Opening Plenary ~ Sunday
The Power of Appreciation in Great Leadership—
A Conversation with WARREN BENNIS

One of the foremost thinkers on the art and practice of leadership reveals how great leaders use the power of appreciation to unlock the living, positive genius in their organizations. Drawing on his remarkable understanding of leadership in real-life situations, Warren Bennis shows how creating alignments of strength based on the positive emotions of hope, confidence, and appreciation speeds positive change in individuals and organizations.

Discovery ~ Monday
David Cooperrider and Diana Whitney

The stage is set: it is now a time for re-thinking human organization and change. David Cooperrider and Diana Whitney invite everyone to engage in the start of AI’s 4-D cycle, launching the discovery into images of “organizations of the future.” Explore recent and landmark research on the power of the positive woven with illustrations of its impact in organizations like British Airways, Verizon, Roadway Express, American Red Cross, and with diverse leaders like His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Jimmy Carter, and senior leaders of the U.S. Navy. Learn about AI’s foundations along with new innovations that are happening rapidly and in daily practice. Come together with great people from all over the world. And participate—join with us in building a spirit of discovery that will enrich and enliven the entire conference to follow.

Dream & Design ~ Tuesday
Jim Ludema, Ada Jo Mann, and Bernard Mohr

The experience of discovery naturally evolves into imaginative play with the new, unlimited potentialities of the future. Participants experience the power of the AI ‘organizational summit’ methodology which engages very large groups of people (up to 2000 or more) to elucidate and co-construct guiding images of the future. In this session, Jim Ludema, Ada Jo Mann, and Bernard Mohr provide the foundation for our exploration into why effective appreciative processes need to be truly inclusive, rather than merely representative, and how this concept of wholeness has important implications for the design of high-purpose 21st-century organizations. Examine the close connection between AI and “chaordic” self-organizing systems. Stories and images from large group and organization design work with the Teamsters, McDonald’s, John Deere, and Nutrimental Foods, illustrate the concepts, as does the formation of a United Nations-like organization among people of the world’s religions—the United Religions Initiative.

Destiny ~ Wednesday
Frank Barrett, Adrian McLean, Marge Schiller, and Barbara Sloan

What is really happening when human systems are working at their best, when they are in a mode of learning and discovery that leads to ongoing innovation and breakthroughs? How can organizations truly nurture, sustain, and institutionalize this culture of appreciative learning? Frank Barrett, Adrian McLean, Marge Schiller, and Barbara Sloan guide this final leg of our journey together helping us define the competencies, factors, and forces that enable us to recreate these conditions and support “ordinary creativity” and improvisation in our own organizations. Explore the stories of GTE, Cap Gemini Ernst and Young, and Omni Hotels, and then personally experience one prototype system—a jazz band—as an example of an organization that lives on the appreciative edge, that maximizes these com-petencies in service of supporting appreciative learning cultures. As the conference closes, be ready for the whole room to move!