The Dalai Lama, when asked what most surprised him about humanity answered: "Man”. "Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money, then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about his future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived."

This quote puts our actual times beautiful in perspective. We certainly live in economic bad times, no discussion about that. Some countries are suffering, but, other countries are doing well. Some companies are doing poorly while other companies make record profits. Many people live with less or low income, some are doing better.

Which politicians for their country, which manager for their company, is not only complaining about these bad times and reacting with cutting costs, taking measures to downsize and so on?

What is actually missing?

Real leadership is missing! Many leaders lack the vision to offer perspectives, something that motivates their people to give 100% or even more, for a better future of either their country or company.

If I ask why so many do not take any initiative, why so many do not look at those better examples to find out what they are doing better and to learn from that; why so many do not think about their own strengths’ and work further on that, well, on questions like that, you know what the standard answer is? ‘Welcome to Croatia’ or ‘This is Croatia’!

I cannot imagine this, it is also taking leadership yourself. Accepting a situation you are not happy with is never unchangeable, and I definitely believe that it can be improved. Of course, a situation created over a period of some years cannot be improved within a few weeks. It takes patience and belief, but, if many people are involved and getting committed, improvement will happen. The alternative, doing nothing and waiting for…. eh, for what?? is certainly not improving anything.

What do I see?

If I look at successful Governments, successful Boards and Management Teams then I see what these leaders are supposed to do, they create good teams. These leaders recognise that they cannot do anything on their own, they realise that they need their people with their ambitions, their knowledge, their expertise and, that these ‘human resources’ are there to be used. After all, that is also what they are paid for, to think, to be creative, to be pro-active and to act

What is important about team development?

Teams, teamwork and teambuilding are important topics in all size companies these days. We work in teams to bring the best people and resources to a situation. We come with different skill sets, personalities and motivations, so it is always dynamic.

It is very exciting to have a rich diversity of minds and emotions working on tasks and projects together. With the valuable diversity we have in our communities we know that personality preferences, thinking styles, social interactions, belief systems and values impact how we relate.

The values of trust, respect and appreciation for differences are still required, and even more so in virtual environments. It is also important to recognize that the ‘right’ way or the ‘only’ way is not the domain of one person or one group anymore.

What is important about cooperation?

Cooperation refers to people coming together to produce something they all contribute to in a variety of ways. Increasingly in our global knowledge economy, with virtual teams spread across the world representing different cultures, the need for productive cooperation is a topic of enormous interest.

Connecting all stakeholders (employees, clients, customers, and suppliers) is a trend we experience as a great development in our daily lives. Collaboration, cooperation, networking are more and more the basics for organisations to become and to stay successful. We have technologies to help us access more information, to generate our own content on blogs, and participate on others’ blogs, wiki’s, social networking spaces and so on. This way of working in cyberspace is location neutral. We could be sitting across in a room or somewhere in the world in a different time zone.

Effectiveness and results come when people have clear goals, clear roles, clear leadership processes and clear articulated responsibilities.

It is necessary to be open and flexible to outcomes that are unknown and unpredictable, and to hold the belief that we are all doing the best we can, with the resources we have, working together toward that shared goal. Fortunately there are leaders in Croatia who envision this and try to establish this culture in their company; we talk with them about Appreciative Inquiry as an approach that helps to create this pleasure of working together on mutual results. But, ‘it always takes two to tango’, a leader is also dependent of his/her employees. They need to find each other and build on openness and trust in each other.

What are some important developments about Appreciative Inquiry?

Many beautiful things around Appreciative Inquiry (AI) happened and are still happening these months and I like to give some information on that because they are signs of hope for every one of us. If we could try to look at developments from a different, a more positive perspective, we can gain a lot. And not only signs of hope, actually opportunities for people, organisations and CEO’s, who have the vision to build with their employees and who want to start creating teamwork in their organisations. To face the challenges of becoming a strong party in the competing market which the European Union is.

And this European Market is coming closer and closer, ‘it is June 2013 tomorrow’. Fortunately there are some Companies and Boards who are prepared and still preparing. It will be way different as the Croatian way of managing your company, organising your daily workflow, leading your people, a different way of strategic thinking, doing business, establishing your company culture and so on.

Let me give some examples:

Croatia - Metro C&C

To start in Croatia, Metro Cash & Carry was elected as the best Employer in the category of large companies with DM second and Kozmo at the third place in the recent Mojposao survey.

After many times DM ending as first, I think the AI-project we did in Metro helped a lot to get Metro at the first place this year and I congratulate all the people of Metro C&C and both their former and present CEO.

At http://learningeurope.eu/  you can download the e-book with 27 AI-case studies from around Europe with the Metro case on page 69.

Croatia - Opatija

From 18 - 20 April the third Croatian Congress for Supervision took place which was excellent organised by Mrs. Marina Ajduković, Head of Social Work department at University of Zagreb and President of the Program commission. Some 250, most psychologists came together to exchange about their profession. I was privileged to lead a workshop about Appreciative Inquiry which is a new subject for the 73 participants in the workshop. And they were very excited and wanted to learn more about this. We will work on that starting in September.

