AI++: Innovations in AI through the Lens of Australia and New Zealand

Guest editors:
Sallie Lee and Dayle O'Brien

Welcome from Sallie and Dayle to the May 2011 issue with its focus on AI work being done in Australia and New Zealand.

'There is such a proliferation of interest in AI and strengths-based approaches in the two countries that the twelve articles contained here provide only a small taste, but a rich one.'

When the articles came in from this issue’s authors, we saw that every one had an edge of innovation we had been seeking, and each one combined AI with some other approach, model, theory or diagnostic tool.

We categorized the articles two ways :

1. Whole System Innovation

Four of the articles deal with wide-scope applications of Appreciative Inquiry, providing some of the most exciting stories we have heard of how AI can make a difference and deliver big visions. They deal with potentially staggering numbers of people in the targeted systems and people taking bold risks to see what might be possible.

2. Innovations in Practice

This group of articles captures applications in the areas of leadership, facilitation and community building including leadership in an MBA Program, walking through windows of possibility for planning strategic interventions, and creating a professional learning community.

Our hope for this edition is that it will shine a light on some of the innovative and exciting work being done with Appreciative Inquiry and strengths-based approaches in Australia and New Zealand.

AI Research Notes focuses on the role of theory, and its relationship to practice: possible differences between the academic goals of individual study, and the collaborative goal of AI

AI Resources focuses on scholarly articles and books on Appreciative Inquiry from 1987 to the present.

More about the articles.

More about the articles:

Whole System Innovation

Pathways to Positive Education at Geelong Grammar School: Integrating Positive Psychology and Appreciative Inquiry by Paige Williams describes the five-year commitment in this area to all aspects of a school providing education to 3 year olds through to Year 12.
AI + positive psychology

What Would You Like to Change and Grow? Price Waterhouse Coopers Explores Positive Conversational Habits by Michelle McQuaid. They are part way through a three-year strategy to engage their 6,200 auditors, tax advisors and business consultants in asking positively challenging questions. So far there have been than 170,000 conversations!
AI + hope theory

Many Voices One Purpose: Innovations in New Zealand in AI Practice for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect by Liz Kinley and Sally Christie. This strategy is based on the belief that ‘when we bring together our collective ideas, influence and wisdom, the impossible becomes the possible’.
AI+ community development + social marketing

Creating a New Paradigm of Unstoppable Positive Social Change by Lisa Doig and Karen Muller. The authors and their team have used AI and an AI summit for the purpose of igniting a nation-wide dialogue to transform the culture in Australia. Read about their big vision and tools they have used along the way.
AI + Values Assessment

Innovations in Practice: Leadership

Becoming Appreciative Leaders: Integrating AI and Strengths-Based Approaches into an MBA Program by Barb Wood. She was driven by her desire to teach students to be better leaders in diverse business environments and have them take more responsibility for their own learning.
AI + coaching

Re-Storying for Individual Potential by Dayle O’Brien. She developed an emerging leaders workshop for one of Australia’s biggest banks combining AI and Individual Character Strengths and invited partiicipants to set new and exciting paths for their futures.
AI + Individual strengths

Resilient Leadership: Grounded in a Strengths-based and Appreciative Life by Wendy Campbell. Her personal life experiences and reflections have spawned a new on-line leadership program, targeting resilience-building in leaders of social and environmental change.
AI + resilient leadership

Innovations in Practice: Facilitation

Being AI To Do AI by Max Hardy. He shares what he has learned and noticed so far about what it takes to 'be' AI.His tips can encourage readers to think about their own techniques for ‘being AI’.
AI+ personal preparation

Facilitating Strategic AI Interventions by Liz Mellish. One of the pioneers in AI applications in Australia, she brings her wisdom on maximising the interplay between knowledge of the strategic context, professional facilitation competence and the application of Appreciative Inquiry to benefit the organisation.
AI + knowledge of facilitation

Building the Optimal Cricket Operation by Sandy Gordon. He brings some insights into the Western Australia Cricket Association’s process to look together at their operations and how he worked with appreciative facilitation to do it.
AI + team cohesion

Innovations in Practice: Community Building

AI and Asset-Based Community Development in the Defence Community Organisation by Dee Brooks and Graeme Stuart. This article outlines how the organisation drew on AI and ABCD that challenged some traditional thinking and generated some exciting possibilities for Defence Force families.
AI + ABCD

Creating a Professional Learning Community: Embedding AI in a Complexity Thinking Framework by Chris Jansen. He provides a wonderful introduction to complexity thinking as he uses an approach that integrates the framework of AI with complexity thinking to inform professional learning processes.
AI + complexity theory

Regards,
Anne

Anne Radford editor@aipractitioner.com
Publisher, AI (Appreciative Inquiry) Practitioner
skype name: aipractitioner
tel +44 (0)20 7633 9630
www.aipractitioner.com

Anne Radford is also Consultant to business leaders and organisational consultants www.aradford.co.uk