I lost my cool yesterday.  True story.  Those who know me know that isn’t my “go to.”  

Being overtired plus my perception of a lack of urgency on a long-standing business issue sent me over the edge.  I raised my voice.  The whole nine yards.  

To top it off, this happened on a day on which I wrote a blog post on “Conversations Worth Having.”  

The irony wasn’t lost … continue reading

Yesterday we looked at the benefits of having better conversations.  

Sounds great.  But how do we do that?  How can we flip a negative conversation into a Conversation Worth Having?

The Appreciative Inquiry model provides us with a simple but powerful model: focus on adding value (appreciative) and asking questions (inquiry). 

Does this mean we can’t deliver critical feedback? Of course not.  If we aren’t meeting our numbers,  we need to … continue reading

“We live in the world our conversations create,” writes David Cooperrider, one of the creators of the Appreciative Inquiry framework.  

So, does living a better life start with having better conversations?  If so, how might we do this?  

Like the best theories and frameworks, David’s answer is straight-forward: 

1: Focus on strengths and what’s working

2: Ask question instead of making statements  

In their book Conversations Worth Having, … continue reading