A Life-Giving Summit in Cincinnati

Greetings

Can Appreciative Inquiry Spark a Tipping Point in Cincinnati?

The City of Cincinnati is at a pivotal point, and it's time for fresh solutions, city leaders are saying.

An upcoming summit is dependent on Cincinnati residents from every corner joining in to discover what gives life to the city and building on those discoveries to co-create a new future.

It's one of the country's largest city-wide transformation opportunities.

Read more in this e-news about the vision to spark across-the-board change in Cincinnati through this Appreciative Inquiry (AI) event, who's behind this, the results of AI applications in other scenarios and how you can get involved.

To a new future!

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What's Happening

Strengths Summit Taking Shape in Cincinnati

David Cooperrider, Peter Senge to facilitate whole-system event

With the overarching vision of sparking the City of Cincinnati's transformation, a team will convene this month to design a summit projected to engage as many as 1,000 city residents.

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) will be at the heart of this summit. Facilitators include Case Western Reserve University professor David Cooperrider and Massachusetts Institute of Technology senior lecturer Peter Senge.

Victor Garcia, MD, of Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, is the visionary behind the effort.

He says he sees tremendous potential for the AI approach to mobilize the city, as it focuses not on problem-solving but on "creating a new future" through "building on strengths that exist no matter what the statistics."

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From the Champions
City Leads Back Appreciative Inquiry Effort

No other way to build a new future: director

A growing number of Cincinnati leaders are backing the introduction of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) as a tremendous opportunity for the city, local business and individual citizens. They speak to the potential they see in the approach to link the whole system and create across-the-board change.

GBBN Architects president Greg Otis says he and fellow members of this year's Leadership Cincinnati USA class have identified AI as "the best opportunity for us as a facilitation device, to begin to think of the connections between these different silos of our community."

LPK strategy and marketing director Jennifer Rippe has provided her expertise to the Leadership Cincinnati group testing AI to craft a message around the approach that will "engage people's hearts." She says she sees AI as a refreshing, new alternative . "Knowing the gravity of the issues, I think it's imperative . . . that we look to solve these problems (in the city) in some new ways," says Jennifer.

Community Building Institute is providing logistic support for the AI summit. Director Liz Blume says she's most compelled by the willingness of people to be involved with introductions to the AI approach, and genuinely engage with people who are not like them. "I think there's this real belief that in doing that we will come up with different and better solutions," she says.

BeyondBeing founder and owner Elaine Suess, newly introduced to AI, has already experienced a new business opportunity as a result, and says she sees similar potential for new opportunities for the city.

Watch for more news in future editions and on www.axiomnews.ca.

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Appreciative Inquiry At Work

Appreciative Questions Integral to Seismic Shift in Global Religious Relations

Seeds of change are implicit in the questions we ask: David Cooperrider

Appreciative questions were at the core of a massive shift now underway in the relations between leaders of diverse religions around the world, highlighting yet again that "we live in worlds our questions create," says David Cooperrider.

The Appreciative Inquiry (AI) frontrunner spent two weeks crafting five questions that ultimately sparked the creation of a global organization leading unity amongst religions.

David notes seeds of change are implicit in the questions we ask.

"The minute we ask questions people's perceptions (and) language . . . begin to change.

"Acts of leadership can be propelled in really exciting ways through this understanding."

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Newsroom Notes

Axiom CEO Connects with Cincinnati

Peter Pula, Axiom News CEO, had a poignant experience when recently visiting Victor Garcia.

Peter says he knew he was in the right place when meeting a former drug dealer who is now working with youth on the street. The man asked Peter a catalytic question, "If you could do anything all day and it would feel like you're on vacation, what would that be?"

As a news company devoted to the strengths movement, we believe this Appreciative Inquiry summit is one of the most significant events on the horizon.

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What We're Thinking

Something's Up In Cincinnati

Strengths movement taking shape as community members plan whole-system strengths summit

There is something very exciting taking shape in Cincinnati, Ohio. Something anyone interested in the strengths movement will want to watch.

In the coming weeks, as much as people in Cincinnati are willing, we at Axiom News would be honoured to play a role in sharing this spirit's story.

