Trinidad Grads!
Setting the Table Challenge
Some Affirming EU Happenings....
Points of Convergence in a Productive Dialogue Fertilizing New Ground published in Appreciation and Generative Dialogues, Reflections and Appreciative Inquiry Practices from Ibero-America, International Journal of Appreciative Inquiry, February, 2015, volume 17 number 1.
An article by Sherry and Jeff was recently published in an issue of the AI Practitioner that focused on Appreciative Inquiry as a tool for positive change everywhere, including Guatemala. This article shares examples of how facilitators are using AI to invite youth, teachers and artisans in this civil war-torn, violent, yet vibrant country to dream a better future and become leaders for change in Central America. AI is proving to be a fertilizer that nourishes rather than poisons, with caring rather than chemical additives!
Supervision, Staff Development, & Collaborative Leadership, Masters in International Education course, Framingham State University, Managua, Nicaragua, January, 2015.
Sherry recently taught a graduate course for Framingham State University at the Lincoln International Academy. The course is about collaborative/generative/appreciative leadership and how it can enhance staff development and supervision. She introduced the class of enthusiastic international educators to Appreciative Inquiry and invited them to use it in their action research projects for the class.
Appreciative Team Building, Lincoln International Academy, Managua, Nicaragua, January 23, 2015
The billing for the PD day was as follows:
It is time to play! Yes! Encouraged by the book, Play, How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown, M.D. and Christopher Vaughn, we think it is time to have an afternoon with our child--our inner child--and do some playful team building and just have some fun. So, Dr. Sherry Miller, our visiting Framingham professor and facilitator/designer of Empowerment Unlimited, has agreed to lead us in an afternoon of fun to take care of our brain--playfully!
A comment from the day by a participant -
I loved the team building workshop. It allowed for socialization amongst other área teachers and staff. We laughed and played. Dr. Miller's approach was unique and creative. It allowed for most participants to relax and be reminded of why we teach and whom we teach. It brought out the passion I have in teaching and setting goals and high standards for myself and therefore my students.
Appreciative Team Building, Safe Passage, Guatemala City, Guatemala, January 7, 2015
Jeff, Sherry, and Todd teamed up to provide a full day of dynamic team building activities to help the staff start off the new school year. Appreciative Leadership was the underlying principle for the day as team building sequences were scheduled around the exploration of developing a high performing team while reinforcing the organization’s values. The 100+ participants thoroughly enjoyed the day with the following shared feedback from the senior leaders:
The full day that you helped us with was clearly the highlight, as it did everything we hoped it would: help staff get to know each other, help new people to integrate, touch on some values, focus on teamwork, but most of all, have fun! I've heard many comments on how much fun it was and how nice it was to get to know staff members they didn't know that well. So it was a big hit and helped us enter this new year with a warm glow and positive attitude.
Appreciative Leadership: A Tool for Enhancing School Leadership presented at the AdvancED Latin American conference Creating a Learning Centric Environment in December, 2014, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Jeff addressed American International school leaders from Central and South America as well as the Caribbean Basin in a hands-on session with the following objectives:
- Introduction of Appreciative Inquiry and Appreciative Leadership in support of addressing 21st-century educational challenges;
- Examination of our own educational leadership through the initial Discovery step of an appreciative inquiry; and
- Inventory personal Appreciative Leadership characteristics.
Jeff with Maribel and Sherry with Vivien have contributed stories that have been accepted for publication in a new E-book Exceeding Expectations: An Anthology of Appreciative Inquiry Stories in Education from Around the World. Jeff and Maribel's story is about youth leadership empowerment at Colegio Maya , the American International School of Guatemala. Sherry and Vivien's story is about the Dream Summit at the Jakarta International School in Jakarta, Indonesia. To download the book free, visit:
http://www.taosinstitute.net/exceeding-expectations
An Appreciative Inquiry into the Value of Appreciative School Leadership: Generative Research for Addressing 21st-century Educational Challenges, published in Bridging Research and Practice: Illustrations from Appreciative Inquiry in Doctoral Research, International Journal of Appreciative Inquiry, August, 2014, volume 16 number 3.