Belgium - Gent

Another great event took place in Gent, Belgium from 24-28 April where the 5^th World Appreciative Inquiry Congress was held. 640 participants from 46 countries, representing every continent around the globe met here to exchange developments and practices from many different sectors. Participants were managers, practitioners, consultants, teachers, professors, and people working in HRM and Organisation development etc. exchanging about many different projects they worked on. Let me give you just two complete different kinds of examples.

A beautiful project is ‘Imagine Cleveland’ where a ‘doomed’ town in the US became a very prosperous city after 10 years collaboration of all people involved in an AI process, from the Mayor and all inhabitants, from the local companies to the environmental activists. It is just one of many successful similar examples. I imagined starting similar projects here in Croatia.

There were also examples of small schools like in Belgium, Australia and Norway, where teachers, students, parents and financial institutions came together in AI projects to develop the best education program for the students and they realised it in 2-4 years; the results of one school were presented by 3 Norwegian students from 13-16 years of age.

The working papers of this World Congress are now on-line for free downloading at: http://www.2012waic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/2012WAIC_PAPERS_BINDER_WEB.pdf

It is a total of 471 pages, but it is great stuff and I am sure you will find some inspiration for your sector.

Croatia - Zagreb

From 30 May till 2 June, Zagreb will host the 13^th European Appreciative Inquiry network meeting. This event is sponsored by Vern University of Applied Sciences and we will offer a great program for participants from 10 European countries including Croatia. We will exchange about what we learned at the World Congress and work on further professionalization of the European Network. Most European countries have a national AI network Association; Croatia however does not have one. 

At this meeting we will formally announce the approved founding of HUAI, Hrvatska Udruga za Appreciative Inquiry. And of course people can become a member to participate in a learning and development community that, based on the mission and vision, has high ambitions to support people, organisations and institutions in Croatia.

Another high point in the program is that we visit 6 Croatian companies in different sectors to offer free AI consultancy. We asked the Boards of these companies for their most urgent strategic problem and we will exchange with these Boards in an AI approach. These are all great companies that are looking further ahead, have a challenging vision and are willing to invest time to learn something new.

USA - New economy of strengths’

In a time when many describe the new economy as increasingly complex and rapidly changing, amongst other even more negative adjectives, David Cooperrider is talking about “our new economy of strengths - a world where every asset and strength is instantly accessible with a click of the button.”

Cooperrider is Case Western Reserve University’s internationally renowned organizational behavior professor known for his strengths-focused Appreciative Inquiry strategy and research.

This past year he was honoured as the third and current Peter F. Drucker Distinguished Fellow for the Peter F. Drucker & Masatoshi Ito School of Management, part of Claremont Graduate University.

Cooperrider’s newest work, shared with professors Ron Fry of Case Western Reserve’s Weatherhead School of Management  and Peter Senge of MIT, is the application of AI and large scale strengths-based approaches for the creation of sustainable cities and green economic design.

Most recently he is facilitating a game-changer project in Cleveland, Ohio, the goal of which is to make the city and area a “model of sustainability and a leader in the emerging green economy over the next nine years.” AI and the AI summit are at the core of this project.

Asked by Axiom News about the relevance and evolution of AI in today’s economy, Cooperrider describes how the philosophy and methodology, and particularly its whole-system approach, is a powerful tool for generating innovation, engagement and agility, all recognized as critical elements for thriving in the current economic environment.

“The logic of Appreciative Inquiry is simple,” says Cooperrider.

“If we live in a universe of strengths then we need management methods that are not just top down, nor just bottom up.  Appreciative Inquiry says there is a third form of management — and this, I deeply believe, is the future of management. It is not top down or bottom up but it is about the whole.

Good management, increasingly, is all about thinking in terms of configurations.”

Cooperrider gives an example of a manager at a trucking company calling for a planning session and, if he’s taking an AI approach, being sure to invite not only the leadership and front-line staff but also customers, supply chain partners and others, such as representatives from world class model organizations. “This is the Appreciative Inquiry management model of the future: every management act is propelled by configurations of strengths,” he says. “It’s a way of living what is called systems thinking - not just talking about systems thinking but living it, doing it, together.”

Cooperrider highlights that “Appreciative Inquiry is to self-organizing systems what deficit-focused management is to bureaucratic systems”. “Deficit analysis is about control and specialized separations. Appreciative Inquiry is about innovation and strengths-based configurations of wholes.  In short, creating is different than solving. “I’ve come to the conclusion you can never change things by solving yesterday’s problems,” says Cooperrider. “You change things by assembling new combination of strengths and then creating fresh designs that establish the new and eclipse the old.”

What does this mean?

Croatian leaders are more and more willing to change toward a modern way of leadership but often miss the ‘tools’, as well as the support within their own organisation. There is a big need to cooperate and to co-create a new vision based on the good external examples, combined with the best knowledge, experiences and creativity which is internal available; and there is much more of that than is recognised right now. The result should be that, paraphrasing the Dalai Lama, that we co-create a better common future so we can all live and enjoy a better present.

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