Nancy Love’s Weblog

Appreciative Mediation is a term I have begun to use to describe the PULSE Frame as a mediation tool. I have been asked to speak about it at the up coming AAMS conference and so I need to describe it for them and for you.

The PULSE Frame relies heavily on the theories associated with Appreciative Inquiry. AI at its core values the ideas of participants and accepts that the answers to any dispute or issue lies with them. The process of PULSE mediation is very similar to the process associated with AI which is used in organizational development to change the culture of an organization. The similarities in philosophical approach and processes will be explored in this appreciative session on appreciative mediation.

Process

Step one is to prepare for the inquiry by choosing a method such as peer interviews or whole group symposium. The second step is the uncover an affirmative topic. The third is to learn or discover the positive core. The fourth is to search or design a future and the fifth is the explain a plan and implement is the deliver stage.

Philosophy

What I most appreciate about AI is the way that people are held capable of wonderful positive contribution. I appreciate the positive questions and the underlying principles that pulse relies on.

1. The constructivist principle – words create worlds
2. The simultaneity principle – questioning begins the change
3. The anticipatory principle – people move toward an anticipated future
4. The positive principle and the heliotropic theory – people give you more of what gets attention
5. The poetic principle – people choose what they study
6. The Free Choice principle – people own what they choose

All of these principles are accepted by PULSE Practitioners and that makes a difference in how they approach mediation. This session will examine how appreciative mediation is the same as and different from facilitative mediation.

So I’m sitting waiting for my nails to dry and playing with this iPhone thingy. It would be good to learn to communicate with it. I haven’t figured out the cloud thing yet. I signed up, added space and now I can’t figure our how to put stuff there. FRUSTRATING. And then thee is this auto correct that guesses at what I mean. ANNOYING. And the auto matic sentence ender. I feel as if my Freedom of thought and speech are somehow being eroded. Although it is nice to know that things are correct. Even I’d they are not what I intended.
So what is the impact of iPhone on communication. It is part of the story line in my novel… My speculative fiction. What happens when role rely too heavily on machines?
In my day the fear was that calculators would erode math skills and that word processors would erode cursive writing skills. Grammar and typing skills are next???

Who knows. It
May force us to pay Bette artwntion to what
We are doing. Right ?

What are your tricks for keeping the resolutions, the promises you make to yourself?

For me it is about not sleeping until you have completed your list.  That is not always easy, especially when your day kind of gets away from you and the demands of other people take priority.  That is something I am working on this year – maintaining my own agenda.  When crisis is constant you can become numb to the emotional spikes and maintain a stable emotional environment but sometimes actually getting your STUFF done becomes pretty much impossible.  There are just not enough hours in the day, days in the week and weeks in the month.

This year is about committing to the STUFF for me.  I want to get things done, to know what needs done and to ensure it happens.  I want to set a calendar and meet the deadlines I set for myself, without being sidetracked and without feeling any guilt.  This is a serious goal and could be difficult to achieve but I’m on it.  Days like today make that kind of promise to self more difficult to keep.

I spent most of today working to print business cards for our St Albert Office. Tomorrow I am attending a Chamber of Commerce luncheon and wanted to be able to network with cards that featured the Office and not just the PULSE Institute.  First delays while the web provider sorted out their problems as I was trying to set the email that would be on the card and then the printer not quite responding and then me not knowing how to set up the business card printing, made for a long day spent fighting with our supposed friend – technology.

Writing is a big part of my goal this year.  I need to carve out the time to write this year like I did when I was writing my dissertation.  If anyone has ideas about how to guards that precious time alone that it takes to create the works that others can respond to and help to edit and rewrite.  Step one is lonely and necessarily so.  I’m okay with that.  Just need to force myself into isolation and I need to write to you everyday…

Hope everyone had a great Christmas. I’m writing this blog on my new iPhone. Santa brought me one and today is the first opportunity to sit and play. I can read my favorite books, watch my favorite tv shows, search the web, check the weather, use my newfy translator and so much more. I can even write my blogs, check email, edit documents on the cloud. Everything I can do on my iPad I can so on this little screen. I have 13,000 photos and 5,000 songs. It’s amazing. Last night four of my close family members were playing hang man with each other on their devices while sitting on the coaches in my tv room. Hmmm. Life is different and yet the same in many ways these days.

It is that time of year again when we consider the whole question of Peace on Earth and what it takes to get there.  We are still a planet at war and with each passing year we move in and out of war and peace along a continuum that doesn’t seem to have made much progress in the years that I have been here.. on the planet that is.  One step forward and two back might fit here.  I participated in Peace Week earlier this year by listening to a number of renowned speakers shared their thoughts on peace and what it takes.

I go back to what I learned years ago…”Think Globally and Act Locally.” In order for the world to be more peaceful I must start with me.  How can I contribute to a world with less conflict and more peace and harmony?  Where are the struggles and conflicts in my life that need my immediate attention and how will those small steps impact a world at war???   It seems tiny… minute even … but just as the flapping of a butterfuly’s wings changes the weather miles away … our small efforts to create peace in our corner of the world are felt far away.  Believe in the ripple effect of peaceful conversation and we can cocreate a peaceful world one conversation at a time… one conversation after another.

My invitation to you is to consider Gentle Honest Open Specific Talk with your friends and relatives this holiday seasons.  Speak so others can hear you and listen with HEART.  See how your world, your relationships can change just by raising these skills to a conscious level over the next few weeks and use that momentum to guide you inot a wonderully peaceful 2012.