An article by Jeff was recently published in an issue of the AI Practitioner that focused on providing research examples and practice options for practitioners in a wide array of disciplines. Specific to facing the educational challenges of the 21st century he writes, Schools are required to be innovative in asking questions that address change while envisioning the future. The provocative proposition is for schools as appreciative organizations to focus on effective appreciative leadership practices that create a flourishing relational culture of learning. Appreciative Inquiry provides the bridge between research and practice to make this possible.
Supervision, Staff Development, & Collaborative Leadership, Masters in International Education course, Framingham State University, Port of Spain, Trinidad, July, 2014.
Sherry recently taught a graduate course for Framingham State University at the International School of Port of Spain. The course is about collaborative/generative/appreciative leadership and how it can enhance staff development and supervision. She introduced the class of 17 enthusiastic international educators to Appreciative Inquiry and invited them to use it in their action research projects for the class. They especially loved the discovery phase as they conducted their interviews to gather data for what's the best you've ever experienced in staff development and supervision programs and also the best leadership you've ever been influenced by. They commented on how surprised people were that they really wanted to know their own stories and many commented than no on had ever asked them anything like this before. In the end, the designs they shared of ways to implement what they discovered were fantastic--something we wish every school would use!
Taller de Liderazgo Apreciativo - Appreciative Leadership Workshop for the Leadership Team at Safe Passage on May 22, 2014
Todd Amani, the new Executive Director of the Camino Seguro/Safe Passage Project in Guatemala City, asked Empowerment Unlimited to facilitate a workshop in Spanish for his leadership team on Appreciative Leadership. Sherry and Mary Jo, with the assistance of Isabel Perez from Project SERES, had a great time with Todd and 28 of his dedicated team of both staff and volunteer leaders. Using Appreciative Inquiry as our processing tool, we first defined what AL is, then discovered via one-on-one interviews, individual experiences of its essence. Then the participants dreamed of how they could be a stronger, more positive and empowering team for Camino Seguro and its 600 students and their families. In the end, groups formed via Open Space Technology to start to design activities for that to happen. In the words of one the team who was unable to attend:
This afternoon Jorge Mario lead the Database Team through the materials, questions and exercises from the Appreciative Leadership/Inquiry activity yesterday. It was fantastic and I cannot think of a single department within CS that would not be served by reviewing the methodology as a team. I am thankful that Jorge Mario took the initiative to share with us what he gained from the experience and hope that other departments are able to do the same.
An Appreciative Inquiry into Building and Leading Positive School Cultures, Antigua, Guatemala, March 7 & 8, 2014
Sherry and Jeff, with Mary Jo's enthusiastic assistance, facilitated a two day professional development workshop experience for 18 private school administrators from 7 schools in and around Guatemala City. The workshop theme was learning how to use Appreciative Leadership (AL) to build more positive and healthy school cultures. Using Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as the processing tool, participants had a great time defining, discovering, dreaming and designing ways to enhance their school cultures. They also learned about AL, filled out their own AL Profile and in the heart circle to close, several mentioned they were going to work actively to move their scores from a 1 to a 4 in all 5 areas over the next school year. Another high of this experience was all the fun we had, playing team building games to laugh, make fun of ourselves and to lighten up while uniting our collective energies! It takes positive leaders to model ways to build positive cultures and these leaders had an opportunity to find, exercise and share their "positive cores" within. The workshop was held at a beautiful and very special retreat center in Antigua, Guatemala, El Centro de Ideas, and its founders were gracious hosts from beginning to end. To these empowering and appreciative leaders and to others throughout Guatemala and the world!
