Appreciative Inquiry & Tai Chi: Same Language Different Words

[chris]

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 work.

Sue told me about Appreciative Inquiry, which I had never heard of before, and I talked about Tai Chi. Although we used different words to describe our work we were actually talking the same language.

Some of the words we used  included:

•     Strength focused

•     Internal strength

•     Energy

•     Chi

•     Balance

•     Yin Yang

It was soon after that first time  at The Great Provider that Sue and I met again at another breakfast meeting, where we had another conversation about AI and Tai and eventually decided to work together.

It was a natural transition for both of us - even though we used different words to describe our work, we were talking the same language.

Note: Previous BJ Seminars International blog posts

[Rituu B. Nanda]

Hi Chris, your blog deeply resonated with me. We might use different terminologies and ways to express but the essence of appreciative way of thinking is the same. it is what connects us, doesn't it!