Nancy Riffer

One of my favorite books that I go back to over and over (and I rarely re-read a book) is In Visible Light by Carol Shloss. The subtitle is "Photography and the American Writer: 1840-1940". Oxford University Press, 1987.

Schloss compares writers and photographers e.g., Hawthorne and Daguerreotypy, James Agee and Walker Evans, John Steinbeck and Dorothea Lange. The focus throughout the book is on the relationship between the author or the photographer and his/her subject(s). I am particularly interested in point of view and the relationships between people (I am a social psychologist).

Schloss's complex exploration of these topics jump starts my informal learning.  The combination of photographs and quotations from literature set me free. 

One sample quote:

Observations about this seminar:

I felt safer sharing something I am knowledgeable about than thinking outloud. 

I'd be very interested to have you point out times when you were "thinking outloud" i.e., describing an idea that was coming alive for you in the present.

I found it hard to find the focus in a number of posts.  Often there was so much information I could find useful resources  but I couldn't find an idea to build on.

One interesting conversation that started with several excited participants was on (in my word's) individualized/informal education for elementary school children.  Despite the enthusiasm, this did not lead to a sustained discussion.  Looking back, I would like to have pulled those ideas into a new thread so that that conversation would have stood alone as a focus.  It's a topic I was interested in enough to put some energy and leadership into.

Do you see other conversations that started that you would like to have helped develop more fully? 

Appreciative Inquiry's (AI) biggest contribution to the field initially was to take a positive approach.  It is based on the idea that we find what we are looking for.  So if we always look to solve problems, we will always find problems.  If we look for the strengths in what we already know how to do (or the life blood of the organization) we will find the areas on  which we can build.

AI was originally an approach to action research based inpart on the belief that we find what we set out to look for.  Thus the focus on the appreciative approach.  As research designed to create change, after gathering data about what is working well, the group works together to envision what could be and to begin to take steps to create that future.  The action steps grow out of the energy of the group -- if no one is inspired to take on one part of the anticipated work, then that part is set aside.  If there isn't energy for it in the group then it is not important now.  This is a very organic process that develops out of the group's enthusiasm with process guidance from the leaders.

http://www.appreciative-inquiry.org/AI-Life.htm  This link describes the history of the development of AI in the late 80's.  David Cooperrider has not tried to hold onto AI -- one doesn't have to be certified in it.  He encourages people in his workshops to go forth and try it and continue to research how it works best.  So the links I gave you to AI projects displayed the parts of AI that different leaders had picked up and found useful.

Appreciative inquiry has several facets and many applications.  It is being used in development work in poor countries (http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/practice/organizationDetail.cfm?coid=8734&sector=23), education, community development with at-risk youth http://scholar.google.com/url?sa=U&q=http://www.morris.umn.edu/services/cst/symposium/2005/proceed/bliss.citizenleaders.pdf , and with corporations.  It is an approach to change that is widely applicable. 

Jay talked about it's rejection of problem-solving as an approach to change and it's focus on the positive -- on what is working well in the situation one is interested in seeing change.  E.g., In one of David Cooperrider's workshops I attended, f2f, he told the story of helping his son learn to play soccer.  Like a good soccer Dad, he videoed his son during games.  Then he made a tape of all the things his son had done right and played it back for him.  Not one correction!

Another aspect of AI is the focus on collecting data in the form of stories.  The inquiry usually begins with people paired asking each other questions that have been prepared.  To gain insight into the lifeblood of the group/organization that is changing, questions are asked with stems like "Tell me about a time when . . ."  or "What's an example of a time when .. .?" 

If we wanted to use AI in this group to explore informal learning and build our sense of being a group, we might use questions.  E.g., "Tell me about a time when you got so involved in a situation that it was only afterward that you realized you had been learning a lot."  Follow-up: "Is there a time when you realized a week or two later how much you had learned in some (informal) situation?"

 The forming of the questions is one of the most important aspects of the process -- I am not suggesting we use appreciative inquiry but I think what question(s) you might ask would help others see where the heart of informal learning is for you/us.  I'd be interested in hearing how other people might word a question to elicit a story that would capture the part of informal learning that each of us is most excited about. 

Fun. Surprise. Intensity