In this thoroughly revised and updated edition of one of the most popular change methods in the world, Cooperrider et al. track the recent changes in the field and explain how AI can contribute to sustainability and the triple bottom line.In this thoroughly revised and updated edition of one of the most popular change methods in the world, Cooperrider et al. track the recent changes in the field and explain how AI can contribute to sustainability and the triple bottom line.

One of today's most popular change methods, Appreciative Inquiry (AI) has been used to undertake transformational initiatives in dozens of organizations, ranging from McDonalds to the U.S. Navy to Save the Children.

The assumption of AI is simple. Every organization has things that work right-things that give it life when it is vital, effective, and successful. AI begins by identifying this positive core and connecting organizational visions, plans, and structures to it in ways that heighten energy and inspire action for change.

This book presents all of the concepts, examples, and aids necessary to engage groups of all sizes in Appreciative Inquiry. The authors provide background information on what AI is and how it works and offer sample project plans, designs, agendas, course outlines, interview guidelines, participant worksheets, a list of resources, and more.

This second edition has been extensively revised, updated, and expanded, including new case studies, new tools and supplemental articles, an expanded bibliography and resource list, and an entirely new chapter on case applications. And throughout, the authors focus on how AI can support an organizational focus on sustainability and the triple bottom line of people, prosperity, and planet.

One of today’s most popular change methods, Appreciative Inquiry (AI) has been used to undertake transformational initiatives in dozens of organizations, ranging from McDonald’s to the U.S. Navy to Save the Children. The assumption of AI is simple. Every organization has things that work right—things that give it life when it is vital, effective, and successful. AI begins by identifying this positive core and connecting organizational visions, plans, and structures to it in ways that heighten energy and inspire action for change. 

This book presents all of the concepts, examples, and aids necessary to engage groups of all sizes in Appreciative Inquiry. The authors provide background information on what AI is and how it works and offer sample project plans, designs, agendas, course outlines, interview guidelines, participant worksheets, a list of resources, and more. This second edition has been extensively revised, updated, and expanded, including new case studies, new tools and supplemental articles, an expanded bibliography and resource list, and an entirely new chapter on case applications. And throughout, the authors focus on how AI can support an organizational focus on sustainability and the “triple bottom line” of people, prosperity, and planet.

 

The fact is, because they're the ones actually doing the day-to-day work front-line employees see a great many problems and opportunities that their managers don't. But most organizations do very poorly at tapping into this extraordinary potential source of revenue-enhancing, savings-generating ideas. Ideas Are Free sets out a roadmap for totally integrating ideas and idea management into the way companies are structured and operate. Alan Robinson and Dean Schroeder draw on their ten years experience with more than three hundred organizations in fifteen countries to show precisely how to design a system to take advantage of this virtually free, perpetually renewing font of innovation. Robinson and Schroeder deal with two fundamental principles of managing ideas that are highly counterintuitive - the importance of going after small ideas rather than big ones, and the problems with the most common reward schemes and how to avoid them. They describe how to make ideas part of everyone's job, and how to set up and run an effective process for handling ideas-how to take a good idea system and make it great. And they show how good idea systems have a profound impact on an organization's culture. At the end of each chapter they provide "Guerrilla Tactics for the Idea Revolutionary", actions to promote ideas that any manager can take on his or her own authority, and that require little or no resources.

• Outlines how to set up a truly effective system for soliciting, evaluating and implementing employee ideas for improvement --- a proven, low-cost source of potentially millions of dollars worth of added savings and revenue, and improved procedures and processes
• Shows why existing systems, such as the hopelessly antiquated "suggestion box", fall far short of the mark
• By the bestselling author of Corporate Creativity --- more than 40,000 copies sold

If you were a mouse trapped in a maze and someone kept moving the cheese, what would you do? In a world where most mice dutifully accept their circumstances, ask no questions, and keep chasing the cheese, Deepak Malhotra tells an inspiring story about three unique and adventurous mice—Max, Big, and Zed—who refuse to accept their reality as given.

I Moved Your Cheese reveals what is possible when we finally discard long-held and widely accepted assumptions about how we should live our lives. After all, achieving extraordinary success, personal or professional, has always depended on the ability to challenge assumptions, reshape the environment, and play by a different set of rules—our own. But rejecting deeply ingrained beliefs is not easy. As Zed explains, “You see, Max, the problem is not that the mouse is in the maze, but that the maze is in the mouse.”

• The first serious challenge to the iconic bestseller Who Moved My Cheese?
• A thoughtful critique written by a Harvard Business School professor and bestselling author
• Uses the same playful and highly accessible fable format to encourage readers to examine their deeply held assumptions and to take control of their own destinies
• Click here for Press Release

With more than twenty-five million copies in print, Who Moved My Cheese? has become a phenomenon. It does offer some reasonable advice about adapting to change. Its certainly true that some of the events shaping our lives are beyond our control, and instead of struggling against them we must adapt and move on. But for all its good intentions, it ultimately advises us to unquestioningly accept our circumstances without exploring any possible alternativeslike mice in a maze mindlessly chasing after cheese.

I Moved Your Cheese takes a different point of view and offers an alternative approach. Harvard Business School professor and bestselling author Deepak Malhotra tells an inspiring story about a new generation of mice who begin to challenge assumptions and ask important questions. Rather than just accepting their situation and dutifully chasing the cheese, Max, Zed, and Big begin looking deeper, examining and reassessing what theyve been told are their limitations, and set out to chart a new course.

