A place to capture and share ideas and links about online interaction, online community, distance learning, distributed CoPs from Full Circle Associates
Janine Bowes reports on a presentation by Stephen Downes, currently flitting all about Australia. I wanted to capture these points as they are important and relevant to other forms of online interaction beyond e-learning: "Some key points made by Stephen.
I have been imersing myself in improv as both a learning, teaming and facilitation perspective. Last June, John Smith, Alasdair Honeyman and I did a presentation at the Virtual Communities conference in The Hague and most of the crowd looked at us as if we had totally lost our minds. So, it is always a relief to see others have lost their mind as well. Good company. Take a look at Jay Cross' article on Improv EducationToday’s workers perform without a script. Everything’s impromptu. Stage cues come from the audience in real time. Costumes? The dress code may be pajamas if you work from home. Rewards go to innovators who deviate from the expected. Success is measured by the take at the box office instead of seniority or past performances.
[via Stephen Downes]
Training was appropriate when actors memorized their lines. Today, it’s OK to read from cue cards—you can’t know everything. Good props help make a show great. As Gloria Gery pointed out long ago, it’s time to “give up the idea that competence must exist within the person and expand our view that whenever possible it should be built into the situation.”
The Improv home page reports that the most popular form of improv today “is ‘spot’ improv, in which performers get suggestions from their audience and use them to create short, entertaining scenes. No matter where or how it’s performed, the essential ingredient in any improvisational performance is that the audience and the actors are working together to create theatre.”
I've been myth-busting over the years on the Mehrabian data on non verbal cues for a number of years now. I'm always happy to see others doing the same. I don't see it quite as an urban legend as Teten's article, An urban legend: face-to-face communication is the best vehicle for communication, does. But it is a classic case of misapplication of data that has permeated assumptions for decades. Albert Mehrabian, a UCLA professor, completed research in 1967 showing the significance of non-verbal cues in communications. He concluded, in part, “The combined effect of simultaneous verbal, vocal and facial attitude communications is a weighted sum of their independent effects — with the coefficients of .07, .38, and .55, respectively.” (Albert Mehrabian and Susan R. Ferris, "Inference of attitudes from nonverbal communication in two channels." Journal of Consulting Psychology 31 (1967): 248-252. ) Out of context, this implies that in face-to-face conversation, 38% of communication is inflection and tone of voice, 55% is facial expression, and only 7% is based on what you actually say.
I'm currently part of an online/f2f/online workshop on communities of practice in education with about 45 folks from Portugal. Most of the dialog is in Portuguese, a language I spoke fluently 30 years ago, but which is mostly buried someplace in my brain. So I work through each post (upwards of 75 a day) painstakingly with my dictionary. I was mesmerized by a thread that emerged about online body language, where we started punctuating our thoughts with text versions of our body language. One of the group said "this is becoming addictive."
This statistic has grown into a very widely quoted and oft-misunderstood urban legend. Many communication skills teachers and image consultants misuse this data to indicate that your intonation, speaking style, body language, and other non-verbal methods of communication overpower your actual words. As a result, many people are concerned that online communication is much more difficult because body language, tone of voice, and facial expressions cannot today be effectively conveyed over the internet.
Not true. Mehrabian’s study only addressed the very narrow situation in which a listener is analyzing a speaker's general attitude towards that listener (positive, negative, or neutral). Also, in his experiments the parties had no prior acquaintance; they had no context for their discussion. As Mehrabian himself has said explicitly, these statistics are not relevant except in the very narrow confines of a similar situation.
The point is we can enrich our text in ways that deepens and enriches our text communition. She says, leaning in with intensity towards her new 19 inch flat panel monitor. Gee, it's nice!
Is this pimping one of my home communities? Maybe, but it's a great deal. So here it is:The WELL | Pre.vue reader sneak peak offer: "Dear Pre.vue reader --
For those not familiar with The Well, it is a long-lived online community rife with discussions of all stripes. I'm co-host of the Virtual Community Conference (With Jon of PolyCot) and addicted to the Travel and Cooking Conferences. You can tell what rut I'm stuck in. There is also a great Blog Conference and more riches than you can fit into a day.
