Full Circle Associates

I got home last Thursday from the International Appreciative Inquiry conference and have been zooming a million miles an hour on projects. Still, I wanted to share a few more of the stories I captured at the event.

I caught up with Jane Magruder Watkins during a break of her pre-conference workshop. We chatted over a cup of coffee. Jane is filling the role of F2F Mistress of Ceremonies or "Weaver." I wanted to interview her and her online complement, Sue James in Australia. Here is my conversation with Jane.

1. Jane, tell me a little bit about how you came to working with AI? Where did your AI journey begin?
I have the best story of all. It is kind of a long one. I had been doing work with experiential education in the international development arena. Had done a project with women in Kenya with my organization, the Church Center. The bishops giving me to train. The women say why are you training men, we do the development work. You get a group of women, I’ll find the money to train. 20 women over a period of time through all kinds of training. Began to work out in the villages in indigenous languages.

We began the project by taking 10 Americans over to Kenya who new experiential education and joined 12 Kenyan women who knew Kenya. We spent 2 weeks together getting to be friends, learning about each other, methods, culture, and thinking how to adapt methods to the local culture. We created pilots in four places. Leadership training. We came back together and took the field learnings factored them into the plan, and sent them back out to do it again. Then we wrote a manual. This was such an amazing experience.

I have a very dear friend, a filmmaker. She did Reds, Coming Home, a real Hollywood film person. Doe Mayer walked away from her job and had gone to Zimbabwe to do training films for women. She just pulled up stakes and went. A mutual friend told me she was in Zimbabwe. I contacted and said, I hear you are making films. I don’t have any money, but I’d love to you see this project. She said, if you just get me enough to cover expenses, I’ll do it for you. We cobbled together the money. She found a film company that wanted to train new staff, so the could do it for less than nothing. We put it together the project. She called me about 2 weeks before we were supposed to start. Can you spring for one more airline ticket? Her best friend Mary, an editor, wants to edit the film. She had just finished “Children of a Lesser God.” We ended up with this beautiful film of these women.

Later at a NTL conference in Florida, I was doing a presentation with this little film. David Cooperrider showed up. This was 1984. Maybe 85. He was in the last year of his PhD program. There were only 7 people in the room. At the end of the film, he said, that’s really fabulous. I do have one question. Isn’t it arrogant for Americans to go over there and tell them what to do? I said yes, if we had done that, but if we go with good will they accept you with open arms and you learn from each other. He said he was working with something I might be interested in. An old friend of mine John Carter had been using it up in Canada,. He and Veronica were doing a presentation. So we trot over to hear about AI. First time they had presented their work as the first OD consultants taking the process to the field. I could see instantly the value. I had been helping organizations rearrange deck chairs on Titanic for years. I knew that problem solving wasn’t working. But because of working overseas with other cultures, you have to innovate. People won’t tell you what is wrong. It is culturally inappropriate. A week later, David called me. “I’ve decided I don’t want to do corporate work. I want to focus on global social change orgs. Will you help me?” That was the beginning of our work together in 84. He put together an organization at Case Western, what is now called SIGMA, a free standing organization to take grants etc. He got five students to do a research project. Got them to go out and research 5 global social change organizations using AI. Greenpeace, Physicians Against Nuclear War, ICA, etc. They spent a year. Then we did a large conference at Case Western. All kinds of people came to look at appreciative processes for organizational change, particularly global social change.

Not too long after that Ada Jo Mann – managing partner for AIC called me with a project training NGOs and PVOs. In the process of putting it together they said we needed to get a university involved and we should go talk to Harvard. I said lets go to Case Western and talk to Dave Cooperrider. They picked David. That was the beginning of an 8 year project taking AI all over the world, applying and adapting the process. It was during this time we developed the Four D process along with Global Excellence in Management. So I am one of the old timers David and I consider each other as mentors. We’ve done a lot of good work together, and are fond of each other.

2. What are you personally most looking forward to in the F2F conference?
Lots of things. I’m Really looking forward to David’s opening talk because I think there is a shift in the air and I think he is starting to document it. The global compact work with the UN. The Roadway work. Threads there of what we are seeing. It is not just a willingness to use a different process, but organizations are seeing that this is the way of the world, that the world is shifting. Or we are starting to notice it. I’m really looking forward to what he has to say. I always enjoy and learn from him. He is a wonderful theoretician. He writes in complex language. If you can hear him talk, it is fabulous. You can get it. I’m also noticing the size of this workshop, 10 people. (Jane and Ralph were doing the “Introduction to AI Preconf Workshop during this interview.) We did this two years ago with 70 people in the room. What that says to me that huge numbers of people have done the basics. They are ready for the next level.

3. What are you most paying attention to, as mistress of ceremonies for the online event? How do you see your role unfolding?
I think part of what I hope to do is to have people feel comfortable and welcome. To set a tone of casualness. We are all doing this together. There is no right or wrong way. A grand experiment. The other is just to have fun. I loved the last conference. All my best closest buds. I love working with them and hanging. Looking forward to introducing David.

4. What would you most like to know about going on in the online space?
I _am_ part of the online. (She said that with a big smile.) Since I can’t be online all the time I’d like to know as the weaver, who can represent you here, what questions do you have, what comments, what messages you want to send to the crowd. If you all want to send messages in and it’s too many to read, we’ll read some of them and post the rest of them. If you want to buddy up with someone here at the conference we can make that offer. Maybe the ends of the days have a conversation about the day.

Jane's partner, Ralph, caught this great picture of Jane, hard a work. Ada Jo is in the background!