Minding the Gap: Grassroots Efforts to Enhance the Graduate Student Research Experience

As scholars in training and future faculty, graduate students are a vital community within any higher education institution and a population that should be embraced by academic libraries. While some libraries have highly structured and formalized programming, others have an ad hoc approach relying on subject librarians to address individual student questions at the point of need. This book chapter discusses the collaborative effort of three librarians at Illinois State University’s Milner Library in developing specialized workshops and a strong partnership with the Graduate School. The authors cover the evolution of the collaborations and partnerships, necessary steps needed to sustain partnerships, processes for identifying, building, and expanding program content, and long-term plans to establish formalized programming and assessment

Appreciative inquiry in medical education*

The practice of medicine, and also medical education, typically adopts a problem-solving approach to identify "what is going wrong" with a situation. However, an alternative is Appreciative Inquiry (AI), which adopts a positive and strengths-based approach to identify "what is going well" with a situation. The AI approach can be used for the development and enhancement of the potential of both individuals and organizations. An essential aspect of the AI approach is the generative process, in which a new situation is envisioned and both individual and collective strengths are mobilized to make changes to achieve the valued future situation. The AI approach has been widely used in the world of business and general education, but is has an exciting potential for medical education, including curriculum development, faculty development, supporting learners through academic advising and mentoring, but also for enhancing the teaching and learning of both individuals and groups. This AMEE Guide describes the core principles of AI and their practical application in medical education

Appreciative Inquiry as a Tool for Leadership and Driving Change in Complex Organizations Such as Libraries: A Brief Literature Review and Discussion

Appreciative Inquiry is unapologetic in its focus on the positive, believing communities can be strengthened through collaborative inquiry as a method to turn problems into transformative change. Through re-framing, appreciative interviews, and the building of provocative propositions, members of an organization can become reconnected to the life of the organization.Driving and managing these change processes will be leaders who are convinced there are better approaches, who are willing to learn and who truly believe in the power of the positive. Appreciative Leadership, which grows out of the appreciative tradition, is “unique among leadership theories both past and present” through its focus on “strengths-based practice,” and the “search for the best in people and organizations” as a way to create “organizational innovation and transformation” (Orr & Cleveland-Innes, 2015). This paper will show how Appreciative Inquiry and Appreciative Leadership can be used to surface organizational hopes and dreams, create community, and build the future world we want to live in, where libraries are widely understood as essential services creating strong and resilient learning communities

Mentoring New Faculty: An Appreciative Approach

During this period of dramatic social and institutional change in higher education, positive induction and ongoing support for early-career and faculty members new to the campus community is essential. Disparities remain in the recruitment, development, retention, and promotion of diverse faculty, in large part because of the lack of mentoring. The purpose of this article is to enhance approaches for supporting early-career and otherwise new faculty members. Based upon the principles and processes of Appreciative Inquiry, the Appreciative Mentoring Model is presented. Each of the Appreciative Inquiry “D-phases” is described in detail together with research-based best practices that can be employed in mentoring. Prompts, questions, and specific examples designed to support the growing need for a more collaborative, fluid, dynamic, and transformative approach to mentoring are provided.

'Information in context': co-designing workplace structures and systems for organizational learning

Introduction This paper discusses an 'information in context' design project at Auraria Library in Denver, Colorado which aims to collaboratively create organizational structures and communication systems with and for library employees. Method This action research project is founded within shared leadership, informed learning and organizational learning principles and implemented using participatory design processes. The first phase involved an appreciative inquiry process resulting in an organizational realignment of personnel and the introduction of shared leadership. The second phase involved the co-design of organizational information and communication systems and subsequent implementation of initiatives. Results This project resulted in several of the co-designed knowledge initiatives being implemented within Auraria Library to enhance communication, decision making and planning systems. These included both face to face and technology enabled initiatives such as such as 'brown bag' lunches to a new wiki based intranet system. Conclusions This project advances professional practice through better understanding how to create workplace contexts that cultivate individual and collective learning through situated 'information in context' experiences. An appreciative framework was developed which values information sharing and enables knowledge creation through shared leadership