We're pleased to announce that if you wish to join The WELL now, you are eligible for a special rate of just $2 for the first two months of membership.
Just click on the special link on this page, and when it asks who referred you, type in 'special.' There's never been a better time to jump in and get your feet wet!
When Lee points to a plain language explanation of a technical issue, it's usually a good bet. Check this one out. RSS: why it's important: "Finding it hard to stay abreast of the latest news and conversations on the Web? You're not alone. The number of sites and people producing content has grown over the years to an unmanageable size. Fortunately, you can now separate the signal from the noise with subscriptions to sites you enjoy and with newsreaders that can filter only the important news you need to get ahead at work. Soon, even portals such as Yahoo will offer this type of service. But there are several good free and paid apps that will do the trick right now."
[via Lee]
It is open till the end of November. By joining, you have access to the videos, the blogs, the conversations, the library of AI resoures. If you are interested in diving into AI, it is worth it. http://www.aiconference.org/virtual.htm
Authors of, “Finding the Extra-Ordinary Marriage: A Guide to Building Strong, Loving and Compassionate Couple Relationships Using Appreciative Inquiry”
Somehow early on during the Appreciative Inquiry Conference I had the good chance to meet Joan and Michael Hoxsey. It may have been that moment when Joan walked up to the “Virtual Home” area with two other women and I referred to them as her friends. They were her daughters, but it was clear there was a great wellspring of friendship in their relationship. And there were smiles of great humor. As the days passed here, we talked more and enjoyed each other’s’ company. Yesterday Michael and Joan pressed a small book into my hands and said, read this, then lets talk tomorrow.
I read this little gem and we sat down to talk this afternoon. The first five minutes were rapid fire humor which I could hardly do justice to with my notes, but this one bit stuck: “Dick and Jane run, but Mike and Joan get married. Here is the story how they stayed married.”
Nancy: So why did you guys write a book?
(My first challenge – keep track of who was saying what. Joan and Michael often completed each other’s sentences, jumping in with side comments and one liners. Whoa!)
Michael: “We’ve done something similar in past. We took the micro concept of family strengths and enlarged it to encompass any group that contains relationships. Use the family strengths.”
Joan: “The reason for this particular book has much more to do with the effect of AI on us as a couple and as a family.”
Joan was the director of a 0-3 program and was looking for a planning process that was built on strengths as opposed to all the problems these families have. Part of it was out of this work and the family strengths work Michael referred at Univ of Nebraska. “We saw the power of talking people both from a realistic level and strengths. One of the strengths is appreciation.”
(I am giving up referencing who says what… let it flow, baby, let it flow!)
“When Joan discovered Appreciative Inquiry (AI), we found out there was a retreat for couples by Jane Magruder Watkins and Ralph Kelly. “Here’s a good deal: we can do marriage stuff for ourselves and learn AI.”
“Little did we know that between the time we made the decision to go and actually go to the retreat, our youngest child (33 years old) died. He went to bed and did not wake up. We came home from a conference and discovered he had died. It swept our legs out from under us. You are not supposed to bury your children.”
“We are not sure how we managed to get in the car and go to the retreat. We knew we needed something, and at our core there was a resilience that needed to be activated. So we made the trip from Ohio to Virginia. What we discovered through the AI process were all of the strengths that we have had over 40-something years of marriage. They are accessible to us, but we don’t always remember them. It was such a powerful and realistic experience, we decided we wanted to share it with other couples. Not just those in trauma, but if it would work for us in that extreme situation, maybe it would help others. Couples and those in relationships. The power to transform where we are through appreciating one another, respecting one another, being eager to be with one another.”
Michael continues…”So we started keeping appreciative journals. We used to write in journals as a dialog, out of obligation to a community. We grew a lot in that process. With the AI journals, it was different. Each day we consciously remember why we appreciated each other. Not only does it recall that moment, but puts us in the stance of looking for something that we appreciate in the other.” Joan adds, “it is not onerous. The act of appreciating someone else has such power to give other not only to the person appreciated, but the person doing the appreciating. It’s become a looked for, anticipated part of our day.”
