Training in Tucson on February 15, 2008

Click here to download the Flyer and Registration Form for the Training in Tucson on February 15!


Maximizing the Potential of Individuals and Organizations using Appreciative Inquiry and Open Space Technology

Cassandra O’Neill and Sarah Griffiths are offering a one day training in Tucson on February 15, 2008. This training will teach participants how to maximize potential of individuals, partnerships, and organizations by using Appreciative Inquiry and Open Space Technology.

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is an approach to change -- which aligns with the recent brain research. By discovering the best of what has been, people can envision a compelling future to move towards. The heart of this approach is appreciative interviews which identify peak experiences that individuals have had. AI has been used in many ways —to coach individuals and groups, in strategic planning, to conduct program evaluations, transform performance reviews, develop teams and leadership, and more. Open Space Technology is a way to facilitate group discussions which allows individuals to select what they most want to talk about at the time. Both of these methods have been used all over the world.

Sarah and Cassandra have facilitated using these methods and conducted trainings on the methods with a wide variety of organizations including staff and volunteers from the United Way of Southern Arizona, Arizona Early Education Funded Regional Partnerships, First Focus on Kids, Girls Inc. of Southern Arizona, Pinal Gila Community Child Services, Inc, and grantees and staff from two Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) funded programs, Reclaiming Futures and Active Living by Design.

http://www.wholonomyconsulting.com

Learner vs Judger

If you don't like what people are saying, you might want to take a closer look at the questions you are asking them.

This three page article explains how switching the types of questions you ask can increase the productivity of conversations. Certain types of questions are from a judger mode while others come from a learner mode. Click on this link to download this article to learn more.


Click here to download this article

Neuroscience, Leadership, and Coaching

Click on the link below to view 5 pod casts on Brain Based Coaching and the Neuroscience of Coaching.


http://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/5670/brain-based-coaching-amp-leadership/recent


Coaching with the Brain in Mind
We’ve learned more about the brain since the 1980’s than in all previous history. Many discoveries are providing hard evidence for how and why a coaching approach is so effective, and pointing to new ways to define, measure and deliver coaching. In this podcast you’ll learn why change is so hard (from a physical perspective), what every coach, manager and leader should know about the brain and the new science of attention, reflection, insight and action.


Click on the link below for David Rock's Neuroscience of Leadership article. This short piece is an excellent summary of what we've learned about the brain. The implications of this are profound on how we try to create positive behavior. For example, he says that neither incentives or punishments work in the long term. And yet, doesn't this describe much of our public policy?

Click here for Neuroscience of Leadership

http://www.wholonomyconsulting.com

Interesting Information on Beliefs

These coaching tips come from Cognitive CoachingSM Guru John Dyer. Thanks John.

Ed Beliefs Part 1 - Cognitive Processor – This belief systems supports the notion that the education system prepares students to live in a world which we cannot predict: the need for them to be adaptive. Adaptive is used in the sense of “knowing what to do when you don’t know what to do”. We no longer teach solutions to problems but teach how to solve problems. We no longer teach facts, but teach how to acquire facts, AND teach how to determine the truthfulness or validity of the facts that are acquired.

The video clip that can be accessed through the following address demonstrates dramatically how significant it will be for graduates in the future to have high level, critical thinking skills in order to adapt to a rapidly changing world. SHIFT HAPPENS.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljbI-363A2Q

The role of the coach is not to try and change the educational belief system of the educator that they are coaching. The challenge for the coach is to support the individual that they are coaching to be the best teacher that she or he can be within the educational belief system to which s/he is committed.

Ed Beliefs Part 2 Self Actualization – As we consider the uniqueness of each individual child, their talents, their skills, their character, their abilities we appreciate the desirability of developing each of the these youngsters to the maximum of their potential. Eliot Eisner’s study of giftedness across the United States suggested that 80% of the students in North America was gifted in one way or another. He suggests that the development of those differences is the cultivation of talent.

The role of the coach is not to try and change the educational belief system of the educator that they are coaching. The challenge for the coach is to support the individual that they are coaching to be the best teacher that she or he can be within the educational belief system to which s/he is committed.

The video below is a dramatic and entertaining reminder of the brilliance of the children among us.


http://www.wholonomyconsulting.com

Is sustainability more than a fiction writing contest?

Check out our recent article in the Charity Channel grants related newsletter. It is called Sustainability: More than a fiction writing contest.


Click here to see the article


http://www.wholonomyconsulting.com