An Admin Retreat, A "Galvinizing Saturday" for the American School of Guatemala
Guatemala City, January 25, 2014
Sherry and Jeff facilitated a full day's workshop with the administrative team of CAG, Colegio Americano of Guatemala, who asked us to give them an opportunity to look at their mission/vision with "fresh" Appreciative Inquiry/Appreciative Leadership eyes and from there, develop their Graduate Profile and review their curriculum priorities for the year. A big charge, indeed! However by the end of the day, people seemed pleased with the results, had a great time playing some sequenced games to reinforce team cohesion as well as learning more about AI as a processing tool for positive change. After the workshop, they went on to involve more in their community and have developed a very well articulated and inspirational Graduate Profile as well as a clear guideline for continuous curriculum development and enhancement.
A Motivational Workshop on "The Art of Questioning", Colegio Americano del Sur, Guatemala
Sherry, with Mary Jo's assistance, facilitated this workshop for 55 staff members of this dynamic bi-lingual school near the sugar plantations on Guatemala's coast. What questions matter most in your life and how can invite our students to find and live theirs?
Recently released book: Indagacion Apreciativa: Un enfoque innovador para la transformacion personal y de las organizaciones by Miriam Subirana & David Cooperrider,
Sherry and Jeff's articles on their work using Appreciative Inquiry with local businesses, schools, and NGO's was included in this publication.
AGEXPORT'S (Guatemala's Exporters' Association) Board Retreat for their Artisans Division, November 8th, 2013, Antigua, Guatemala
Empowerment Unlimited facilitated a full day workshop for the board and key executive employees of this proactive division of Guatemala's export association. They asked for an opportunity to "think outside the box", review their on-going strategic plan and explore possibilities to better represent Guatemalan folk artists throughout the world. Sherry facilitated the workshop, assisted by Corrina Grace, the Founder and Executive Director of Project SERES.
AASCA Elementary Principals' Motivation and Appreciative Leadership Workshop, Managua, Nicaragua, November 2013
Sherry had a great time facilitating this 2 day workshop for the Elementary Principals of AASCA, the Association of American Schools of Central America.
Breathe, Listen, Write, Share!
A day of meditation, writing, sharing and exploring ways to listen, to listen to our center, our wisdom, our true. Having attended the Sounds True Wake Up Festival in Estes Park, CO and worked with Mark Nepo, author of Seven Thousand Ways to Listen, Sherry facilitated this special Saturday experience at her home, La Casa de Las Gracias in Antigua, Guatemala.
Presentation at the Tri-Association of American Schools of Central America, Colombia - Caribbean, and Mexico
Jeff presented a workshop entitled Building the Positive Core in Schools with Appreciative Inquiry & Appreciative Leadership at the annual conference in October in Mexico City www.tri-association.org/ .
Shared Facilitation of a training for SERES Facilitators, El Tejar, Guatemala, September, 2013
Sherry and Jeff worked with Corrina, Aby and Antonio of Project Seres www.projectseres.org to do a week long training of young change makers from El Salvador and Guatemala at a retreat center in El Tejar, Guatemala which included a two day training in Play for Peace by their top trainers. It was wonderful!
Academic Celebration
Jeff traveled to Tilburg University in the Netherlands to defend his doctoral dissertation: How Might Appreciative School Leadership Meet the Needs of 21st Century Schools? and we all celebrated the awarding of his Ph.D. in Social Science that was undertaken through the Taos Institute-Tilburg University program.
Ibero-America, February 2013
As the movement of utilizing Appreciative Inquiry as a positive capacity-building framework grows, so does a network to promote and support it. The Red Iberoamericana de Indagacion Apreciativa is currently being formed by coordinators experienced in the use of AI in Spain, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, Panama, Cuba, Brazil, and now Guatemala with Jeff as the country coordinator.