Michael caps the comment: “It’s like dessert. We’ve earned it. We haven’t’ made it a huge 7 steps to joy. Just take a note, by writing it down, and take note by observing. “
I asked them what they do next with their journals.
Michael was quick to note “My writing leaves a lot to be desired. Joan has become, she’s my pharmacist. She can read the prescription. Otherwise I have to read it to her. I’m able to read Joan’s. She is a very clear writer. And they are simple exchanges.”
He continued with an example. “One night on our way to Orlando last week we stopped in Forsythe GA about 9pm at night. We’d been driving for 14 hours. I was too tired to write. So for the first time we just did a conversation sharing. I layed on the bed with my eyes closed and she appreciated that I drove and I appreciated that she appreciated me and I knew it every minute of the day. It made my day easier. The rhythm of our day, week, month was disrupted by that failure to write.”
“The key thing,” added Joan, “is that we’ve not made a big deal out of it. So there’s no guilt associated with it. We noticed a dip, but we didn’t feel guilty. But we miss the intimacy that it brings. What often happens is that it sparks long conversations, about where we’ve been, where we want to go, what we’re dreaming about. It has a been very useful way of grieving for our son. Often times he comes in to the conversation, into the appreciations, what he brought in to our lives. Mike may have a time when he’s very visible about his grief. What I’ve discovered is that I appreciate that. I would never have known that 2-3 years ago. To appreciate his grief and losses has been wonderful. I think the same is true for you,” she said, turning to Michael.
All of our eyes were moist.
Michael had another story to share. “I’d like to tell you something that has just happened (he turned to Joan) What the Navy is doing and what we are about. – it is the same thing. I remembered that at diner last night, sitting in restaurant with our two daughters. I was aware that this was the family that we used to talk to people about. Adult parents and adult children, sharing responsibility. I realize that’s what happens in the Navy when the admirals, and ensigns sit down together at the same table, in civilian clothes, and talk about what it means to be a solider. They are accepting shared responsibility for the course of the organization. In the Navy, they are talking about the power that AI releases, when an enlisted person can speak up in the anticipation that it will make a change in the service and not in their status.
Joan smiles, “When we were young, I thought we were in the age of having good children, a whole laundry list of what a good child is. All these ideals. We never got one out of 6 of them like that. What we’ve discovered is what we were really doing was elevating good parents for our grandchildren. That is the reflection we are now seeing. Adult children and adult parents coming to that place of really deep respect for one another.”
Years after you’ve written this book, what stories would you like to hear
Sales in the hundreds of thousands! Laughter
I’d like to hear more of the stories I heard last night from our daughter that she never thought to share with us. She has a very dear friend who has been through really tough separation and diverse. And she has read our book. Her daughter’s friend. She said it was the most helpful thing she’s read about what it is that she wants. I’d like to have lots of people find some way learning how to be respectful, loving and confident in their relationships with one another. Take the risks and weather the storms that relationship and family… all families, to use the everyday language, at risk. When you love somebody you are always at risk of losing them. I would like to know that we have helped some people to have a day or two now and then, when they really appreciated each other an experienced that. And it helped them get through tough stuff. They felt secure enough to support others, in laws, outlaws, children, grocer, bus driver. It is amazing what happens when people see how much you appreciate what the do. Admiral Dave Anderson was outside talking to the porters. He now has that sense of how important the app is. You don’t lose anything. Appreciation is your ROI. The investment is an observation, a little bit of time and some integrity. The return is fantastic
I’d like to look like the picture in our book.
I think we are really fortunate as a family, husband and wife, mother and father, that even though we had this tragedy of losing 33 year old son, we do not in any way have the sense that he left us wanting to know how much he was love. There is no sense of should have said… done… because we were very expressive about that. And by the same token we have no doubt, we even have physical proof in the form of letters that he wrote us that he loved and respected us, thought we were funny, loved his brothers and sisters with all his heart. We’ve been very fortunate to understand and value that. I don’t know where that gift came from. It’s been where we’ve been
It seemed a shame to not share a bit of that. To give people some prospects.
