Here you will find all the information and news about our 2009 Appreciative Inquiry process, the Dream Summit and and subsequent planning initiatives.
- What is the Dream Summit?
- What is Appreciative Inquiry?
- How does appreciative inquiry work?
- How will Appreciative Inquiry Proceed in Our Church?
- Projected Time Table for complete 4-D Cycle
- How can I become involved in the appreciative inquiry interviews?
- When will the interviews be held?
- General information about the interview sessions
- November 2009 update
What is the Dream Summit?
The Dream Summit is the second step in the Appreciative Inquiry process, the first step having been the Appreciative Inquiry itself. The Inquiry was completed in late summer. Appreciative Inquiry is designed to help the church identify its strengths and priorities for future programs, growth, and more. The Appreciative Inquiry team has completed interviews with more than 60% of the congregation, organized and analyzed the information from the interviews and identified five very important core values of our congregation. On November 1, at the Dream Summit, we will have to determine WHAT our dreams are and begin to think about HOW we can go about accomplishing them.
What is Appreciative Inquiry?
“Appreciative Inquiry” is the study and exploration of what gives life to human systems such as persons, teams, organizations or communities when they function at their best. This approach to personal and organizational change is based on the assumption that questions and dialogue about strengths, successes, values, hopes, dreams are themselves transformational.
Appreciation has to do with recognizing the best in people; affirming past and present strengths, successes, assets, and potentials; and recognizing how these things add value to the human system, the church in our particular case.
Inquiry refers to the acts of exploration and discovery and implies a quest for new possibilities, a willingness to learn from one another, and an openness to change on the part of all included in the system. This means organizational leaders, members, and key stakeholders all learning together and opening up to change.
The approach of appreciative Inquiry has a long history of more than 25 years of research and experimentation. The idea originated with David Cooperrider at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. However it has been applied with great success as a catalyzing force for change in for-profit, not-for-profit, and religious organizations across the world.
How does appreciative inquiry work?
The process used to generate the power of appreciative inquiry is the 4-D Cycle pictured below. It is based on the notion that human systems, individuals, teams, organizations, and communities, grow and change in the direction of what they study. Appreciative Inquiry works by focusing the attention of an organization on its most positive potential, its positive core, and unleashes the energy of the positive core for transformation and sustainable success.
Starting with affirmative topic choices, the approach begins with a discovery phase of learning to appreciate the people’s collective wisdom about the organization’s tangible and intangible strengths, capabilities, resources and assets. This discovery phase involves sharing best practices through stories from the past and the present and then proceeding to imagine what the church might be like in the future in preparation for the dream phase.
A complete 4-D Cycle includes using the discovery and dream phases as a foundation for a design phase and then actually co-creating and sustaining what has been planned, thus achieving the final phase of destiny.
Download a copy of this page plus a 4-D Cycle diagram in PDF format.
How will Appreciative Inquiry Proceed in Our Church?
Projected Time Table for complete 4-D Cycle
- Mid-April through August: Discovery through one-on-one interviews
- September-October: Data Analysis
- October: Positive Core Identified
- November 1: Dream Summit
- November-December: Design Team Work Groups
- January: Beginning of Destiny during Budget Process
How can I become involved in the appreciative inquiry interviews?
We need everyone’s participation in the appreciative inquiry interviews if we are to be effective in building the church of our dreams that will challenge us all in our search for spiritual fulfillment. We are currently signing up people for interviews. Check the sign up sheet in the foyer in the clip board rack on the Welcome Counter where new visitor’s information is displayed.
When will the interviews be held?
Once you sign up, an interviewer will be assigned to you and this person will contact you to set up an interview session at a time and place that is practical for you. You will be able to look at the interview questions ahead of time on the church website or a handout if you prefer.
Download Appreciative Inquiry questions in PDF format.
The interview will last about 60 minutes depending on how many affirmative topic areas you are interested in addressing. The purpose for the interview sessions is to discover from as many people as possible the stories of best practices and ideas and build on this information to co-create the best possible future for our church.
General Information about the Interview Sessions
The role of the interviewer is to listen to you and record your stories and ideas. Your comments will be in response to open ended questions that flow from affirmative topics.
Your stories, ideas and comments will be recorded by the interviewer. The session should take approximately 60 minutes.
The AI team will be responsible for analyzing the summaries of information generated from the interview sessions.
This information will be reported at the Dream Summit in September, but samples of the stories and ideas will also be shared in creative ways during the weeks preceding the Summit.
November 2009 Update
If you were unable to attend the Dream Summit on November 1st, your input is still valuable and needed. You have a couple of options for getting your input to the team. If you were unable to attend the Dream Summit on Nov 1, or you were able to attend but want to have input on other working groups, now is the time. Go to the UUCLC web page and click on ‘Members’ and then on ‘Appreciative Inquiry’. There you will find information about the process and the interview questions. After you have had a look at them, especially the “3 wishes” question (F1), get your dreams into the elected group leaders or the Appreciative Inquiry team so they can be integrated into the final dream statement that will be presented to the congregation for approval.
If you would like to see the Dream Summit as it happened, there is a DVD of the opening and closing sessions (the breakout sessions were not taped) in the church office. All you need is a DVD player.
The results of the break out sessions (the mind maps) for each of the five breakout groups are on display in the RE Great Room. Have a look and see where your dream fits and get it to the team listed below. All of the materials from the process, including interview responses (without names), summaries of each interview question and the synthesis of all the responses by the analysis team will soon be available in the church office.
The Groups, Leaders and Facilitators are:
- Our Shared Ministry-Lisa Woodul, Sally Hunt
- Finances-Charlie Scholz, Jane Asche
- Facilities-Billy Garrett
- Living Our Values-Paul O’Connell, Mike Hughes
- Strong Fellowship-Katya Gonzales, Sarah Heartsong, Cynthia Garrett
Once all the input is received, the entire Appreciative Inquiry Team will develop a Dream Statement and present it to the Congregation for their approval. Then we can move on to the Design Phase and START REALIZING OUR DREAMS!
