capacity to allow members to experience the impact of their contribution toward a higher purpose.

• Expansive Competence: The ability to go beyond familiar ways of thinking.

• Collaborative competence: The power of dialogue with others to transform both people and systems.

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“Silver or Gold I don’t have: but what I do have I give you. In the

name of Jesus of Nazareth, walk” Acts 3:6

• I can quickly identify what I don’t have.• I confess that I am overwhelmed with what

“they” need. • So I often begin to bargain with God for what I

don’t have, that “they need” thus I create a beggar environment.

• So I won’t have to risk giving you what I do have.

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Transformational Power• “Pay close attention now: I’m creating new heavens

and a new earth. All the earlier troubles, chaos, and pain are things of the past, to be forgotten. Look ahead with joy. Anticipate what I’m creating” (Isaiah 65: 17-18)

• Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord Almighty.” (Zechariah 4:6)

• “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. (Philippians 4:8)

• “Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I unto thee, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk” Acts 3:6

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Appreciative Inquiry: A transformational tool

• Is not just a novel way to create change or do research.

• Is a way for organizations • To communicateTo communicate• To discernTo discern• To imagineTo imagine

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Appreciative Inquiry?A transformational tool

• It is a highly participative and collaborative learning process that:Seeks, identifies, and enhances Seeks, identifies, and enhances

the life-giving forces or core the life-giving forces or core values of any organizationvalues of any organization..

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Appreciative Inquiry

• Is more than a planning technique

• It’s a way of seeing and co-It’s a way of seeing and co-creating a preferred futurecreating a preferred future

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Transformational Plan

• Phase One: Decide: Committing to the positive core of our community.

• Phase Two: Discovery: Valuing the best of what was and is in every sector of our community .

• Phase Three: Dream: Visioning what might be in our community.

• Phase Four: Design: Determining what will be in our community’s future.

• Phase Five: Deliver: Innovating what will be in our church.

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A Christian’s Transformational Objective

• Changing your conversations to:“What is best”

“Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best and not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. (Phil. 4:8, The Message)

“And this is my prayer that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. (Phil. 1:9-11)

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AI’s TransformationalAssumptions• In every community organization, some things

work well.

• What we focus on becomes our reality.

• Asking questions influences a group.

• People have more confidence in the journey to the future when they carry forward part of the past.

• If we carry parts of the past into the future, they should be what is best about the past.

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Transformatinal Assumptions• It is important to value differences.

• The language we use creates our reality.

• All organizations including churches are heliotropic.

• Outcomes should be useful.

• All steps in the process are collaborative.

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1. Decide Phase

• Organizational decisions need to be made to approach community or organizational transformation in positive manner.

• Steering Team selection and preparation

• Questionnaire designed• Transformational Theme established

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• Identify Problem.• Conduct Root Cause

Analysis.• Brainstorm Solutions &

Analyze.• Develop Action Plans.

• Metaphor: Organizations are problems to be solved.

• Appreciate “What is” (What gives life?).

• Imagine “What Might Be.”

• Determine “What Should Be.”

• Create “What Will Be”.

• Metaphor: Organizations are solutions (mysteries) to be embraced.

Problem Solving Appreciative Inquiryvs.

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2. Discovery Phase

• Select the date and method for community interviews

• Steering Committee gather and distribute data gathered and seek additional follow-up where needed.

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The Discovery Process

• One on one interviews where people will hear each other’s story.

• Share stories with the stories of others in the community.

• Look for and record the common themes from the communities collective memory.

• Thank God for his continuing presence with us.

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What will we discover?• Wonderful stories about when our community was at its

best.• Great insights into how community organizations

including churches have impacted the lives of people inside and outside the communities you are studying.

• An accurate assessment of community organizational strengths.

• Clear understanding of how people’s involvement in the community had created growth in all aspects of community life.

• Insight into the life-giving core values that were at work in the community when it was at its best.

• The on going historical commitment to the development of the community.

• A current awareness of community needs.• Numerous dreams that people hold for the future of

your community.

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3. Transformational Dreaming • Our desired is to listen to all voices, all opinions, and all

ideas.

• Our goal us to a create shared image of our communities preferred future.

• To articulate both a written image and a visual image of the most desired future of the community as a whole.

• To generate a process of evaluating the communities organizational structure along with it’s social, economic and interpersonal architecture, which will help make the desired future a reality within a manageable period of time.

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What will be the guidelines for your dream?• The dream will be grounded in the best of

our community’s past. (This includes the life-giving core values or DNA, which will be discovered through community interviews.) These values will be carried into our preferred future.

• The dream will answer the question “What is our community called to be and do in our near future?”

• The dream will challenge the status quo of our present community life.

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Your Community’s Organization Structure

How?

Who?

What?

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“What” is the center of our future, it includes:• The life-giving stories illustrating when we were at our best as

a community and as individual participants.

• The life-giving core values that we want to carry forward into our preferred future.

• The visual Shared Image (metaphor) of our community that we believe best portrays our community’s preferred future.

• The shared written image (provocative proposition) that best explains the vision of our preferred future.

• Our Shared Image Motto that best captures our preferred future?

• The areas of ministry that initially reflects our preferred future?

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“Who:” the people and organizations surrounding the community dream.

• Who are the “partners in the gospel” (Phil. 1:5) with whom we will be working during the next few years?• Church boards• Corporate boards• Educational enmities• Civic Organizations• Political Partners • Kingdom partnerships• Community organizations• Internal and external donors

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Deliver: What will be?

“Allow yourself to dream and you will discover that destiny is yours to design.”

Dr. J. Stavros

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“How” will we deliver?• How will we define the our community context?• How will we focus our principles, strategies, plans, and tactics

so they will empower people, and transform our community by living out our life-giving core values?

• How will we structure our organization to empower our people and partners to accomplish our ministry through their dreams, callings visions and passions?

• How will we develop programs that will align with the vision, values and dreams of people individually and organizations in the community as a whole?

• How will we develop an ongoing understanding of our changing community and world to ensure that our living out the dream will most relevantly impact all sectors of the community?

• How can we sustain our own churches saving grace ministry while we grow recourses and capacity to expand the Kingdom of God’s common grace ministry in our community as a whole?

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Deliver the Dream

• Deliver the design.• Create practical partnerships.• Build AI learning capacities into the church culture as well as our

community culture.• Select one AI project, big or small, that

you would like to experiment with.• There is no perfect way to do it.

AI Exercise: Forming your city transformation team

1. You have already decided upon phase one to commit to a positive strength based approach to the city

2. Now you will discover the strengths of your city by interviewing people one on one. Find someone you don’t know well and do a 15 minute interview of one another

3. You will be handed a number while you are being interviewed. That you will need to find the other two people who have your same number and do four minute introductions of one another using he information gleaned from the interviews. You will introduce your friend to your new friends.

4. From the strengths, passions, dreams you have in your group of our form your non-profit with a name and give the strength of your corporation that you are willing to give to a common effort in your city.

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