AI was a name for what they were already doing. Had something they had and gave a framework. One of the six strengths. Felt frustrated in this relationship… did I ever really tell you I appreciated you asked Mike? Oh yeah. I don’t think in the 47 years we’ve been married to miss a day to tell me how much you love me, how beautiful I am. It would be a false impression to say AI gave us that. We found a way to intentionally bring forward on a consistent way something we knew inherently, was important. IT moved that one of 6, I had trouble accepting that appreciation was a strength. It wasn’t until I practiced it, tried it out, what happened to me when someone appreciated something I had done. What a ready source of affirmation. How easy it is to find something to appreciate. Give people a chance to be appreciated.
What you are saying Mike is that AI has, in this intentionality, to look for more specifics. While you never missed a day to tell me you loved me and I was beautiful, you were pretty generic about it. AI gave us the gift – I really appreciate it when you have the diner on the table. I have a way of making the bed. Mike thinks its stupid but he does it any day. You have to go around the bed again. IJ: I can’t tell you the first time I discovered he did it my way, “he really DOES love me!” M: If that proves it and diamonds don’t, that’s it!
We’ve been watching for doing the things we love. The story we love is the story about image. We’ve done a lot of this couples stuff. The skills stuff. The nine faces, eneagram, MB, not the Cosmo sec partner quiz! We’re at a active listening workshop. One of these where you have lunch on your own. We’ve gone off campus. I spend the whole lunch hour telling Mike he does not do listening right. I was really… trying to do this in a saccharine cheerful way. Pretty distant on the way back to the campus. Were in a neighborhood. Mike was holder her hand so she would not run away. This car parks and an old woman gets out of the card. A foot shorter than the car. Comes around, opens the door and helps an even older gentleman. He wasn’t her son. They get to the sidewalk, brush themselves off. She brushes him off. They link arms and walk to the Dr. office. Joan had the image, oh my god, there we are down the line. The tenderness with which they treated each other was… it was… I have no notion that that was AI. I took a hold of Mike’s arm and we went back to the workshop. If I stay on this track, our emotions were entirely changed by watching that. That’s the story I most love (J) about what we’re trying to share.
We do have a stake in each other as family, as human beings, all of our relationships. We know when our relationship is strong nothing can phases us. Family is a self healing organization. Paul Pearsal has written about the power of the family
AI has brought it from here (head) to here (heart) to hear (lips). It has helped articulate. And it has given us the most important thing – a support community. Home is where they have to let you in. Take off all of your armor. Relax and be. The expectation are thank god you are home safe. That is home. That’s family.
There is still a lot to debrief (and more interviews to share here if they are of interest) and I'm running on a severe sleep deficit myself, but I want to remind myself to post some of the initial observations about trying to bring a rich F2F conference experience to a virtual audience to complement their online interactions. I won't finish now, but here is a start.
There is more. But no more active brain cells for tonight. Remind me to share another day of the next hybrid online/offline/online events I'm working on. Two more starting this week through November! WOo hoo!
I was sitting in the “Virtual Conference Miami Home Base” reading posts in the online space when a smiling gentleman asked to use one of the computers to check his email. Seeing that he was from Brasil, and I know some Portuguese and love Brasilians, I said hello. Then I saw he was from Nutrimento and I asked if I could interview him as soon as he finished his email. He graciously said yes. I had remembered David Cooperrider mentionting this amazing company in his opening keynotel
Now, you need to know that at 46, I often forget names. I did not happen to notice that the gentleman was none other than the leader of Nutrimento and a great force in the AI community. I got lucky!
We had a wonderful conversation in both English and Portuguese. We’ll see if my translation is adequate! Smile. Blame the bumps on me!
I asked Roderigo to tell me a bit of how he brought and wove AI into Nutrimento, a consumer foods company based in Curitaba, Brasil. Here is what he told me:
In 97 we began, 7 years ago. The response was very good, very fast. We were in a difficult epoch in the industry. There was a great change in the economy, a changed market, and we had to reinvent our company. There were issues with capital and credit. We had to finance this change. Others more experience were in the market were already in the market.
We looked for an asset we could use to help us into new business, a new understanding of the company, a new form of the organization. We made a big change of culture, and a change in technology. We had to get new knowledge areas. We had the idea of transforming the organization into something different than the traditional business. A learning organization.