An Appreciative Inquiry into an Urban Drug Court: Cultural Transformation

The purpose of this study was to use an appreciative inquiry (AI) theoretical research perspective and change methodology to transform the working relationships and cultural expectations of members through the discovery of their positive core leading to an optimistic and confidence - based future for an urban drug court. This study describes how participants through their participation in the first two stages of an AI 4 - D cycle (Discovery and Dream) transformed their working relationships and organizational culture. Participants included an urban drug court magistrate, manager, and purposively selected staff [15 participants]. The urban drug court is designed as a last chance opportunity for substance abusers. As a result of participation in the appreciative inquiry process, participants (a) discovered a resiliency and willingness to overcome challenges, (b) reaffirmed a sense of purpose in their work and (c), discovered a positive core of successful experience. Our study demonstrates the creative possibilities when applying AI to groups mired in deficit thinking. In doing so, we advanced the research in AI, positive organizational psychology, and learned optimism

Learning about America's Best: Resources on Educating, Training, and Hiring Returning Veterans and Service Members

This document provides a quick list of some of the many books, articles, and web sites that offer information for educators, trainers, employers, service members, veterans, and family members. It is part of a series of materials written to address the growing need for information and ideas that can help our nation's schools, training organizations, and workplaces make a welcoming, productive, and satisfying place for returning veterans and transitioning service members

Innovation in Information Systems Education-IAccelerated Systems Analysis And Design With Appreciative Inquiry - An Action Learning Approach

One of the challenges in teaching information systems analysis and design is setting up experiential learning projects in which students have an opportunity to apply and reinforce the theories and techniques they have acquired in the classroom. This note aims to shed light on this issue and to offer Appreciative Inquiry as an alternative to the prevailing problem solving lens. The Accelerated Systems Analysis and Design with Appreciative Inquiry Workshop revolves around a genuine system design project, which provides an opportunity to apply the latest systems analysis and design methodologies in a realistic setting and to gain hands-on experience in a safe learning environment. Building on the principles of Appreciative Inquiry, the workshop is designed to emphasize collaborative work in the pursuit of both organizational and personal value. The workshop provides not only a framework for looking at organizations and organizational life, but also a language to communicate their dynamic complexities and interdependencies. Overall, participants gain a balanced mix of formal theory, critical thinking, and hands on experience, which prepare them for effective communication and participation in system development in organizational settings

Grassroots Strategic Planning: Involving Library Staff from the Beginning

Strategic planning is often considered a managerial tool. The management of an organization surveys the environment and develops a plan that they introduce to the organization as a whole. Most modern organizations seek employee involvement in the planning process and feedback to some degree with varied results. But for one academic library, employee involvement in the development and execution of the strategic plans has been a vital part of the processes. The Hunt Library at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has been developing strategic plans for several years with active input from the librarians and staff. This case study chronicles the different approaches the library staff have used to create new plans. One method was to hold a set of retreats where all library staff provided ideas for new initiatives to explore and old processes to retire. Another involved the SOAR approach, which uses appreciate inquiry to determine strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and results. A third method employed scenarios to encourage staff input into the next strategic plan. Each of the different approaches yielded interesting results; some failures and many successes. Some processes were more positive than others but they all included mutually agreed-upon strategies that the guided the library as it planned future innovations

Ndoto Au Ota: Jifundishe\u27s Strategic Planning Process: A Case Study of an Appreciative Approach to the Strategic Planning Process for a Small NGO

In January 2017, Jifundishe, a small, local nonprofit organization based in Ngongongare, Tanzania undertook its first strategic planning process. I was asked to design and lead this initiative for the organization, finding a way to introduce tools and resources so that they, or a similar organization, could replicate the process in the future. To better reflect the values, culture, and constraints of Jifundishe, the methodology selected to drive the process was Appreciative Inquiry (AI). AI is a change model focused on strengths, and an appreciative strategic plan looks to take the best of what you already have and work to develop that further. This Independent Practitioner Inquiry Capstone (IPIC) seeks to identify how AI was used in the strategic planning process, examining what tools and approaches were chosen and how they were implemented. And then to present how those who participated in the process experienced it. Through a series of portraits, it became evident that using appreciative inquiry as an approach to the strategic planning process allows for the participants to participate in an inclusive, positive way and to dream big. This study highlights the importance of using a tailored approach to strategic planning grounded in AI methodology