Innovation, entrepreneurship, creativity, problem solving, and business growth as well as personal growth depend on the ability to challenge accepted notions, reshape the environment, and play by a different set of rules: our own. We are not powerless to change our circumstances. We can control our destiny. By ana- lyzing our assumptions about the limitations we seem to face, we can, like Max, Zed, and Big, discover how to overcome them. But first we need to understand the ways we unknowingly hold ourselves back. As Zed explains to Max, The problem is not that the mouse is in the maze but that the maze is in the mouse.

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Legendary author David Korten (author of the international bestsellers When Corporations Rule the World and The Post-Corporate World, with more than 150,000 copies sold combined) addresses the threat of continued warfare to the future of humanity, appealing to the millions of concerned citizens searching for alternatives.David Korten’s classic bestseller When Corporations Rule the World was one of the first books to articulate the destructive and oppressive nature of the global corporate economy. In The Great Turning he argues that corporate consolidation of power is merely one manifestation of what he calls “Empire”: the organization of society through hierarchy and violence that has largely held sway for the past 5,000 years. The Great Turning traces the evolution of Empire from ancient times to the present day but also tells the parallel story of the attempt to develop a democratic alternative to Empire, beginning in Athens and continuing with the founding of the United States of America—although elitists with an imperial agenda have consistently sought to undermine the bold and inspiring “American experiment.” Finally, Korten draws on evidence from sources as varied as evolutionary theory, developmental psychology, and religious teachings to make the case that “Earth Community”—a life-centered, egalitarian, sustainable alternative to Empire based on democratic principles of partnership—is indeed possible. And he outlines a grassroots strategy for beginning the momentous turning toward a future of as-yet-unrealized human potential.

The World Cafe is a flexible, easy-to-use process for fostering collaborative dialogue, sharing mutual knowledge, and discovering new opportunities for action. Based on living systems thinking, this innovative approach creates dynamic networks of conversation that can catalyze an organization or community's own collective intelligence around its most important questions.
Filled with stories of actual Cafe dialogues in business, education, government, and community organizations across the globe, this uniquely crafted book demonstrates how the World Cafe can be adapted to any setting or culture. Examples from such varied organizations as Hewlett-Packard, American Society for Quality, the nation of Singapore, the University of Texas, and many others, demonstrate the process in action.
Along with its seven core design principles, The World Cafe offers practical tips for hosting "conversations that matter" in groups of any size- strengthening both personal relationships and people's capacity to shape the future together.THE WORLD CAFE: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter

• Introduces readers to a simple, yet powerful conversational process for thinking together and creating actionable knowledge that has been used successfully with organizations and communities on six continents
• Clearly articulates seven key World Café design principles that create the conditions for accessing collective intelligence and breakthrough thinking
• Includes actual stories from widely varied settings-such as Hewlett-Packard, American Society for Quality, the nation of Singapore, the University of Texas, and many, many others-to show the World Café process and results

Seattle locals and tourists alike flock to Pike Place each day to watch the fish fly. But Pike Place Fish is about more than just crowd-pleasing entertainment --- there is an underlying philosophy at work that has made the market both wildly successful and internationally renowned. In an unusual combination of oral biography and practical business blueprint, Crother and the fishmongers take you behind the scenes at the famous market to illustrate the PPF philosophy and reveal the underlying assumptions that have made PPF the international phenomenon it is today. Catch! shows that to be "ordinary" is to be a victim of circumstances, responding to whatever comes one's way. To be "great" is to realize that anyone can live an extraordinary life. At Pike Place Fish, everyone is responsible for transforming themselves from ordinary to great by creating their own reality. The authors explore the issues of goals --- financial, personal and humanitarian --- and intention, showing how the crew itself creates these goals and works towards them in collaboration. Most importantly, Catch! examines the power of possibility and shows how you can achieve greatness in your own life. Catch! explores such guiding principles as coaching and acknowledgment that are lacking in many businesses, and shows that you, too, can be the prime mover in your own experience.

•    Winner of the 2004 IPPY Award for Best Business Book from the Independent Publishers Association

•    Presents, for the first time, the inside story of what really makes Pike Place Fish tick

•    Offers practical, inspiring advice anyone can use to transform themselves from ordinary to great, both on and off the job

•    Includes numerous real-life stories, told by the fishmongers themselves, that will help people find new ways of dealing with problems and conflicts and pursuing their dreams and aspirations

Seattle locals and tourists alike flock to Pike Place each day to watch the fish fly. But Pike Place Fish is about more than just crowd-pleasing entertainment --- there is an underlying philosophy at work that has made the market both wildly successful and internationally renowned.

In an unusual combination of oral biography and practical business blueprint, Crother and the fishmongers take you behind the scenes at the famous market to illustrate the PPF philosophy and reveal the underlying assumptions that have made PPF the international phenomenon it is today.

Catch! shows that to be "ordinary" is to be a victim of circumstances, responding to whatever comes one's way. To be "great" is to realize that anyone can live an extraordinary life. At Pike Place Fish, everyone is responsible for transforming themselves from ordinary to great by creating their own reality. The authors explore the issues of goals --- financial, personal and humanitarian --- and intention, showing how the crew itself creates these goals and works towards them in collaboration.

Most importantly, Catch! examines the power of possibility and shows how you can achieve greatness in your own life. Catch! explores such guiding principles as coaching and acknowledgment that are lacking in many businesses, and shows that you, too, can be the prime mover in your own experience.