We needed a form of strategy to do that so we adopted AI.
After the process, we were renewed. We became more profitable. In four years, we grew 6 times over. We built the capacity to keep this alive. We found the changes we needed to make to reposition in the market. (Nutrimento was a business to business company and shifted to direct consumer convenience foods – a major shift!)
This shift required new skills. This movement continues, the people, all the people, continue to apply the methodology. Day by day. We also use the Balanced Scorecard. It fits with AI very well. The scorecard process was built in a shared way. We are using it as a strengths based tool. It translates the strategy of the company -- the strategy that was built in a shared way by the company We chose the indicators. We designed the profit sharing. Profit sharing is becoming usual in Brasil. More now than 4-5 years ago. Ours includes all the people. One of the scorecard core learning area is is appreciative culture.
--- My experience with Brasilian culture 30 years ago was that it was a very social and collaborative culture so I asked if the Brasilian culture helped in the adoption?
Yes, AI fits with Brasilian culture. For instance, when we installed the balanced score card, we did that in 5-6 months and it usually takes 2 years. The same happened when we changed our information platform. From mainframe to AS400 platform. We made the shift in 5-6 months. When we install new tools, like ABC costing, that usually takes 2-3 years and a lot of training, we did it in 6 months. People are very collaborative. The change is fast.
The people of Nutrimento have built a culture that enjoys learning. It has now happened in the organization I now head, the Federacao de Industrias do Parana. It is a business organization. Now I have the power of sponsoring. I can sponsor change in many companies, many institutions at the same time. Because we are doing that, we have success because the Brasilian people accept the AI approach.
I love what I am doing. At that time, when involved with Nutrimental’s transformation, it was a very exciting time, but now, it is even more exciting. The impact is many times larger. To give you an idea, this association has 5000 industries. More than 500,000 people. A big sphere of influence. Technical schools. 100,000 students. Introducing AI in the schools now. Preparing staff, and the structure, the infrastructure. Able to deliver AI services for the whole system.
Working on the idea of disseminating this to many organizations to create community, to facilitate more learning, like Peter Senge writes, we sustain the changes by moving them through the system.
----What’s your dream?
To see most of the human organizations in my area, my place, being learning organizations. And surely the AI process should be one of the key levers For creating and sustaining and continuous evolution.
At a country level, surely if it happens, when it happens and consolidates in Parana, it will spread for the rest of the country. When something works, it spreads quickly. President Lula creates a council of advisors to deal with social and economic development. I am one member. It is a learning council… yes. We had a meeting with AI last year, I suggested and it was adopted in one moment last year, one summit. IN September. President Lula didn’t participate, his minister did. He enjoyed it very much. We created a vision of Brasil. The group meets once a month, looks at the issues the presidents wants consultation on. It’s up to him to accept or not. Not a deliberative consultation. Advisory. Can influence.
----- I asked Rodrigo if he had a message to the folks online.
I think that to develop a new style of leadership, is an imperative for change. And appreciative inquiry one very effective process for allowing the space and opportunity for this kind of leader to emerge. It’s not a matter, it is not enough of a new style of leaders. We also need new kind of organization, a flexible, learning organization. For this purpose also fits very well. Also it needs techniques for management, steering and managing the day to day; and the changes. Again AI has the capability of using the current tools with a new perspective, use them higher purpose.
I think that in my experience, AI works well in these three dimensions: leadership style, organizational development, enlightened management.
Before I share my interview with Sue, it is important to consider she was in Australia during the conference, 18 hours out of synch with the F2F event. Yet Sue hosted EVERY live chat with presenters. I think her average number of hours of sleep never got above 2. She gave her heart and soul to this wild experiement and really did an amazing job.
1. Sue, tell me a little bit about how you came to working with AI? Where did your AI journey begin?
My own AI journey began about 18 months or so ago, when I was browsing in St Luke's Innovative Resources bookshop here in Victoria and came across the Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry. I started reading as much as I could - and indeed, think I've added to the shares I should have in Amazon as a result! :-)
I then had a six week trip to the US last October-November - a self-funded "study tour". During this trip, along with some other things I was doing, I met with a number of wonderful people involved with AI and have remained in contact with them ever since. I also attended PCC's Leap of Faith gathering in Cleveland at the end of my trip - and that has also been a fantastic network with which to be involved, along with AIC, which I joined last February.
