...the authors share with us a highly innovative array of experiential learning exercises. These exercises inject continuous shots of adrenalin into the discourse of social construction. We move beyond explication to action; we directly experience the impact of the ideas; we share in the living creation of constructionist worlds. The authors demonstrate how, within a short span, fundamental ideas of meaning can be brought to life.

Experiential Learning Exercises in Social Construction: A Field Book for Creating Change

Politics & Social Sciences

Cotter, Robert

Social Sciences

Taos Inst Pubns

This 200-page volume presents a model of Appreciative Leadership based on twenty-eight interviews, fifteen of which are included in the book. This small but comprehensive sample reveals the outstanding characteristics of appreciative leaders and their predominant behavioral attributes. The ways appreciative leaders engage in their daily practices are outlined in detail. "This is a landmark book, " according to Jane Watkins, an originator of Appreciative Inquiry. "It is an invaluable contribution to the literature that addresses the critically important question: What kinds of leaders will shape the radically different organizations called for by our constantly changing environment?" Appreciative Inquiry leader, David Cooperrider writes, "Appreciative modes of management may be to our new self-organizing systems what deficit or problem-oriented methods have been to command-and -control bureaucracies."

Appreciative Leaders: In the Eye of the Beholder

Business & Money

Schiller, Marjorie

Riley, Deanna

Holland, Bea Mah

Management & Leadership

The Appreciative Organization The founders of the Taos Institute have pooled their substantial resources to create a vision of a powerful and humanly nourishing form of organization and to share practices for bringing this organization into being. Based on their diverse experiences in organizational life, the authors are unanimous in their view that the appreciative construction of meaning is essential to the efficacy of an organization and the fulfillment of its participants. In clear and direct language, the volume treats the challenges of decision making, leadership, group functioning, personnel evaluation, and the relationship of the organization to its context. Bold ideas are developed, examples described, and multiple suggestions developed for creating the appreciative organization. This volume will be of special significance to consultants and organizational members who wish to see the key elements of appreciative inquiry realized in the everyday working of the organization.

The Appreciative Organization

Whitney, Diana

McNamee, Sheila

Gergen, Mary

Anderson, Harlene

Gergen, Kenneth

Cooperrider, David

Economics

Conversational Realities Reloaded is a new edition of John Shotter's 1993 book Conversational Realities. Like the first edition, it contests the traditional scientific view that naturally occurring psychological and sociological realities of a systematic and structured kind are to be discovered underlying appearances. Instead, it claims that such orderly 'realities' are both socially constructed and sustained in existence only within the context of people's disorderly, everyday conversational activities. However, this second edition is much more oriented toward practical issues than the first. Central to it, is a focus on people's spontaneous, living, bodily responsiveness to the expressive movements of the others around them, and the dialogically-structured nature of the events occurring in the meetings between them. Due to the irreversibility of living processes of growth and development, such events occur always for another first time. Thus, instead of patterns and regularities, instead of seeking to solve problems, our task becomes the more practical one of struggling to create new 'pathways' forward into the uniquely new circumstances we create for ourselves as we all live out our lives together. Among the works of many others who have emphasized the importance of unique, only once occurrent events in human affairs, the works of Bakhtin and Wittgenstein are key resources in this book. Along with a new Preface describing some of my changed views on Social Constructionism, this new edition contains four completely new essays along with a thorough reworking of five of the original chapters (while five of the old chapters have been dropped). They explore the logical, poetic, and rhetorical nature of our conversation intertwined practices in the spheres of psychotherapy, management, and everyday life, as well as in other more extraordinary circumstances. In particular, they are concerned to highlight the socially contested but imaginary nature of many of the 'things' we talk of in social life, as well as the nature of the social processes in which they are 'constructed'.

Conversational Realities Revisited: Life, Language, Body and World

Self-Help

Shotter, John

Relationships

This book is for those who are interested in Buddhist teachings and all who seek routes to growth in human well-being, particularly therapists, coaches, and scientists. It is a vanguard work that sets a cultural revolution in motion by bringing the fruits of the Buddhist heritage together with contemporary therapy, systematic research, and postmodern thought. The volume contains 28 chapters by 38 contributors from 12 countries, and introduces a range of useful practices, evidence of their efficacy, and integrative theoretical deliberations. Its contents move toward a climax called New Buddhist Psychology.

Horizons in Buddhist Psychology: Practice, Research and Theory

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Maurits G.T. Kwee

Kenneth J. Gergen

Fusako Koshikawa

Psychology & Counseling

Authors: Harlene Anderson David Cooperrider Kenneth Gergen Mary Gergen Sheila McNamee Jane Watkins Diana Whitney A Taos Institute Publication, The Appreciative Organization is based on the authors' diverse experiences in organizational life and they are unanimous in their view that the appreciative construction of meaning is essential to the efficacy of an organization and the fulfillment of its participants. In clear and direct language, the volume treats the challenges of decision making, leadership, group functioning, personnel evaluation, and the relationship of the organization to its context. Bold ideas are developed, examples described, and multiple suggestions developed for creating the appreciative organization. You will want to add this new "gem" to your personal library. This volume will be of special significance to consultants and organizational members who wish to see the key elements of appreciative inquiry realized in the everyday working of the organization. For more information visit the Taos Institute website: www.taosinstitute.net

Gergen, Kenneth J.

Positive Family Dynamics is a wonderful resource for parents and families members wanting to bring out the best in their families! The purpose of this book is to introduce the reader to Appreciative Inquiry and its application to families. At the heart of Appreciative Inquiry is the affirmative question. This book contains 56 appreciative questions designed to increase learning, listening and positive dynamics in your family. The questions, stories and activities in this book will help you create relationships within your family which will nurture respect, love, and care. The book's imaginative questions, exercises, and positive spirit creates a simple yet powerful method for helping families discover hidden reserves of strength and inspired opportunities for better living. They also provide powerful tools for helping all families become increasingly more appreciative, collaborative and effective in creating and shaping the futures they desire for themselves and their communities. This book is recommended for all family members -- grandparents, parents, children, and beyond.

Positive Family Dynamics: Appreciative Inquiry Questions to Bring Out the Best in Families : An Encyclopedia of Positive Questions

Dole, Dawn Cooperrider

Silbert, Jen Hetzel

Mann, Ada Jo

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