Ron Fry and Gervase Bushe Video Reflection

I was thankful that we were only required to watch a short portion of this presentation.  I will be honest, I felt bad for the people in the audience.  When I think about Appreciative Inquiry and practitioners, I expect to see individuals who model the behaviors and leadership style of my vision of what can be.  This video demonstrated the complete opposite for me.  All the more reason to identify practitioners that DO resonate with your dream.

When Gervase shared that he was consulting to a firm with 80 engineers to help create leadership, and no one had strong leadership stories, he laughed at the fact that he would not be invited back.  I didn’t find that funny.  If I was that organization and it took us to get to the Summit to realize this wasn’t going to work, I would have been appalled.  In my mind, I leverage consultants for their expertise.

This was one of the worst presentations I have seen on this topic.  I don’t think either of the speakers were funny or well prepared.  I certainly would not be reaching out to hire either of them for my firm.  As it relates to the question they were trying to address; positivity versus generative connection – I did not have a connection with these two presenters and found myself struggling to keep focused on what they were trying to position.  I know, a little out of context but it does play to the importance of connectivity.

I liked the statistic that 90% of the people who come to an event leave volunteering to do something.  The summits, with the exception of the engineers, do create an environment for brainstorming and an opportunity to connect intentionally and build on each other’s ideas.  Just make sure you have the right practitioner to help navigate the journey with you and your colleagues.

 

 

 

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