Through all of this, I have increasingly incorporated AI in my own work - though not necessarily the full AI process or cycle, certainly the principles and spirit of AI has permeated almost everything I have been doing. As far as I'm concerned, encountering AI felt rather like "coming home" to me - and it has certainly become more a way of being, rather than a tool or technique!
2. What are you personally most looking forward to in the online conference?
I had hoped I might get to Miami - but my budget woudn't stretch to another overseas trip this year. It therefore made sense for me to volunteer for the online conference planning team and help to make this online conference a wonderful and exciting event for everyone - including myself! :-) I am mostly looking forward to learning more about what is happening around the world with AI - much as I did in the BAWB conference last January. For me, it is also very exciting to have this sense of global community - no more so than with our wonderful hosting team. Twenty two volunteers, who have come together from the US, Canada, Israel, Hong Kong, the UK, Australia and New Zealand! That in itself is something that gives me a great thrill, so working with this team is also something I have very much looked forward to from a personal perspective.
3. What are you most paying attention to, as mistress of ceremonies for the online event? How do you see your role unfolding?
My role so far has been to support the team of online hosts, coordinating the hosting timetable and making sure they are comfortable and experienced with the online environment etc. That support role will of course remain a priority for me throughout the conference. I am also acting as moderator for the online chats with presenters, so that is another role for which I've had to prepare - for example learning appropriate chat protocols to manage the conversation with a large number of people online in chat at once. Another thing I am doing is keeping an eye on all the various conversations and topics in the online environment, making links as appropriate, adding relevant items or discussion threads to the library etc. So far I've not done as much of that as I'd like - the hosting coordination has been my first priority of course. However as hosts log on for their later shifts, they'll be more than able to go it themselves, so my support role should diminish. :-) That's when I will be paying even more attention to creating appropriate links and connections between the various elements of the conference environment - particularly as it becomes even more populated with different posts and conversations etc.
4. What would you most like to know about going on in the F2F space.
The things that will be most beneficial to know about the F2F space will no doubt be those that are not being otherwise posted to the online environment. For example, not all the Round Table or Plenary sessions are being added to the online space - so it would be great to have some sense of connection with those "other" sessions that are not automatically included for the online conference. It would also be a wonderful thing if as many of the f2f participants as possible could be encouraged to log on and join in the online discussions - adding their insights and perspectives from the point of view of someone "on the ground" in Miami. :-)
Here is a picture of Sue! 
I got home last Thursday from the International Appreciative Inquiry conference and have been zooming a million miles an hour on projects. Still, I wanted to share a few more of the stories I captured at the event.
I caught up with Jane Magruder Watkins during a break of her pre-conference workshop. We chatted over a cup of coffee. Jane is filling the role of F2F Mistress of Ceremonies or "Weaver." I wanted to interview her and her online complement, Sue James in Australia. Here is my conversation with Jane.
1. Jane, tell me a little bit about how you came to working with AI? Where did your AI journey begin?
I have the best story of all. It is kind of a long one. I had been doing work with experiential education in the international development arena. Had done a project with women in Kenya with my organization, the Church Center. The bishops giving me to train. The women say why are you training men, we do the development work. You get a group of women, I’ll find the money to train. 20 women over a period of time through all kinds of training. Began to work out in the villages in indigenous languages.
We began the project by taking 10 Americans over to Kenya who new experiential education and joined 12 Kenyan women who knew Kenya. We spent 2 weeks together getting to be friends, learning about each other, methods, culture, and thinking how to adapt methods to the local culture. We created pilots in four places. Leadership training. We came back together and took the field learnings factored them into the plan, and sent them back out to do it again. Then we wrote a manual. This was such an amazing experience.
