Pay and Play LO4555

JonasHS (JonasHS@corning.com)
Tue, 02 Jan 1996 16:47:00 -0500 (EST)

Replying to LO4476 --

Gary echoes Rosanne's and Carol's concern about the limitations of the
"job" concept on human freedom, and then asks:

> On a separate thread here, I'd like to hear comments on how we could
> improve society (positively). If anyone wants to pick that up, I think
> from the calibre of people on this discussion list, we could collectively
> start something massive!

Some former colleagues of mine at Case Western have been developing
approaches to "appreciative inquiry" over the last 10 years or so.
Basically, the idea is that we can inquire into organizational strengths
just as energetically as we have organizational deficits, and that the
products of this inquiry can stimulate energy and imagination more
effectively than traditional problem-solving approaches. Ultimately, the
knowledge generated by these inquiries will in turn stimulate more
creativity in the development of new theories of organizational
functioning.

More recently, these approaches have been picked up by people seeking to
effect societal change in large cities, with very positive results.
Examples are _Imagine Chicago_ and _Imagine Dallas_. In both these cases,
young people interviewed institutional leaders (education, business, etc.)
about their hopes for their city. In the process, a new level of
cross-generational dialogue was begun and these young adults came away
with a great "appreciation" of their own role in effecting change in
society. For more info, contact, Valerie Lawler (Dallas, 214-821-9065) or
Bliss Brown (Chicago, call directory assistance). For info on the recent
intellectual roots of appreciative inquiry (of course, there are many
threads such as the work of Geoffrey Vickers), contact David Cooperrider
or Suresh Srivastva at Case Western Reserve's Department of Organizational
Behavior.

--
Hank Jonas
JonasHS@corning.com