Antigua, Guatemala, January 2013
What is an organization's brand and how do they live it? This was a question the Behrhorst Partners for Development's Board asked and then asked Sherry to facilitate their dialogue to seek an answer. It was a thought-provoking reflection/dialogue that helped this board think about their "grand" as individual board members and as an organization committed to helping Guatemalans combat poverty--too often their own.
Establishing an Adventure Leadership Learning Center
Jeff had been in discussion with the Guatemalan Ministry of Culture and Sport in regards to establishing an experiential learning center with programming aimed at empowering participants, especially youth, in the development of their personal and inter-personal leadership abilities. In support of this work, Jeff was looking to include the global Play for Peace network in making use of play as an agent for promotion of peace in communities throughout the country.
Guatemala City, Guatemala, November 2012
Sherry taught a course for Framingham University entitled Supervision, Staff Development and Collaborative Leadership. With 22 amazing teachers from kinder thru AP History, she used The Leadership Paradox, Influencing Others by Defining Yourself as the text. Through creating poetry circles to reflective writings to AI action research projects, it seems the teachers enjoyed the course and some have asked for a writing workshop at La Casa de Las Tres Gracias in February.
Antigua, Guatemala, June 2012: A Dream/Design Summit
Corrina Grace, founder of Seres asked Sherry to facilitate a gathering of like-minded social innovators to help her flush out a dream of a rural campus/leadership center in Guatemala open to all the world but especially local rural communities here. Jeff assisted and with the passion and proactive thinking of 15 others, the design for such a center is in the works!
Tokyo, Japan, May 2012: A Workshop on Play
Sherry facilitated a workshop with the 30+ professional staff of the Willowbrook Bilingual Preschool using Stuart Brown's recent book, play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination and Invigorates the Soul, as her inspiration. Everyone seemed to have a great time and ended up designing new business cards for themselves affirming their playful nature and child within.
Antigua, Guatemala, January 2012: A Board Workshop for a Non-Profit
The two Behrhorst Organization's (www.behrhorst.org) Boards asked Sherry/EU to bring a bit of empowerment to the beginning of their annual meeting. This year they are renewing their strategic plan with nutrition at its core and after reviewing the plan, discovering how it touches each person present and what they can do to support it, everyone sat down (most on the cement floor) to a very special lunch experience using OxFam's (www.oxfam.org) design to "enjoy" our own Hunger Banquet. With scripts written by Behrhorst's Executive Director, Paco, and his staff to give each banquet participant a real persona, it was a very relevant and moving experience with the one lone diner representing the upper class sitting at a table with tablecloth, silver, wine glasses and the most elaborate lunch, reporting, "This was the worst lunch of my life!"
Antigua, Guatemala, January 2012: An AI Workshop for the Employees of a local Artisan Business
Casa de Los Gigantes (www.casadelosgigantes.com) contracted EU to facilitate a mini-summit for all of its employees to renew and define their positive core, share some dreams for 2012 and begin some designs to support those dreams. The summit was in Spanish and Sherry was delighted to be understood by all (with a little help from her friends, Siggy and Lessi). See the end of the photo section to view what fun was had by all!
Tokyo, Japan, October, 2011: A Mini-Summit on Peaceful Communication for a School Staff
The Willowbrook International PreSchool had their whole staff participate in a mini-summit with their yearly theme, peaceful communication, in the center of the table/room/hearts. They all had a great time discovering what it means to each of them and how they embrace it as a school. They presented skits, rhythm circles, art posters and even a dance to affirm it (and themselves!). They ended with some specific designs of how they can promote more peaceful communication at Willowbrook and far beyond. Lucky kids who go there!
Mexico City, September, 2011: A Board Workshop for An International School Board
Evaluation comments from members of the American School Foundation's Board of Directors at the end of an AI/Generative Leadership workshop with Sherry asking them what they were taking with them in their head, their heart and their feet (something they were committed to doing) included:
Head: Open more to inquiry and find options out of the box. Think about prioritizing what is important. The power of commitment and the power of communication. Think about how every decision taken will advance the institution.
