 Greetings
What's New and Different about this Summit?
Questions continue around the proposed whole-system, Appreciative Inquiry summit for Cincinnati. How is it different from the great work already underway in the city and region? What if it cannabalizes existing funds? How can we be sure it will generate results?
This e-news provides some responses to these questions, including insights from Victor Garcia, Peter Senge and the Axiom News team.
Also learn what potential Messer construction, Eureka Ranch and City Gospel Mission see in this effort.
Then let us know what you think. Contact Axiom at 705-741-4421, ext. 27, or e-mail michelle@axiomnews.ca.
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What's Happening Victor Garcia Speaks to Reluctant Cincinnatians
Victor Garcia suggests those still reluctant about joining the new Appreciative Inquiry (AI), systems and design-thinking effort underway in Cincinnati consider it in a different light.
Victor, pediatric surgeon with the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, proposes the AI initiative is not so much about creating a new and different vision for the city.
 Instead, it is a new way to engage and empower the community.
The effort is "really looking at how a city, a community, can work differently with its residents and its citizens to create a city that we all truly aspire to have and to enjoy," says Victor.
Engaging the whole system is an integral part of the approach.
The AI methodology's shift from problem-solving to creating is also a key point.
Design thinking, as well as the discovery and application of individual strengths, are also an important part of this "new way."
"We see this (work) as . . . a blending of processes that are really going to accelerate and complement the existing regional initiatives," says Victor. Click here to read the full story.
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What We're Thinking
A Clue to Appreciative Inquiry's Effectiveness
What can the strengths approach do that many other sound approaches don't seem to?
We suggest the many stories Axiom News has published on the strengths methodology give us a few clues, among them the fact that the approach is a co-creative process. More and more, co-creation is being shown to be a powerful way to deepen engagement, not to mention to generate new and better solutions. Click here to read the full editorial.
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From the Champions
Messer, Eureka Ranch, City Gospel Mission See Summit Potential
Messer construction is another organization behind the CoreChange effort, with Messer chairman Pete Strange noting he sees much value in the potential this initiative can unlock.
While the organization has much to gain from being part of the summit, Pete adds the process itself is compelling. He is looking forward to participating in a summit where "every citizen has both the opportunity and motivation to be part of that creation."
"This holistic bringing everyone together has the potential for changing the game in terms of how we approach the challenges of the future," says Pete.
"We might actually get the opportunity to build towards a positive master narrative, and I find that extremely exciting."
The effort to make Cincinnati more vital is also receiving a boost from a local but internationally known firm Eureka Ranch.
"The cause is a great one," says CEO Doug Hall, adding that seeing the region adopt and implement new ideas would be gratifying.
"If through this we can get some more innovation going on in the Midwest, I think that would be tremendous," he says.
City Gospel Mission, a homeless shelter serving more than 11,000 people each year, is also backing the Cincinnati strengths summit.
Vice-president Sherman Bradley points out that a generation of a system based on identifying people's weaknesses in order to direct them to appropriate "handouts," has not worked, and a new approach is needed.
The VP adds he is excited to see just the attempt being made to create a structure that encourages dialogue between the various socioeconomic and ethnic classes around the subject of community.
Watch for more news in future editions and at www.axiomnews.ca.
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Newsroom Notes
Axiom News in Cincinnati?
From a strictly geographic perspective it still feels strange sometimes to be sitting here in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, following the strengths activity in a neighbouring country's city hundreds of miles away.
But from a values perspective, we feel completely at home.
The journalism we practice at Axiom News, as many of you know, is anchored in Appreciative Inquiry.
Plus we've long been covering AI successes around the globe, from Nepal to Singapore.
What's new for us is this long-term commitment to a series of stories and e-news on AI activity and vision in a particular setting.
It's exciting and a privilege to be a part of this, and we can't wait to see what the future holds both for Cincinnati and for us.
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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 Cincinnati AI summit. Help expand the list of people receiving this free monthly e-news by forwarding it on, inviting your contacts to sign up or by posting a message to your website, Twitter, Facebook and other social media accounts.
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 to learn more about the benefits of organizational storytelling and how to get started. |
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"We see (this work) as . . . a blending of processes that are really going to accelerate and complement the existing regional initiatives." -- pediatric surgeon Victor Garcia
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recommended watch
Click here to watch a video with senior lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and influential business strategist Peter Senge on the tremendous opportunities for business in this CoreChange effort.
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This holistic bringing everyone together has the potential for changing the game in terms of how we approach the challenges of the future.
We need to hear new voices and this idea of setting up a process based on a set of conversations that bring those voices out onto the table, I think it presents for us an opportunity.
We might actually get the opportunity to build towards a positive master narrative, and I find that extremely exciting, there are very few communities that I've encountered that have that in a robust way. -- Messer chairman Pete Strange
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Jump into the middle of the awareness, energy and excitement building around Appreciative Inquiry and the Cincinnati AI summit. Help expand the list of people receiving this free monthly e-news by forwarding it on, inviting your contacts to sign up, or by posting a message to your website, Twitter, Facebook and other social media accounts.
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another Appreciative Inquiry def.
Appreciative Inquiry is a form of action research that attempts to create new theories/ideas/images that aide in the developmental change of a system (Cooperrider & Srivastva, 1987.) The key data collection innovation of appreciative inquiry is the collection of people's stories of something at its best.... These stories are collectively discussed in order to create new, generative ideas or images that aid in the developmental change of the collectivity discussing them. -- Gervase Bushe from ""Five Theories of Change Embedded in Appreciative Inquiry." Click here for more definitions and resources.
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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 human systems towards their highest potential.
Learn more and read daily stories at www.axiomnews.ca
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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!
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visit our clients
Check out what an online, strengths-based
storytelling program can look and feel like by visiting our clients' sites.
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