Our Journey with Positive Psychology and Appreciative Inquiry

Our Journey with Positive Psychology and Appreciative

Inquiry Rosanne Kerr, M.Ed.

Daniel Tomasulo, Ph.D.

Some Introductions

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. – Margaret Mead

Discover “What gives life?”

Appreciating the best of what is…

Dream “What might be?”

Brainstorming for our vision…

Design

“What should be?” Designing new models…

Destiny “How to empower, learn

and create/adjust?” Sustaining momentum …

Affirmative Topic Choice

Model the Appreciative Inquiry 4-D Process for Change

Discovery Phase

•  What are your strengths?

•  What are the strengths of your organization?

•  What is the best of what is? What should you keep as you move into the future?

Outcomes for This Workshop

“One among several purposes behind the use of stories in positive psychology is to bring research to life.”

D.J. Tomasulo and J.O. Pawelski (2012)

The Education to Empowerment Model (R. Biswas-Diener, 2010)

Ø Education – Applying the principles of positive Psychology & Appreciative Inquiry (AI) benefits your organization

Ø Inspiration – Share examples of how we brought Positive Psychology & Appreciative Inquiry research to life in our organization

Ø Empowerment – Show workshop participants that they also have the ability to implement positive psychology and AI initiatives in their organizations

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada

Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools

EAL Enrollment from 2007

Our Diversity

Our Student’s Stories

Goals of Interprofessional Mental Health Team •  Provide school-based mental health

supports for high school students with developmental disabilities and mental health challenges

Ø Reduce barriers to services Ø Increase capacity of school staff to support

students with a dual diagnosis Ø Implement an interprofessional approach to

provide more comprehensive mental health supports and service for students and families

Goals of Interprofessional Mental Health Team •  Provide an interprofessional practicum

opportunity for university students in (Nursing, Social Work, & Psychology) ü increase understanding of dual diagnosis

ü plant the seeds of advocacy for individuals with dual diagnosis in their future practice

ü increase competencies for interprofessional practice

Partnerships

•  Colleges of Nursing, Social Work, Educational and Clinical Psychology

•  Saskatoon Health Region •  Financial Grants from Canadian Institutes of

Health Research & the Interprofessional Health Collaborative of Saskatchewan

•  Ongoing support from GSCS

Meitheal •  Meitheal (Irish pronunciation: [ˈmɛhəәl]) is the Irish word for a

work team, gang, or party and denotes the co-operative labour system in rural Ireland where groups of neighbours help each other in turn with farming work, such as harvesting crops.

•  Neighbours who give their work to others are helped in turn with their own heavy seasonal tasks so the heart of the concept is community unity through cooperative work and mutually reciprocal support.

•  Meitheal is the Irish expression of the ancient and universal utilization of cooperation to social need and this is why we like the term Meitheal.

School Based Mental Health

•  Schools have the best opportunity to intervene with children and adolescents with dual diagnosis. (Prout, Handbook of Positive Psychology in Schools, 2009)

•  Prout (2005) describes this as a missed opportunity to intervene with children and adolescents with a dual diagnosis.

Where Our Journey Began

Social Skill Training Groups

IBT Groups

Positive IBT Groups

IBT Interactive –Behavioral Therapy Action Process In Group Work: 4 Stage Modification

•  Orientation •  Warm-up and Sharing •  Enactment •  Affirmation

IBT RESEARCH

•  More than a dozen studies have validated process & outcome using the IBT. Here are three studies focused on:

1.  Interaction 2.  Therapeutic Factors 3.  Global Assessment of Functioning

Reliability Ratings on Therapeutic Factors (Part of a Study by Ellen Keller, PsyD.)

1. Acceptance/cohesion .86 2. Universality .90 3. Altruism .76 4. Installation of hope .86 5.  Guidance 1.00 6.  Vicarious Learning/Modeling .45 7.  Catharsis .96 8. Imparting of information .91

An IBT Outcome Study

•  Linda Daniels, PSY.D. (J. of Psychotherapy Practice & Research 1998; 7:167-176)

•  IBT Treatment Vs.

•  Waiting List (20 subjects each)

•  16 sessions (50 minutes each)

Global Assessment of Functioning

TREATMENT Mean SD 43.88 (pre) 10.9 50.83 (post) 11.6 WAIT LIST Mean SD 43.94 (pre) 8.58 45.13 (post) 9.36

Canadian Positive Psychology Association (CPPA) Positive Psychology is the scientific study of what enables individuals and communities to thrive. Inaugural Conference July 20 and 21, 2012

Positive Psychology 101 Our Partners:

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada

The Saskatchewan Model

Flourish by Dr. Martin Seligman

“In a nine-day course, we first taught the teachers to use the skills in their own lives – personally and professionally – and then we gave examples and detailed curricula of how to teach them to children.” (Seligman, 2011)

Positive Psychology: Telling the Story for the First Time

Positivity Ratio

Positive Psychology

•  Choice •  Change •  Cultivate •  Create

Wrong to Strong

Some Key Outcomes of Positive Psychology 101 •  Partnerships initiated founded on

positive psychology principles (Saskatoon Health Region)

•  Research Opportunities ( U of S & U of R) •  Increased positive psychology training

opportunities for school division staff •  Continued collaboration with CPPA

Key Outcomes of Positive Psychology 101 •  Formation of Positive Psychology

Saskatchewan •  Positive Psychology Keynote at STA

Convention – 3000 teachers •  Positive Psychology 101 makes debut in

Regina Fall 2013 •  Appreciative Inquiry Summit – Building

Connections for Newcomer Success – 180 participants

Positive Psychology Benefits Students

Discover “What gives life?”

