Page 119 - Appreciative Leadership

92 Appreciative Leadership

Casey recalled how he learned to be open and curious about diff erent
perspectives while in college:

It was a policy class. We had to read articles describing all the
different issues related to a specific policy. In each class we

would read articles about a current event and discuss it. Th en
we would have to make up policies for each side of the issue.
We would do this in small groups. We had to engage with each
other, make a decision, come up with an example to show how
our policy would work, and then explain why it had merit. Th is
forced us to see both sides of the argument at the highest level.
We couldn’t come up with a good policy unless we understood
the situation from all of the diff erent perspectives.

Your inner dialogue—what you think, feel, and talk to yourself
about—is informed by your life experiences. It, in turn, is the starting
point for all that you say and do. It guides how you make relationships,
and with whom. Your inner dialogue frames your practice of inclu-
sion. It resonates outward and becomes apparent to others through
your actions, language, and writing.

The practice of Appreciative Leadership holds all people in posi-
tive regard. Not some people, and not just people you agree with or
who are like you, but all people.

Take time now to reflect. How inclusive, open,

PAUSE
and accepting of all people is your inner dialogue?
When you talk to yourself about other people,
are you accepting? Are you judging and blaming? Do you
consider people problems to be solved? Or do you refl ect and
wonder about strengths and seeds of potential?