Heart: Overwhelmed by the wonderful persons around me! Embrace joy and teach my children the same. Love what you do. We have a great team at ASF.
Feet: Make bold proposals for diversity. Make sure we always see the good/positive first and communicate it. Ask my son and daughter what "bold" means to them. Move forward with solid feet.
Jakarta, Indonesia, August, 2011: A Dream Summit Follow-up with Board and Parent Organizations
Since their Dream Summit in February, JIS, the Jakarta International School, has done an amazing job clarifying their values (which include balance and fun!), renewing their vision and mission affirmations and carefully and communally choosing 5 summit dreams to guide the school's future. Given this, they asked Sherry to come back and facilitate a board workshop, a parent association mini-summit and be available as a resource to others in the school community. The Board explored their "positive core" and set their own goals for the coming year to fully support the school's realization of its dreams. Representatives of the 13 parent organizations came together to discover and dream their own hopes for the school and using an AI approach, targeted their number one goal of coming together as one with better communication and coordination, sharing all parents' gifts and care for their children--all their children! Check out this vibrant international school at: Jakarta International School
Uspantan, Guatemala, August, 12-13, 2011: A Student Leadership Workshop
Sherry, with the help of members of the Board of Directors of Becas Especiales and Peace Corps Volunteer, Hilary Kirkpatrick, facilitated workshops for the program's 73 scholarship recipients, ages 11-37, around the theme of how to be an effective youth using Sean Covey's book, Los Habitos de los Adolescentes Altamente Efectivos. Participants responded with great enthusiasm and one group in la Gloria, a very remote village in the area, proudly used their new 3 room school building built out of plastic bottles filled with recyclable garbage, as the best example they could show of the habit, Pensar Ganar-Ganar (Think Win-Win.) Learn more about this completely volunteer run program at the website: http://www.becasuspantan.com
Naples, Florida, August 6-7, 2011: A Non-Profit Board Workshop
Miracles in Action, a non-profit organization doing many wonderful things in Guatemala to help end poverty, invited Sherry to facilitate a Vision//Mission Summit for their founder, Penny Rambacher, and her board from across the United States. During the weekend the group worked joyful and diligently to accomplish the following in Penny's words:
-together we developed a stronger mission statement
- together we developed goals for our future growth
- And, the most impactful growth decision for Miracles in Action is our new Executive Director, Christie Brown, who will be managing projects and the operations and administrative responsibilities. What more could we dream for?
Mexico City, Mexico, July, 2011: An International School Leadership Team Summit
EU facilitated a workshop for the core leadership team of the American School Foundation using AI and Generative Leadership as tools to help this school team of thirty take a look at their school leadership culture, affirming what they do well and targeting some ways to share their leadership and help the school and its students be even more successful in the year ahead.
Jakarta, Indonesia, February 26-27, 2011: A Dream Summit
The Jakarta International School contracted Empowerment Unlimited to facilitate an Appreciative Inquiry Summit. Sherry served as the facilitator of this summit entitled "Catching Our Dreams: Discovering Our Values, Weaving Our Future". The participants, 150 JIS community members representing all of the school's support groups: students, teachers, classified staff, parents, administrators, board members and alumni, actively participated in this dream summit to better articulate JIS values, target some vibrant dreams for the future and create some possibilities for an inspiring vision statement to catch the JIS spirit and hold them all. (click on the photo tab to see photos of this international event
JIS Director, Tim Carr, stated recently in the school's special supplement to their monthly newsletter under the title, Dream Summit A Shared Success, "This was one of the first major organizational events as Head of School, and I was hoping that this would help set the tone for the next chapter of JIS development. To say that I had high hopes for the Dream Summit would be an understatement, yet the reality completely eclipsed all of them. I have participated in more strategic planning or visioning sessions than I care to count, and this was by far the best of them all. Utilizing the Appreciative Inquiry model helped tremendously, as did our inspiring facilitator, Dr Sherry Miller."