I have a very dear friend, a filmmaker. She did Reds, Coming Home, a real Hollywood film person. Doe Mayer walked away from her job and had gone to Zimbabwe to do training films for women. She just pulled up stakes and went. A mutual friend told me she was in Zimbabwe. I contacted and said, I hear you are making films. I don’t have any money, but I’d love to you see this project. She said, if you just get me enough to cover expenses, I’ll do it for you. We cobbled together the money. She found a film company that wanted to train new staff, so the could do it for less than nothing. We put it together the project. She called me about 2 weeks before we were supposed to start. Can you spring for one more airline ticket? Her best friend Mary, an editor, wants to edit the film. She had just finished “Children of a Lesser God.” We ended up with this beautiful film of these women.
Later at a NTL conference in Florida, I was doing a presentation with this little film. David Cooperrider showed up. This was 1984. Maybe 85. He was in the last year of his PhD program. There were only 7 people in the room. At the end of the film, he said, that’s really fabulous. I do have one question. Isn’t it arrogant for Americans to go over there and tell them what to do? I said yes, if we had done that, but if we go with good will they accept you with open arms and you learn from each other. He said he was working with something I might be interested in. An old friend of mine John Carter had been using it up in Canada,. He and Veronica were doing a presentation. So we trot over to hear about AI. First time they had presented their work as the first OD consultants taking the process to the field. I could see instantly the value. I had been helping organizations rearrange deck chairs on Titanic for years. I knew that problem solving wasn’t working. But because of working overseas with other cultures, you have to innovate. People won’t tell you what is wrong. It is culturally inappropriate. A week later, David called me. “I’ve decided I don’t want to do corporate work. I want to focus on global social change orgs. Will you help me?” That was the beginning of our work together in 84. He put together an organization at Case Western, what is now called SIGMA, a free standing organization to take grants etc. He got five students to do a research project. Got them to go out and research 5 global social change organizations using AI. Greenpeace, Physicians Against Nuclear War, ICA, etc. They spent a year. Then we did a large conference at Case Western. All kinds of people came to look at appreciative processes for organizational change, particularly global social change.
Not too long after that Ada Jo Mann – managing partner for AIC called me with a project training NGOs and PVOs. In the process of putting it together they said we needed to get a university involved and we should go talk to Harvard. I said lets go to Case Western and talk to Dave Cooperrider. They picked David. That was the beginning of an 8 year project taking AI all over the world, applying and adapting the process. It was during this time we developed the Four D process along with Global Excellence in Management. So I am one of the old timers David and I consider each other as mentors. We’ve done a lot of good work together, and are fond of each other.
2. What are you personally most looking forward to in the F2F conference?
Lots of things. I’m Really looking forward to David’s opening talk because I think there is a shift in the air and I think he is starting to document it. The global compact work with the UN. The Roadway work. Threads there of what we are seeing. It is not just a willingness to use a different process, but organizations are seeing that this is the way of the world, that the world is shifting. Or we are starting to notice it. I’m really looking forward to what he has to say. I always enjoy and learn from him. He is a wonderful theoretician. He writes in complex language. If you can hear him talk, it is fabulous. You can get it. I’m also noticing the size of this workshop, 10 people. (Jane and Ralph were doing the “Introduction to AI Preconf Workshop during this interview.) We did this two years ago with 70 people in the room. What that says to me that huge numbers of people have done the basics. They are ready for the next level.
3. What are you most paying attention to, as mistress of ceremonies for the online event? How do you see your role unfolding?
I think part of what I hope to do is to have people feel comfortable and welcome. To set a tone of casualness. We are all doing this together. There is no right or wrong way. A grand experiment. The other is just to have fun. I loved the last conference. All my best closest buds. I love working with them and hanging. Looking forward to introducing David.
4. What would you most like to know about going on in the online space?
I _am_ part of the online. (She said that with a big smile.) Since I can’t be online all the time I’d like to know as the weaver, who can represent you here, what questions do you have, what comments, what messages you want to send to the crowd. If you all want to send messages in and it’s too many to read, we’ll read some of them and post the rest of them. If you want to buddy up with someone here at the conference we can make that offer. Maybe the ends of the days have a conversation about the day.
Jane's partner, Ralph, caught this great picture of Jane, hard a work. Ada Jo is in the background! 
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