Patricia Shaw and Ralph Stacey among other have done interesting research work at the University of Hertforshire Business School as part of the complexity and management research community. This reseach area is focused on developing new ways of understanding organisations and their management which emphasise self-organisation and emergence in processes of ordinary conversation and everyday politics.

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is an organizational development process that engages individuals within an organization in its renewal, change and focused performance. AI is strengths based, collaborative, inclusive and generative approach to change. We have learned through our practice, that positive questions that explore strengths and focus thinking and talking on what we want more, lead to amazingly energizing conversations.

Barbara L. Fredrickson is a leading scholar within social psychology, affective science, and positive psychology. Her research centers on positive emotions and human flourishing. We encourage our clients to strenghthen the social fabric of their companies through appreciative conversations. We have learned that by designing conversations that support positive bonding and appreciation between people, new ideas emerge and people are inspired to contribute. Read Fredrickson's article on the Value of Positive Emotions.

Positive Organizational Scholarship focuses on the dynamics in organizations that lead to developing human strength, resilience, and vitality. Research findings indicate that enabling positive qualities in people leads to exceptional organizational performance. We have learned that focus on strengths and discovering positive deviances open up new opportunities for change. Moving from evaluation to valuation is a powerful motivator. We get what we value. Get acquinted with the movement. Read an interesting interview by Susan D. Bernstein.

Our inspirators are Kenneth J. Gergen and the Taoes Institute. 'Constructionist theory and practice locates the source of meaning, value and action in the relational connection among people. It is through relational processes that we create the world in which we most want to live and work.' It's great as our clients discover the power of words. New words change the focus of thinking and talking together. Appreciative questions open up new perspectives.

Karl-Erik Sveiby is described as one of the founding fathers of knowledge management. He has been involved in this field for 20 year. His mission is 'to make organisations better for people.' He currently works as a Professor on Knowledge Management at Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki. His research interest is knowledge management and collaborative climate. He is also a world-known consultant in his field. It's a real honor for us to be able to call him our friend. We have learned a lot from him by talking together, studying his books, and even by working together. To learn more visit SKA Knowledge Associates.

Positive psychology is a recent branch of psychology whose purpose was summed up in 2000 by Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: "We believe that a psychology of positive human functioning will arise that achieves a scientific understanding and effective interventions to build thriving in individuals, families, and communities. Positive psychologists seek 'to find and nurture genius and talent', and 'to make normal life more fulfilling', not simply to treat mental illness. As we help our clients to focus on what goes right in their organizations, what is good, and how they can together create more of it, these advances in psychology offer support for our work. It pays out to search for the good and the positive.

Esko Kilpi is the leading Finnish thinker and consultant on new organizational theory and practice in the areas of strategy, complexity, emergence, collaborative value creation among others. He writes 'Knowledge based value creation requires new ways of seeing. New ways of looking at work, management and organizing. Understanding companies as complex, creative patterns of relating in time, constitutes a new way of seeing'. To learn more about Esko Kilpi's thinking go to his blog at http://eskokilpi.blogging.fi/. We find it intellectually very stimulating and rewarding to have good conversations with him.

Fran Peavey's Strategic Questioning involves a special type of questioning and a special type of listening. Anyone can use strategic questions in their work and personal lives to liberate friends, coworkers, communities, political allies and adversaries to create a path for change. Fran Peavey describes this as 'a process which invites our ideas to shift and take into account new information and new possibilities. Questioning breaks open the hardened shells of present, opening up options to be explored.' We have learned that creating good dynamic questions is very difficult, and also very rewarding. It takes creativity and courage to discover and use new questions. We find it very rewarding to come up with fresh new questions.

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