Our proposal for the 2012 WAIC was accepted. Next stop, Belgium. 
The Center for Appreciative Inquiry, a branch of the Company of Experts, is pleased to announce that its proposal, “The Macon Miracle: Connecting Strengths, Reinventing Education, and Helping Children Flourish”, was accepted for the 2012 World Appreciative Inquiry Conference in Ghent, Belgium.
This year’s World Appreciative Inquiry Conference (WAIC) emphasizes Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as “a theory and practice of connecting people and generating new possibilities”. In 2011, we had the opportunity to work with Bibb County School District in Macon, Georgia. …

Professional development for the seasoned expert or beginner…
The activities of the Instructional Skills Workshop form the nucleus of the ISW Facilitator Training, a five-day workshop to prepare experienced faculty to facilitate the Instructional Skills Workshops. Participants refine their teaching techniques through the mini-lessons, and with guided practice and feedback, develop strategies for facilitating the group process. Participants have the opportunity to develop new knowledge and techniques for facilitating group development, to explore other teaching methods, to explore formative evaluation techniques, and to receive feedback on their own teaching and facilitating …

Professional development for the seasoned expert and beginner…
The Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) program is a comprehensive three-tiered teacher and trainer development program that serves as the foundation for several professional development activities  The ISW typically is facilitated by two ISW Facilitators [See Instructional Skills Workshop Facilitator Training].
The ISW is offered within a small group setting and is designed to enhance the classroom effectiveness of both new and experienced teachers or trainers. During the four-day workshop that is facilitated by two ISW Facilitators, approximately five teachers or trainers design and conduct …

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Stories of Positive Change in the Community College: Appreciative Inquiry in Action

Author: Nancy Stetson
 ISBN: 0615237932

Community colleges face an unknown future, one that seems to promise continuous, deep, rapid and often turbulent change. Appreciative Inquiry is a powerful approach for nourishing creative and innovative change to meet these times.

Price: $4.99 USD (for electronic version of book)

We are currently in the process of finalizing an Executive Leadership Development program. Please check back for we hope to have the details for this program up on this page soon!

Beyond being an organizational development process, Appreciative Inquiry is an approach to strategic planning and positive change that has been used successfully in schools and universities, governmental agencies, non-profit organizations, communities, and corporations all around the world. It is broad-based, highly participative, and energizing. Appreciative Inquiry builds new skills in stakeholders, develops new leaders, encourages a culture of inquiry, and helps create shared vision and purpose for your organization by building on your core values and strengths. Perhaps most importantly — Appreciative Inquiry leads to action, commitment, and results.
Developing your …

Webinar Overview:
Who we are when we are at our best?  How do leaders and managers learn to discover and leverage their own strengths, capture the human energy within their organizations, and create cultures that help people perform at their best? This program helps participants understand and leverage personal strengths and discover ways of maximizing the strengths of those around them. We’ll explore:

The four primary sources of the positive, appreciative, strengths-based movement, and the value of each
The business case for this approach to management and leadership
Developing an “appreciative eye.”
Strengths spotting: discovering others’ strengths and capabilities
Capitalizing …

Webinar Overview:
Do you feel overloaded with things to do? Has your schedule become too complex? Work, school, unemployed, parents, children – how do you find me time when you have so many responsibilities?
In this webinar we will explore ways to balance our home and work.  How we manage our time is increasingly complicated.  Creating that balance is within each of us to do. What are the options for managing time in a rapidly changing World? Your time is valuable – learn how to understand the time management choices you make. …

Webinar Overview:
Conflict has a negative impact on organizations and people including productivity, cooperation, communication and the quality of life at work and home (in spite of our best intentions – we take work home and likewise we bring home to work).  Human interaction is at the core of our existence; we are all interconnected. Since conflict – differing opinions, goals, needs, desires, values, beliefs, attitudes or perceptions of entitlement – is a fact of life, the manner in which we manage conflict affects the quality of our interactions, our lives, …

Webinar Overview:
Appreciative Inquiry is not just about asking positive questions, its also about learning to see the world with fresh eyes, learning to open your mind, heart and will and from that place work with others to allow the future that wants to emerge to come through.  Peter Reason suggests we develop an attitude of inquiry about all of life and especially about our own perceptions and beliefs.  This highly experiential webinar will engage you in activities that will inspire self-reflection and leave you seeing the importance of engaging from …