A Recipe for Massive Transformation

The topics of two upcoming events recently featured in our pages illustrate what we believe is a very powerful combination.

Each story featured the use of Appreciative Inquiry (AI). First: in organizations as an effective change-management strategy. Second: as applied to media.

AI pivots on one question: if you want to inspire, mobilize and sustain human energy, which is the most effective way – by focusing on problems or pursuing possibilities?

At an upcoming event in Washington this fall, participants are gathering to share stories about how AI has had an impact on corporations, government, non-profits, schools, health care, communities and individuals.

The event, which marks the 10-year anniversary of the global consultancy firm AI Consulting, will also ask participants to explore the future role of AI in the world. Given that the conference is about how AI is applied in organizations, the power of strengths-based organizations to make the most of opportunities presented to us by social and environmental challenges will likely be amplified.

Organizations are, after all, the most effective way for people to work together and achieve results. Organizations that engage in conversations and dialogue about their strengths, successes, values, hopes and dreams are more likely to draw on these in all situations, as well as when they imagine and create their preferred future.

That strengths-based organizations are the key agents of social benefit, and our greatest hope for change and growth, is beyond our doubt.

A second exciting event, Images and Voices of Hope (IVOH) World Summit, will focus on the potential a strengths-based media has as an agent of world benefit. Imagine what would happen if media changed its lens and became all about amplifying strengths and successes? What would happen if media conducted their inquiries with an appreciative eye?

The mainstream media, which informs much of our understanding of reality as well as our day-to-day conversations and perceptions, holds a powerful piece of the puzzle.

Reality is defined by what we choose to see, think, talk about and act upon. We have the capacity to create the kind of future we desire. A media that understands this can begin to turn its attention from diverting and demoralizing news to meaningful engagement. Problems can still be addressed, but within an opportunity framework.

We believe unprecedented, transformative change would take place if there were sufficient uptake of AI in both of these broad and influential sectors of society.

So far, though, we’ve been talking about two separate spheres, organizations and media, each becoming strengths-based. But what if they were not always separate? This offers up even more mind-boggling potential.

When we ask ourselves the question what can AI bring to the world next, we at Axiom News move from our natural, hybrid-like vantage point. We are a news agency that provides organizations with strengths-based Stakeholder News services. Our instinctive answer to the question is this: imagine what would happen if strengths-based media worked in intricate and intimate ways with strengths-based organizations?

Organizations that establish their own media to ask these questions and amplify success centered on their specific missions pose a unique configuration. Regular inquiry and story-sharing of their strengths and accomplishments will transform their cultures, intention, and effectiveness.

A naturally self-organizing news network spreading the strength-based stories of many organizations is not at all hard to imagine. It’s not even hard to imagine it occurring at a global level. It is truly remarkable to consider what might be achieved with such a massive change of mind.