Dear Colleagues in ONE listserv,
We have one PDW for the upcoming 2008 AoM conference in Anaheim of particular organization development and change concerns for environmental issues. Scholars and practitioners will learn to develop change strategies using various media and methods of inquiry to examine the singular issue of business as a social agent in sustainability. Please forward the information to interested colleagues and students.
Best, Kuo Yu
All Academy PTC PDW Chair
“Ways of Seeing: Appreciative Inquiry, Visuals, Aesthetics & "World Cafe" as Change Agents.” The session will be held on Friday, August 8 from 1:00PM - 5:00PM at the Anaheim Marriott in Marquis Northwest.
The theme “The Questions We Ask” begs us to inquire the methods or media we use to engage a topic or a problem. This PDW called “Ways of Seeing” foregrounds a wide range of media and inquiry methods that a researcher or practitioner can employ to engage a topic or problem. Different inquiry methods assume different presuppositions to a problem, forcing us to self-reflectively address: “Are we asking the wrong questions?” “Are we holding the right attitude toward the questions?” and “Are we seeing the big picture?” Examples of inquiry methods and media showcased here include appreciative inquiry, visual representations of organizations, aesthetics and artful conversation, and “the World Cafe.” All these inquiry methods access organizational realities in different ways, allowing different ways of seeing and enriching different possibilities to surface. In particular, they empower subjugated voices, encourage envisioning of positive realities, and foster creative thinking that unshackles assumptions because of the new playing fields these inquiry methods bring forth. Furthermore, they provide powerful consulting and change tools to unfreeze organizational members from current barriers and to re-imagine new possibilities, enhancing support for a given initiative or major change.
The highly interactive format of this PDW allows for the audience to meet with experts in their respective fields to learn and experience first-hand, visual representation, appreciative inquiry, and artful conversation.
The chairs and organizers are:
Kuo Frank Yu; U. of California, Berkeley
Ronald Fry; Case Western Reserve U.
Rochelle Mucha; Business as Performance Art
The presenters and their affiliations are as follows:
Frank J. Barrett; Naval Postgraduate School
Michael Stark; Visual Ink
Kevin Woodson; Visual Ink
Dan Jumanan; Visual Ink
Thomas J. Hurley; World Cafe Community Foundation
James D Ludema; Benedictine U.