It is a spirit and story with which we can all connect. Read full editorial

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Get Involved

Be at the Hub of the Movement
1. Jump into the middle of the awareness, energy and excitement building around Appreciative Inquiry and the AI summit in

Cincinnati. Help expand the list of people receiving this free monthly e-news by forwarding it on, inviting your contacts to sign up and posting a message to your website, Twitter, Facebook and other social media accounts inviting people to join the list.

2. Be a key player in the Appreciative Inquiry activities underway in Cincinnati, most notably the preparations for and upcoming summit. Call 513-360-8640 for more information.
3. Bring Appreciative Inquiry to life in your own organization through stories. Contact Peter at Axiom News to learn more about how stories anchored in the Appreciative Inquiry approach create results.

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Strengths-Based Storytelling
Here's How Stories Can Work for You

Looking for results in your organization and your community?

Join the life-giving news network of Cincinnati and create the change you want to see -- at an individual, organizational and whole-system level.

How? By telling stories every day about the people in your organization; stories about people going above and beyond, innovating, about project wins, people championing a new way of thinking, advancing a mission and making a meaningful difference.

Sharing success stories is the best way to create the change you want to see.

Imagine seeing a new success story posted to your website every day.

Then imagine those stories being shared with local news sources and on the Axiom News site, adding to the creation of a new Cincinnati story, a strengths-based story.

Axiom News can do this for you: We discover, write, post to your website and share your success stories on your behalf. Engaging the people in your organization, and creating positive change through stories has never been easier. Visit the Axiom News website, or contact Peter at Axiom News to learn more about the benefits of organizational storytelling and how to get started.

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in this issue:

- Greetings

- What's Happening
- From the Champions
- Appreciative Inquiry at Work
- Newsroom Notes
- What We're Thinking
- Get Involved
- Strengths-Based Storytelling

The Appreciative Inquiry summit, (including) the necessary work leading to it and that which must follow, is the life-saving, life-giving "different way of thinking" about the worsening health disparities highlighted in the (Cincinnati) Department of Health's most recent report -- Dr. Victor Garcia

Cincinnati Department of Health Report

Data released this year shows Cincinnati's mortality rates for several causes of death, including diabetes and homicide, are significantly higher than the nation as a whole.

- Cincinnati's mortality rate for diabetes is 44.8 deaths per 100,000 population, almost double the national rate of 23.7.

- The city's mortality rate for homicide is more than triple the national rate -- 19.1 deaths per 100,000

population, compared to 6.1 nationally. Click here to
view the full data.

If we can gather steam for the strengths-based movement, spark a tipping point with the summit, and sustain action following the summit, well . . . who would want to live anywhere else with all that going on? -- Peter Pula, Axiom News CEO

Jump into the middle of the awareness, energy and excitement building around Appreciative Inquiry and the AI summit in Cincinnati. Help expand the list of people receiving this free monthly e-news by forwarding it on, inviting your contacts to sign up and posting a message to your website, Twitter, Facebook and other social media accounts

inviting people to join the list.

Appreciative Inquiry Defined

"Appreciative Inquiry is the

cooperative search for the best in people, their organizations, and the world around them. It involves systematic discovery of what gives a system "life" when it is most effective and capable in economic, ecological, and

human terms.

AI involves the art and practice of asking questions that strengthen a system's capacity to heighten positive potential.

It mobilizes inquiry through crafting an 'unconditional positive question' often involving hundreds or sometimes thousands of people." -- from the book AI: A Positive Revolution in Change by David Cooperrider and Diana Whitney. Click here for more definitions and resources.

about Axiom News

We are called to build a life-giving news network to co-create a renewed and thriving world.

We do this through the practice of generative journalism. It's founded on the principles of

Appreciative Inquiry, a strengths-based, capacity-building approach for driving organizations towards their highest potential.

Learn more and read daily stories at www.axiomnews.ca

share your story
We're looking for stories about the impact of the strengths-based, Appreciative Inquiry approach on individuals, organizations and whole systems. Contact the newsroom at 705-741-4421, to share your news leads. We'd love to hear from you!