In her letter of appreciation to Sherry, Vivien Brelsford, Head of Business Development and Summit Coordinator wrote:
The use of Appreciative Inquiry as the approach to lead us through our visioning process exceeded our expectations and the participants were unanimous in recognizing the value of focusing on our strengths rather than those aspects that need to be fixed. So much so that one of the dreams that has emerged is for JIS to adopt Appreciative Inquiry as a school-wide philosophy to guide its future journey.
The program you put together for the day and a half was ambitious, fast-paced, varied and creative. A number of participants have commented on how much they enjoyed being actively engaged throughout instead of sitting listening to presentations. Working with you to plan the program, integrating artifacts and technology in a manner which would enhance the experience for everyone involved, was a personal learning journey for me. I loved your flexibility while keeping us focused on the main purpose of the summit. Vivien
Thank you, Vivien, Tim and all JIS Summit Participants. It was a wonderful happening and you made it just that with your obvious love of your school and your desire to be an even more empowering educational community. I loved working with you! Sherry
Jocotenango, Guatemala, January 31, 2011: A Writing Workshop
Empowerment Unlimited sponsored a 6 Traits Writing workshop for teachers at the new school site of Escuela Proyecto La Esperanza http://www.eftc.org.uk/ in Jocotenango. Beverly Flaten, one of the originators of the program with others at the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory in Portland, Oregon in the 1980's, and a dear friend of Sherry's, came to visit and we were able to enlist her gracious spirit to enrich the professional lives of 23 Guatemalan teachers working in a special school here. She delivered an empowering introduction to the 6 Traits and had these teachers writing and sharing stories of the person who has most influenced their lives as an example of how well one can write when they know their subject well!
Tokyo, Japan, November 29, 2010: An Intro to AI for Leaders of Preschools
The Tokyo Association of International Preschools invited Sherry to give a workshop at the Willowbrook International School on looking at their school culture through the Appreciative Inquiry lens. Directors and other administrators from several Tokyo preschools learned about the 4-D process and how they might use it for positive change in their schools. In the Discovery stage they engaged in some stimulating dialogue about what they love most about their schools. Then in the Dream stage they reflected on their own dreams and in sharing them found a common theme of how to have more green space for their children. May the Design and Deliver/Destiny stages find those spaces and children in Tokyo playing more outdoors than ever!
Curitiba, Brazil, August 5-7, 2010: A Workshop for a New Business Exploration
Sherry facilitated a workshop for the owners of a new business, Nossa Cookieria, to help them develop their design and delivery strategies for the next year. The participants enjoyed the discovery phase as they shared their own "cookie" stories and memories from childhood and beyond. They then worked very productively in the design phase. By the end of the workshop, they had their action plan ready including the designation of specific responsibilities and strategies to launch their business. Look out, Brazil--here come the cookies!
Santa Lucia, Guatemala, July 2, 2010: A Workshop for Peace Corps Volunteers
Sherry gave a workshop on AI as it can be used as an empowering philosophy and process in sustainable development at the All Volunteer Annual Peace Corps Conference in Guatemala.The hundred plus volunteers present gave thoughtful and positive feedback about the workshop including: "Appreciative Inquiry can open up paths to brighter futures.", "I'm taking with me some strategies for how to get 'unstuck' and begin working on possibilities." and, "My community is more important to me than I thought."
Uspantan and La Gloria, Guatemala, May 2010: Using AI with Teens
Sherry, with the help of some of the Board Members of Becas Especiales Uspantan, 2 Peace Corps Volunteers, Laura and Hilary, and an EU friend, Mykell, facilitated workshops with 34 middle school scholarship students from ages 12-34 learn more about AI and use it to help plan their futures. To learn more about this program go to http://www.becasuspantan.com (Check out some photos in the photo link.)
