Conflict and Appreciative Inquiry

One of our course requirements at BGI is Leadership and Personal Development (LPD), which runs through six consecutive quarters. Here in my fourth quarter I am learning about a technique called Appreciative Inquiry (AI). The premise is that we are all looking to do our best, based on our own perceived reality. What's interesting is that our realities vary immensely based upon our individual life experience. This is due to our human tendency to compartmentalize these experiences into right/wrong, good/bad, etc. We begin this process as children and by the time we grow up each of us has a laundry list of assumptions, which makes it more challenging to get along with people with backgrounds that differ from our own.

I believe with all my heart that a diverse community is a healthy community, but I also know that a diverse community demands a commitment to learn through AI. This last month I've been both disheartened and moved by the commitment of the BGI community to address an issue that arose last month. Most of us were unaware that the acronym we use for Community Process Time has a meaning that some people find offensive. The announcement opened up a dialogue of diverse opinion, but there were some important voices missing from the conversation. This is an opportunity for all of us to use AI to reach a higher level of understanding and compassion, and I really hope that we do.