Are students cheating? This inquiry is only one of many conundrums being discussed between two educators on morning walks. Sometimes the conversation steers itself to deeper issues: How do we handle our own aging selves much less the dynamics of aging parents? But at the beginning of an academic year, as we listen to presentations …
Category: Appreciative Inquiry
Die of Curiosity
Although it happens to everyone, without exception, most people avoid the subject of death. Our culture, as Louise Aronson shares in her book Elderhood, prefers to remove itself from the uncomfortable topic that all life does come to an end. “It’s a rare family in which at least one person doesn’t know how to care …
How You Doin?
For viewers of the 1990s sitcom Friends, Joey Tribbiani altered lives forever with his phrase, “How You Doin?” According to Adrienne Tyler, “Joey shared his ‘foolproof’ technique, in which he would look a woman up and down and say ‘how you doin?’ Rachel and Phoebe were skeptical, but when he tried it on Pheobe, she …
Asking Over Assuming
Recently, I was the beneficiary of several intriguing insights while engaging in a Walk and Talk with Makayla, one of which relates to how we both delight when an author uses a phrase that captures a concept we’ve been mulling over, especially when we have been struggling to articulate it in a specific way. Even …
Stick With It
Understanding that self-reflection, for some, is not considered an enjoyable or worthwhile activity, I hope you will indulge me today. Perhaps this question will not be too challenging as you consider your life up to this point: Is there an activity you’ve faithfully engaged in, something that now you are grateful you were able to …
Stay Interviews
In my opinion, one of the most intriguing questions that can be asked in the process of Appreciative Inquiry is “What does a great day look like for you?” When it’s posed to coaches applying for a position in the athletic department, it can serve as a gauge for how relational their leadership style is …
Devaluing the Past
For the 10 years I was blessed to be a Creative Memories Consultant, one of the worthwhile benefits of this endeavor was to hear people’s stories. It is inevitable that sifting through photographs for placement on a scrapbook page, I would be regaled with the narrative behind the photo, or the person, or the experience. …
Buried Pipes
Perhaps today’s concern arises out of the fact that as days go by, I am finding myself more and more often as one of the older people in the room. Yes, I am fully aware that I am not in my twenties anymore but spending the majority of the day immersed with Emerging Generations, there …
Whiny Disposition
Conducting a quick search through both previous posts and as-yet-unpublished posts, I can confidently share that I am a consistent human being. If I share an annoyance or a struggle, it typically appears repeatedly in various iterations, so perhaps the post Whine or Worship sufficiently covered this topic; however, a recent reading, combined with an …
I Quit
Dear University President, I Quit…those words appear on a sheet of paper rolling upward from an old manual green typewriter on the front cover of a workbook created by Jeffrey L. Buller for ATLAS leadership training which addresses the Great Resignation that is currently being experienced in higher education. In the following pages, Buller shares …
Flourishing @ Life 