Introduction - Define
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Søren Kierkegaard
Many patterns of behaviours are only visible and can only be understood looking back. To really learn a lesson from an action and to grow personally and professionally, reflection is the key to success.
The project "Learning Review" focusses on the reflection on my first Action Learning Cycle with Gaia University. It is very valuable to consciously reflect at the end of the entire Action Learning Cycle to evaluate outcomes, discover learning edges, reflect on best practices and challenges and outline next steps for my upcoming Action Learning Cycle.The reflection should enable me to consciously expand my learning capacities as well as push forward my edges in terms of pathway management, OP production and project skills.
I chose Appreciative Inquiry (see description below) as a guiding process, because I wanted to reflect in a positive and appreciative way.
OP5 Design-Appreciative Inquiry
Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a powerful, value-driven process, created for team or organization development. AI always focuses on a positive core by appreciating all circumstances that life already gives. This involves asking questions that strengthen a systems capacity to heighten positive potential. AI was developed in the 1980s by David Coperrider in the United States.
Appreciative = valuing; the act of recognizing the best in people
Inquiry = the act of exploration and discovery
AI has four stages, which are:
1. Discover: The identification of organizational processes that work well.
2. Dream: The envisioning of processes that would work well in the future.
3. Design: Planning and prioritizing processes that would work well.
4. Destiny: The implementation of the proposed design.
The XMind “Appreciative Inquiry” on the right shows how I designed the content of this OP.
Design Process for OP 5
To design my Learning Review and to produce OP5, I used AI as a positive method to reflect about the past year. Because my project is a review, I used AI in a reflective way and asked myself several questions in each phase:
Define: What is the topic? Where do I want to move?
1. Discover: What did work well in regard to my first Action Learning Cycle? What has meaning for me? What are my best practises? Reflect about the year!
2. Reflective Dream: What were my dreams in the LIPD? What were my goals? How did I reach them?
3. Reflective Design: What was my ideal organisation?
4. Reflective Destiny: How did I implement my design? What was the best experience? What were the most interesting and effective techniques? What do I still want to learn?
In the following I will present each phase of the AI on a separate page .
Appreciative Inquiry
Reflection of Appreciative Inquiry
Working with Appreciative Inquiry for the second time was a very interesting experience. In the beginning I looked for an appropriate design process and I chose Appreciative Inquiry, because I liked the positive core of this process. I wanted to reflect on the past year in a positive way, because I think having positive memories of the past and emphasize all the good things is very important.
In the beginning I was a little confused how to talk about problems and challenges and I needed to find an appropriate space for them. In the end my solution was to see problems and challenges as learning opportunities and integrate them into the appreciation.
Another challenge was that in the beginning I did not know how to apply the process in a reflective way and I rearranged it. After talking to my Main Advisor I realized that no changes should be applied and I decided to use AI in the way it is meant to be.
I looked at the phases of dream, design and destiny in a reflective way, which was a little challenging, but in the end I understood how it works. I really liked that I could creatively add several question to each phase. Through the positive approach completely different questions came up than I expected in the beginning.