Here's our new Aged Care & Disability Chair Chi Training video clip that members may be interested in.



It's a short clip of 4'50 duration and covers the workshop in action and interviews with staff and residents and myself at Bupa Donvale aged care here in Melbourne, Australia.



We currently run training programs for staff, carers and volunteers in aged care centres throughout Australia.

I'd be interested to read any feedback you may have to offer.…

The expression ‘enter the gate’ is used in Tai Chi to denote the start of a journey. As you progress you arrive at many other gates that hopefully are the entrances to higher skill levels.

I sometimes wonder about those who enter the Appreciative Inquiry gate and where they will end up. Will the first path of their journey lead them to the:

• Band Aid Gate – where a quick fix mindset develops which usually leads to the ‘it…

When Sue and I came up with our AQ-KQ framework several years ago we included a section on the theme of creativity.

And under the theme of creativity we agreed there were three essential elements;

• imagination

• discovery

• fun &…

She stood there in the middle of the gym, disengaged, as the other fifty grade 5 and 6 students swirled around her.

I tried to encourage her to join in with this organised chaos but she wasn’t interested. Her 10-year old body and tense brow indicated she wanted to be elsewhere.

I was puzzled. It was the fourth session of my ‘Pozitive Kidz are happy kidz’ program and she was still disengaged.

The theme for these workshops was on building self esteem from a Tai Chi…

Well, I’m ready to launch my new Pozitive Kidz are Succesful Kidz program for primary schools here in Melbourne, Australia.

The flyer is completed and the next step is to contact schools for an expression of interest, which I’ll do next week.

This 6 week program is designed for grade 5 and…

When I mention Appreciative Inquiry to someone I often get the response, ‘What’s that?’ So for those new to AI here’s a list of principles and assumptions to whet your appetite. I’ve also provided a link to our previous posts on some of the 8 Principles.



8 Principles…

I began my career over thirty years ago as a teacher.

And it’s no secret to anyone who knows me or to those who follow my own blog, that I am still passionate about education and teaching.

For example in A Passionate Plea, as well as bemoaning the totally inappropriate and archaic practices still taking…

A recent experience working in the aged care sector here in Melbourne, Australia.

So far I have delivered two Chair Chi workshops in the aged care sector. One for a nursing home and one for a retirement village. Next week I have two more sessions booked so my workshops are starting to take off.

And what a pleasure it is in working with elderly people.

It was fun and inspiring not only to share the Chi exercises but also the wonderful conversations and…

I first met my colleague Sue James at the Great Provider at a business breakfast networking  meeting in 2005. The Great Provider was a cafe and after the meeting it did provide a great opportunity to connect with a like minded spirit.



I poured myself a cup of tea from the urn and Sue happened to be standing near me drinking her coffee. We introduced ourselves and talked about our…

As an appreciative inquiry practitioner, it’s so easy to get caught up in the ‘busy-ness’ of work and forget to ask myself the most important question of the day.

And what’s that?

It’s “What appreciative question can I ask today?”

Without asking myself this, I often feel like an Appreciative Inquiry technician. That is, a technician who uses AI as a ‘tool’ rather than one who lives the principles of…