Appreciating the best of what is…

Dream “What might be?”

Brainstorming for our vision…

Design

“What should be?” Designing new models…

Destiny “How to empower, learn

and create/adjust?” Sustaining momentum …

Affirmative Topic Choice

Model the Appreciative Inquiry 4-D Process for Change

Dream

•  Building on the strengths that you identified previously in the Discovery Phase, identify a dream for your future or the future of your organization.

Jewel Net of Indra

“Indra’s Net is a web of relationships that sparkle

nourish and amplify… as does the Appreciative Inquiry approach to embracing and leading

organizational change.” (Cooperrider, et. al. 2010)

Appreciative Inquiry The Strengths Revolution in Management and the Leadership of Change “First we shape our structures and then our structures shape us. ” – Winston Churchill

Dr. David Cooperrider (2012)

•  It’s often been said that strengths perform, but how about the idea that…. strengths do more than perform, they transform.

Appreciative Inquiry in a Nutshell •  Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is a

collaborative search to identify and understand an organization’s strengths, its potentials, its greatest opportunities, and people’s hopes for the future.

•  AI is a philosophy, a system, and a methodology developed by Dr. David Cooperrider over 30 years ago.

Over 30 Published Applications Of Appreciative Inquiry

STRATEGIC  Opportunities  

ORGANIZATIONAL    CHANGE

TEAM  AND  LEADERSHIP  

DEVELOPMENT

• Strategic Planning and Visioning • Sustainable Enterprise • Customer Service • Product Development • Marketing and Branding • Mergers, Alliances and Customer Partnering • Process Improvement 3 • Whole Systems Change • Culture Change • Organizational Design • Innovation and Creativity • Diversity Programs • Cross Cultural Communications • Performance Management • Developing High Performance Teams • Collaborative Networks • Conflict Resolution • Rapid Design Events • Partnerships and Alliances • Leadership Development • Executive Coaching • Life/Career Coaching • Management Education

AI Has Four Key Processes

•  Discovering – an organization or group’s current strengths

•  Involving – all members of the group in designing the organization’s ideal future

•  Redesigning – the organization to reflect the first two

•  Using – the energy generated by the AI process to make things happen

Appreciative Inquiry (AI)

“We have reached the end of problem solving as a mode of inquiry capable of inspiring and sustaining human system change. The future belongs to methods that affirm, compel, and accelerate learning while including the voices of all the people who will be affected by the change.”

David Cooperrider

Appreciative Inquiry Summit

•  18 May 7, 2013

The  Appreciative  Inquiry  4-­‐‑D  Model  of  Positive  Change

•  Appreciate “Best of what is” •  Imagine “What might be” •  Design “What should be” •  Create “What will be”

•  Identify problem •  Conduct root cause analysis •  Brainstorm solutions &

analyze •  Develop treatment - action

plans or interventions

(deficit based change) (strengths-focused innovation) Deficit Management Appreciative Inquiry

Problem Metaphor: Organizations are machines “problems to be solved”

Mystery Metaphor: Living systems; webs of relatedness “worlds of infinite strengths”

It Is Time to Re-think Human Organization & Change Leadership

•  “The task of leadership is to create an alignment of strengths…making a system’s weaknesses irrelevant”. Peter Drucker

(Interview with David Cooperrider)

Outcomes from the “Building Connections for Newcomer Success Summit” •  The application of positive psychology research

and Appreciative Inquiry has allowed GSCS staff to shift their attention from a deficit focus, to building on student, staff, and organizational strengths.

•  Increased our awareness of the importance of providing opportunities to broaden our outreach to both inside and outside stakeholders when establishing or rebuilding programs.

It Created a Buzz Headline in Saskatoon StarPhoenix on May 8, the day after the summit …

“Meeting the EAL Challenge”

& Global Evening

News Story

Other Ways We Have Applied Appreciative Inquiry •  Team meetings •  Program reviews •  Professional growth plans – Feedforward

Interview Technique •  Large-scale community consultation

through an AI Summit

Discover “What gives life?”

Appreciating the best of what is…

Dream “What might be?”

Brainstorming for our vision…

Design

“What should be?” Designing new models…

Destiny “How to empower, learn

and create/adjust?” Sustaining momentum …

Affirmative Topic Choice

Model the Appreciative Inquiry 4-D Process for Change

Design

•  Building on your strengths, and keeping your dream(s) in mind, what could you design in your personal/professional life or for your organization?

In Conclusion

Like all good stories, we end where we began. “Happily ever after” is traditionally

the ending of a fictional story. But in positive psychology, it is the beginning of

the real story, because the writing and rewriting of the narratives of our lives is

one of the most powerful means available for moving toward greater happiness.

» D. J. Tomasulo and J. O. Pawelski (2012)

Discover “What gives life?”

Appreciating the best of what is…

Dream “What might be?”

Brainstorming for our vision…

Design

“What should be?” Designing new models…

Destiny “How to empower, learn

and create/adjust?” Sustaining momentum …

Affirmative Topic Choice

Model the Appreciative Inquiry 4-D Process for Change

Personal Reflections

Our journey continues. Your journey continues as well. Please narrate your ideas and what you have learned, using the following questions as a guide… One area of insight or learning for me was . . . The high point in the presentation for me was . . . One of the most important outcomes of this workshop in my view was . . .

Destiny: Personal Pledges for Action •  What is one message that you will communicate

to (your colleagues, employees, family, community)?

•  The smallest things I will do that will have the largest impact include . . .

•  One big hope as I leave this workshop is . . .

Questions …