This 14-lesson book equips educators and facilitators with the tools to teach Appreciative Inquiry in diverse multicultural settings. Designed as a practical guide, it offers 15 engaging exercises to cultivate a positive mindset and develop a valuable skill, empowering others through inspirational, thought-provoking questions. By fostering strengths-based conversations, this book helps trainers create inclusive learning environments where participants can explore possibilities, build connections, and drive meaningful change. Whether working with students, community groups, or professional teams, this resource provides a structured yet adaptable approach to facilitating transformative dialogue.
The first part of the book offers tools that help you to
work on yourself and understand better the essence of your interaction with others. The second part of the book builds on that skill and offers additional tools to help others to see their strengths, get inspired, and enter into a transformative dialogue with you.
This 14-lesson book equips educators and facilitators with the tools to teach Appreciative Inquiry in diverse multicultural settings. Designed as a practical guide, it offers 15 engaging exercises to cultivate a positive mindset and develop a valuable skill, empowering others through inspirational, thought-provoking questions. By fostering strengths-based conversations, this book helps trainers create inclusive learning environments where participants can explore possibilities, build connections, and drive meaningful change. Whether working with students, community groups, or professional teams, this resource provides a structured yet adaptable approach to facilitating transformative dialogue.
The first part of the book offers tools that help you to
work on yourself and understand better the essence of your interaction with others. The second part of the book builds on that skill and offers additional tools to help others to see their strengths, get inspired, and enter into a transformative dialogue with you.
This book is dedicated to the group of smart, considerate, inquisitive, mischievous, funny, and endlessly resilient children of Artsakh who helped me to shape and structure it. In September of 2022, we started our regular online classes in Appreciative Inquiry with the middle- and high-school children from various villages in the Martuni and Martakert districts of Artsakh, also known as Nagorno Karabakh. I used Jacqueline Kelm’s book, The Joy of Appreciative Living: Your 28-Day Plan to Greater Happiness Using the Principles of Appreciative Inquiry, and created a ten-slide presentation with the intention of discussing one slide a week over the course of 10 weeks. The information from those slides is presented at the beginning of each Lesson in Part 2 of this book. (I called them “Jacqueline Kelm’s Commandments.”) On December 12, 2022, Artsakh was cut from the rest of the world and the children of Artsakh became hostages of dirty politics that took the lives of their parents and relatives. We were about to finish the class and go to the Holiday Season celebrations when the blockade of the Lachin Corridor started. The students asked me to continue our weekly classes throughout the Christmas vacation. The structure of the classes that followed was based on their questions and, especially, their needs at that traumatic time. I am immensely thankful to my students and their local teachers who gave me lessons in resilience, forgiveness, and deep, sincere appreciation. I am also infinitely thankful to the Armenian communities in Vermont, Massachusetts and California, as well as to US legislators, the UN, and the Red Cross for helping to keep these children alive during their forcible displacement from their home. A separate acknowledgment should be given to Doctor Lucia Babayants, who provided huge psychological support and grief therapy once the children arrived safely in Armenia. Finally, my deepest thankfulness goes to the people of Armenia, who hosted my students and their parents, and opened their hearts for them to make sure their relocation and transition took place as smoothly and painlessly as possible.
Communication is key to survival in the modern world. Especially in circumstances where people of multiple ethnic backgrounds work to create a better future, communication can greatly impact teamwork and results. And in situations where the team has faced adversity such as natural disaster, economic hardship, or war, the need for clear, effective, and empathetic communication is key to success. This compact guide is written with just such scenarios in mind, offering bite-sized lessons that facilitate discussion and introduce the concept of appreciative communication.
The Power of Appreciative Communication by Arpi Arus offers a unique perspective on communication. Written by an author who has experienced the complexities of multi-ethnic teamwork and the difficulties of war firsthand, this guidebook introduces another way to listen and be heard. The first few lessons break down basic communication styles, explaining the differences and parallels between them. From there, the lessons explain the core of appreciative communication: looking at problems through a positive lens and with a positive mindframe. Instead of presenting issues negatively such as "we must stop crime", the book shows how to reframe the same idea positively, for example, "promoting a safe environment in our city." By switching up how we look at problems, we can find new and innovative solutions. By pairing this positive outlook with genuine listening skills, teams can enhance each other's strengths and work to minimize potential problems before they escalate.
This guidebook gives a plethora of examples to support its lessons, from real-world examples to classic fables. This is a book that challenges the reader to think outside the box, presenting morally complex situations to examine and numerous questions to reframe. While the example about lying to save lives made me a touch uncomfortable, the book shows that communication contains a lot of nuance, especially in ethically murky situations. On the whole, this is a book that shows a reader how think rather than what to think, challenging readers to find unique viewpoints as they explore new methods of communication.
A great resource for students 12 and up who are emotionally mature enough to absorb lessons about complex ethics, motivation, and awareness in communication, this entry-level guide is a great place to start a journey in appreciative communication. This book mentions real examples of war and its impact on children, as well as hostage situations and bomb shelters. These incidents are presented with empathy, but may trigger readers who have encountered similar scenarios. Whether you utilize this book in school, a business setting, or simply for personal edification, this compact lesson guide is here to challenge how you think.