San Vicente Pacaya, Guatemala, May 2010: Using AI with Teachers
Jeff facilitated a workshop for 90 public school educators, both teachers and directors, on using AI as a process to share their hopes and dreams as well as use in their classrooms. The workshop was organized part by Peace Corps Volunteers there, Jesse and Brianna and Siggy and Mykell helped facilitate it as well. (Check out some photos in the photo link)
Antigua, Guatemala, January 2010: Announcing a New Empowering Venture
Jeff, Maribel and Sherry hosted Empowerment Unlimited's offical "Coming Out Party". 18 invited guests were treated to a look at their own Appreciative Leadership and enjoyed learning more about AI and their "generative dialogues" with others, all leaders in a variety of venues including running a bakery, having a small business, being the CEO of Camino Seguro/Safe Passage, the executive director of Namaste Guatemaya, Peace Corps Volunteers, an international school director, an educational consultant, and a financial advisor in the States to name a few. In the Connection Circle at the end of the day, many expressed their sense of renewal and how they are even more ready to live their dream.
Guatemala City, Guatemala, January 2010: A Middle School Assembly
Sherry presented a motivational assembly for the 350 middle school students at the American School of Guatemala, Colegio Americano. The students there are learning how to use the SMART Goals format to help them realize more success in their studies, socially and personally. The assembly was well received and feedback from the organizer included this quote: "I just heard positive feedback from teachers. They think it was worth it! We are planning to invite you again for a conference for teachers. We love you! As I always said you have that power to touch souls..."
Panahachel, Guatemala, November 2009: An Workshop for Advisors in a Non-Profit
Maribel and Sherry facilitated a workshop for the Business Advisors of Namaste Guatemaya at the third annual borrowers' conference for this microcredit initiative offering loans to over 500 women in Guatemalan villages. The advisors, all Indigenous Guatemalans, enjoyed the presentation and Maribel and Sherry enjoyed listening to their incredible stories as they discovered what they enjoyed most about their job. Please check out this microcredit project at http://www.namaste-direct.org/
Amman, Jordan, November 2009: Sharing AI with Teens
Thanks to Haifa Najjar, Sherry, billed as an "Inspirational Consultant", introduced the secondary students, parents and faculty at both The Ahliyyah School for Girls and The Bishop's School for Boys to Appreciative Inquiry and asked them to also think about the questions that source their lives. Students, parents and teachers seemed to enjoy the invitation and Sherry learned a great deal about Jordan and education there.
Chilasco, Guatemala, October 2009: An Artisan Workshop
Sherry, with the help of friends, Siggy and Tony, introduced a local artisans group and the members of the tourism council to Appreciative Inquiry. In the dream phase, one of the shared dreams was to develop their own line of pine needle ornaments and jewelry and have it shown and sold beyond Chilasco. Check out the website of La Casa de Los Gigantes in Antigua, Guatemala to see their dream beginning to become destiny and the Chilasco community eco-tourism project.
International Journal of Appreciative Inquiry, May 2009
Jeff co-wrote an article, "The Beauty of the AI Experience - AI Principles in Action! in which a school field trip leads to an active learning experience at the Mayan site of Iximche in Guatemala. In this article, the reader has two opportunities: learning about an educational experience that includes intergenerational dialogue with a slightly different twist and noting the alignment with Appreciative Inquiry principles that guided the planning of the experience.
Colegio Maya (American International School of Guatemala), April 2009: Strategic Planning AI Summit
Jeff organized a two-day school improvement strategic planning summit entitled "Coming Together - Targeting Success". In utilizing an Appreciative Inquiry approach, the magical mix of school stakeholders (students, teachers, parents, administrators, board members, alumni and former members of the school community) came together to create a shared vision for school improvement. This was done through members coming together in discovering their school's 'positive core', dreaming together to establish aspirations for the school, which later became 'destination targets' for designing the actual steps towards school improvement.
