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Methodology

Appreciative inquiry is the methodology applied
in meetings of the conversation GFAL

In order to secure the inclusion and significant participation form the many actors involved in this initiative as well as the productivity of the conversations, the Appreciative Inquiry methodology was chosen. It was formulated by professors DavidCooperrider, PhD and Ronald Fry, PhD, from the Weatherhead School of Management of Case Western Reserve University School of Business, in Cleveland, Ohio.

This methodology is an invitation to experience, collectively and with solidarity, an investigation and reflection process that is both a journey and a learning cycle.

In harmony with Appreciative Inquiry, the Global forum Latin America has been conceived as a process that follows four major steps:

DISCOVERY AND DREAMING: Telling compelling stories of experiences in successful strategic alliances that are evidences of integration of education and sustainability. In other words: knowing how to use installed knowledge or online knowledge – available and ready to use – that is inherent within the people and their organizations so as to allow new future visions and initiatives to be leveraged;

VISUALIZATION AND EXPLORATION: Collaborating in describing new, potential cooperative action scenarios and opportunities to fulfill the collective aspirations for significant education – in technical, scientific, and strategic management terms – resulting in new forms of innovation, production, trade, and consumption capable of producing sustainability;

CONCEIVING AND PLANNING: Designing projects and actions based upon sustainable education principles;

IMPLEMENTATION: Initiation of actions and their respective monitoring, based on the Call for Action that will take place a few weeks after the conference. This step is a planned call for collective and effective actions, which were inspired by GFLA results that will serve as the starting point for other initiatives, thus multiplying their transformation power.

This methodology of Dr. David Cooperrider and Dr. Ronald Fry, is based on five principles: Constructive Principle
 Organizations are perceived as human constructions.  We build our realities based on our previous experience, and therefore, our knowledge and purpose of the organization are linked.

.: Principle of Simultaneity
 The question and change occur simultaneously.  When someone asks a question, the person receiving the question undergoes a change of behavior.  The appreciative question promotes self-esteem of another person.  The questions that we make are an important part of the process of change.

.: Poetic Principle
 As a work of art can have many interpretations, human organizations can be seen as writing books in which the participants are co-authors.  Past, present and future may have many interpretations, enabling everyone to find & create what they desire most in organizations.

.: Principle of Anticipation
 Organizations, driven by their people, are wondering where to go (dreams, images).  The most important feature for building the organizational change is the collective imagination and discourse by the participants about their most desirable future.  One of the basic theorems of the early vision of organizational life is that this collective image of the future is what in fact guides the behavior of each agent and organization.

.: Positive Principle
 The positive approach causes power to aggregate.  The more positive the questions that are asked by the collective, the more effective are their movements to change.  The positive approach thrives on the power of feedback which occurs & grows within the open, local & collective dialogues.